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The winners of the 21st annual Young Chef Young Waiter competition will be jetting off to the Caribbean with £2,000 in their pockets after trouncing the opposition in a series of practical tests. Janet Harmer meets this year's champions
One of the leading hotels in Barbados will soon be playing host to two of the British hospitality industry's rising young stars.
Marcus McGuinness and Leah Fellstad will be flying out to the Caribbean island courtesy of their success in the Young Chef Young Waiter 2005 finals. Details of their prize, which includes a cheque each for £2,000, were announced at the celebration dinner in the Members' Dining Room at the House of Commons.
The event came at the end of a long, testing day for 24-year-old McGuinness, second chef at Le Champignon Sauvage, Cheltenham; Fellstad, 25, head waiter at Rhodes Twenty Four, London; and the 14 other finalists. Having won their way through regional finals held in Glasgow, Leeds and London, they competed for the top prize in the finals held at Westminster Kingsway College.
Hearing their names announced as the winners was something of a surprise for both McGuinness and Fellstad. "Although I thought I had done my best, I was up against a bunch of very tough competitors and had no idea how well I had done against them," says McGuinness. Meanwhile, Fellstad had found the tasks facing the finalists to be much tougher than in last year's final, when she was placed third. "Everyone found it very hard work and so I was shocked to hear my name being read out," she says.
For the chefs, the day had begun at 8am when they gathered at Westminster Kingsway College to start a three-and-a-half-hour marathon of planning, preparation and cooking. Their task was to create a three-course lunch, plus an amuse-bouche, for six covers. Two of the finished dishes were to be presented to the judges, while the other four were served by one of the waiter finalists to a party of invited guests from the hospitality industry. Each chef competitor had earlier been partnered with a waiter competitor for the duration of the final.
Free interpretation - in terms of both ingredients and style of dish - was allowed for...