Benjamin Champkin of The Elephant in Torquay has been named as the Chefs’ Young National Chef of the Year at the Restaurant Show.
Ben was one of just eight young chefs in the UK to reach the final at today’s show at London’s Earls Court.
On winning the award, Ben told The Staff Canteen: “All the hard work has paid off. It’s the busiest time of the year at The Elephant and I had to come in on my days off at six in the morning. It just shows if you put the work in it does pay off.”
Impressing a judging panel including Mark Sargeant, proprietor of Rocksalt in Folkestone and Gordon Ramsay’s former right hand man, Ben took the honour with his starter of fallow deer, burnt onion, picked apple and beets with roasted grapes.
For his main course Ben served rack of turbot, parsnip, lardo iberico, fennel pollen, crisp sweetbreads, golden sultanas and verjus butter sauce.
To finish Ben presented cherry bakewell, cherry vinegar, yoghurt and wood sorrel.
Coming in behind Ben were runners-up Ruth Hansom from The Ritz and Daniel Akrigg of Rogan & Company.
Mark Sargeant, who was invited to become the competition’s first ambassador to inspire the next generation of ‘ones to watch’ and is himself a past winner of the Craft Guild of Chefs’ National Chef of the Year, said: “Ben demonstrated that he not only has the flair and passion to make a real mark in the industry, but understands fundamental cooking skills, the first and foremost ingredient to success in the kitchen. He worked tirelessly from the moment he walked into the kitchen remaining focussed throughout with well timed and placed dishes.”
David Mulcahy, competition organiser and vice president of the Craft Guild of Chefs, agreed with Mark, paying tribute to chairman of judges Steve Munkley and fellow judges Brian Turner, Ben Tish, Paul Foster, Christopher Basten and Alyn Williams. “It was a challenge deciding on a winner from such a strong group of young chefs,” he said.
“All the finalists proved their ability to compete at this level and I am sure will go on to enjoy success in their careers.”
Open to chefs aged 18-23, the Craft Guild of Chefs this year picked just four chefs to automatically go through to the grand final, whilst the remaining four places were fought for in a series of semi finals by winners made up of young chefs from industry wide competitions.
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