hard to learn as much as I can and I’ve had some great head chefs who have taught me a great deal which I’m always thankful for.
“I’m excited to see what opportunities come and what doors open, for me personally the competition has been a real journey. You learn more about yourself as a chef and it’s been interesting for me to challenge myself dish by dish and round by round.”
He added: “For someone who wants to push themselves in their career I’d say do it, 100%, you wouldn’t regret it.”
His challenges through the competition included: creating and delivering a Michelin-standard dish for 23 gastronomical giants from around the world with the others in the Final Four; and, as part of the Final Three, travelling to the South of France to learn in the supremely innovative two-Michelin starred kitchens of the fourth best restaurant in the world - Mirazur - from inspirational Argentinian chef Mauro Colegreco.
He said: “The Chef’s Table was amazing, I got fantastic feedback and I put a lot of work into that dish. I wanted to show off to the chefs and show what I can do.”
He added: “I had a couple of tweets from chefs who were there, Tommy Banks said it was a cracking dessert and I got one from Paul Ainsworth. Just to get recognition and feedback from chefs of that calibre is truly amazing."
Judged by two Michelin-starred chef Marcus Wareing, renowned chef Monica Galetti and MasterChef’s seasoned judge, Gregg Wallace. Craig received outstanding praise from all three, he says to start with he was petrified to be in a room with them but by the end they were very friendly and genuinely interested to see what he would cook next.
Marcus said: “You don’t come across cooks like this very often. We’ve just found a star of the future. What a fabulous talent. Twenty one years old, amazing.”
Monica added: “Not only is he good in the savoury section, but he’s produced some out of this world desserts as well.”
On his relationship with fellow finalists Steven and Louisa he said: “All three of us are really good friends, you spend so much time with each other throughout the competition. They are both so determined and really great chefs.”
Craig is clearly one to watch and as Marcus said ‘a star of the future.’
