a close second was Adam Thomason, head chef at Restaurant Associates – Deloitte and in third place was Simon Webb, head chef at Restaurant Associates.
This year, for the first year, Gary Jones from Le Manoir was the chair of judges and he told The Staff Canteen why Luke took the top spot this year: "Luke had three consistent dishes and that's what you are looking for as a judge, he really hit it. He deserves it."
On this year's National Chef of the Year final he said: "We knew with this line-up we were going to get some great food today. The standard year on year keeps going up but this year was a leap and it's the strongest results I've seen for both junior and the senior competitors."
As the winner, Luke is now part of the National Chef of the Year 'Hall of Fame', which represents culinary excellence and offers the chance to meet and work with some of the most exciting industry names.
Having won the life-changing title, Luke now has the chance to follow in the footsteps of some the country’s most successful chefs, such as Alyn Williams, Gordon Ramsay and Mark Sargeant who have all previously held the title.
This year’s competition was one of the toughest yet, with an incredible list of high profile judges to impress, including Simon Hulstone, Claude Bosi, Phil Howard, Tom Kerridge, Simon Rogan and many more.
