Rachel Prendergrast from Abode Hotel, Manchester has cooked her way to become the Greater Manchester Young Chef of the Year 2015; the first female to reach the final of North West Young Chef Competition this year.
The competition, sponsored by Essential Cuisine and CHR, looks for chefs under the age of 23 to cook a 3 course meal for 2 people featuring local and seasonal produce.
The 20 year old Apprentice Chef took part in the 2 and a half hour cook off at Trafford College on 31st March.
“My Executive Chef Rob Cox told me about the competition, and encouraged me to enter” said Rachel. “I wasn’t very confident, but saw it as a challenge and an opportunity to improve my skills.”
“I’m so glad I entered, and it’s not sunk in yet that I’ve won – I didn’t expect it at all! But I did lots of practice and and research into what ingredients would compliment each other.”
seabassRachel faced a high level of competition from the region, taking on 5 other talented young chefs ; Jake Brassington from Malmaison, Veronica Macahilas from Manchester United Football Club, Jordan Bujko from Manchester House, Gabe Lea from Midland Hotel, and Kevin Toft, also from Abode Manchester.
Rachel’s menu focused on using local and seasonal ingredients; her starter was glazed veal sweetbreads with wild garlic, purple broccoli, hazelnuts and sorrel.
For her main course, Rachel created a dish of line caught wild seabass, charred cucumber, lemon puree, jersey royals and mussel sauce.
She completed her winning trio with vanilla pannacotta, rhubarb, honeycomb, and sparkling wine jelly.
The judges on the day were chairman of Judges Brian Mellor, Managing Director of Essential Cuisine Nigel Crane, and Food Development Manager for JW Lees, Dan Borza.
Rachel will now go on to attend a master class with an acclaimed chef to hone skills with the industry’s best, before going on to compete against the other regional winners in the final of North West Young Chef Competition, which will be held at Manchester College on 7th May 2015.
