Roux Scholarship finalists named
The finalists for the Roux Scholarship 2001 have been announced after completion of two regional finals.
They are: Warrick Dodds, 24, head chef, Northcote Manor, near Blackburn, Lancashire; Steve Drake, 27, head chef, Drakes on the Pond, Abinger Hammer, Surrey; Simon Hulstone, 26, head chef, Bacchanalian restaurant, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire; Leo Lehtimaki, 24, soon to become junior sous chef at Consensus, a new restaurant due to open in Brighton in May; Leigh Myers, 22, junior sous chef, Devonshire Arms, Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire; and Brett Sutton, 27, head chef, Bishop's Table Hotel & Restaurant, Farnham, Surrey.
The finalists will now compete for one of the industry's most prestigious titles.
As well as winning the opportunity to cook and train for three months at any three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Europe with all travel and accommodation expenses paid and an allowance of £50 a week, the 2001 Roux Scholar will also receive a cheque for £2,500, the chance to join the culinary team aboard a Celebrity Cruises liner in the Caribbean, a four-night trip to Japan with Global Knives, a magnum of both Champagne Gosset Grand Rosé and Grand Reserve, a visit to the wine cellars of Gosset at Ay, France, an engraved piece of All-Clad cookware, and a commemorative piece of nickel silver-plated ware from EuropFelix.
The winner's establishment will also receive a £2,000 range of All-Clad cookware for the kitchen and a coffee machine and coffee, worth £2,000, from L'Unico (Caffé Musetti).
At the final - to be held at Claridge's, London, on 9 April - the competitors will be given the recipe and ingredients for a main dish just 30 minutes before the start of the competition, during which they will have to prepare and present it.
Joining the four members of the Roux family judging the competition - Michel Roux, Albert Roux, Michel Roux Jnr and Alain Roux - will be Victor Ceserani, Frances Bissell, Brian Turner, Gary Rhodes, Simon Hopkinson and Rick Stein.
