Young chefs and waiters honoured
19 April 2001
Twenty-two candidates are to be presented with the Academy of Culinary Arts' Annual Awards of Excellence for 2001. Now in their 19th year, the awards recognise the talents of Britain's best young chefs, pastry chefs and waiting staff between the ages of 20 and 24. The award is presented to the candidates who achieve 70% or above during a test of skills for each discipline. This year's finals saw 22 out of 33 candidates achieving the required standard. The task for the chef finalists involved the preparation of French onion soup; a free interpretation tuna and pasta dish; cutlet of pork served Normandy style with braised red cabbage, armandine potatoes and gratin of salsify with mushrooms; and rice pudding with pear and raisin compote. The pastry chefs made a croque en bouche, eight afternoon pastries, eight fruit tartlets and two cold plated desserts from a surprise basket of ingredients. The waiters had to make and serve a caesar salad, carve a côte de beouf, and prepare and serve a fresh fruit salad, as well as open and serve Champagne and wines. The awards will be presented to the successful candidates at a lunch at the Savoy Hotel, London, on 16 May. The winners include six chefs: Andrew Donovan, the Royal Garden Hotel, London; Marc Slater, the Coppid Beech Hotel, Bracknell, Berkshire; Nathan Outlaw, Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire; Thomas Cook, Le Gavroche, London; Craig Dryhurst, the Goring Hotel, London, and Phillip Thompson, L'Escargot, London. In the pastry section, awards go to Paul Williams, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Great Milton, Oxfordshire; Llinos Hughes, the Belvedere, London; and Carol Brough, Claridge's, London. The most successful category was the service section, with 13 award winners. They are: Andrea Agius, Paul Hughes, William Jones and Craig Mckay, all from Gleneagles, Auchterarder, Perthshire; David Chevalier, Thierry Magneval and Guillaume Renouard, Le Gavroche, London; Gabriel Danis, Orrery, London; Tom Fortune, Hotel du Vin, Winchester; Franck Lepinay, the Ritz Hotel, London; Lara Refalo, Claridge's, London; Gwladys Reynaud, Bath Priory Hotel, Bath; and Sandra Schliszio, Mallory Court Hotel, Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
