Carys Williams named Springboard FutureChef 2025 champion

Carys Williams from Pontarddulais School in Swansea has been crowned winner of the 26th Springboard FutureChef competition.

 

The finals were held on 24 March at Capital City College Westminster Centre in London’s Victoria (formerly Westminster Kingsway College), which saw 12 young chefs aged between 12 and 16 battle it out for the top spot.

 

The 16-year-old from Wales impressed judges with her main of pan-fried mackerel with spiced crown prince squash compote, purple sprouting broccoli, potato galette and a spiced fennel seed velouté, alongside a dessert of rhubarb crumble soufflé with vanilla and pink peppercorn anglaise.

 

She also received the Brian Turner Award for Taste from Turner himself, who is a FutureChef lifetime ambassador, with the accolade based on three criteria: overall taste, seasoning of the main and quality of the dessert.

 

Alain Roux, who was judging this particular award for the first time, said “normally one of the top three” candidates receives this prize.

 

This was Williams’ second time competing in FutureChef, having lost out last year. Her mentor, James Sommerin of the Michelin-starred Home in Penarth, who also received Mentor Chef of the Year, proudly pointed out Williams had completed “the best part of 60 hours of training” at his restaurant to prepare for the contest, adding: “We’ve thrown everything behind this.”

 

Williams was scouted by Rebecca Slade, careers, education and employability programme manager at Springboard, who said she was “thrilled to bits” with the result and especially pleased with "a worthy Welsh winner".

 

 

The FutureChef champion told The Caterer: “It was quite stressful at the start, but it was really fun and all the hours definitely paid off. I was shocked but I’m really, really happy."

 

When asked what drove her to compete again, Williams said: “I think the first year, I was a bit disappointed and wanted to prove myself I can do better than I did.”

 

Chef Sabrina Gidda, who was judging the competition for the first time, said: “Today was really remarkable. These youngsters don’t work in the industry, so it’s amazing to see this much talent exists even before they enter. As a judge, I feel more responsibility than ever to continue being visible to people, because we want them to come into the industry.

 

“As a chef, I’ve done a few culinary competitions. I haven’t won them, but it teaches you such a lot about yourself and gives you an insight into the industry that’s really invaluable, so I would say enter. Fear is temporary, but the gain is more.”

 

The two runner-ups were 15-year-old Margarita Kaloudi from Bishop Perowne School, Worcester, representing the West Midlands, and 15-year-old Lexie Colley from Churchdown School Academy, Cheltenham, representing South West England.

 

David Mulcahy, national chairman of Springboard FutureChef, said: “Every year, we say FutureChef is brilliant, but as you heard from the sentiment, it was just outstanding this year. Every competitor did brilliantly, they all finished on time, and in some places, did more than enough. It’s been incredible.”

 

Over the years, the competition has attracted an impressive list of alumni, including Tom Hamblet, 2023 MasterChef: The Professionals champion; April Lily Partridge, 2023 Roux Scholar; and Ruth Hansom, chef-owner of Hansom in Bedale.

 

This year’s participants had two hours and 45 minutes to prepare a main course of mackerel and a dessert involving rhubarb with a twist on a traditional tart, crumble or pie for a panel of judges, including David Mulcahy, Adam Handling, Cherish Finden, Josh Angus and last year’s FutureChef winner, Reese Ventura.

 

Following her 2024 triumph, the St Philomena’s Catholic School for Girls student had spent the past year both studying for her GCSEs and cooking with the likes of chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen at Royal Ascot.

 

She has now enrolled for a full-time, three-year course at Capital City College Westminster Centre, where she produced her winning dishes last year.

 

Ventura said: “Being a judge is exciting but I felt bad because when I was going round I felt like [the competitors] were scared of me! I was calmer this year.”

 

Her advice for students looking to take part in the competition in future was to “just get into it”.

 

“You never know what’s going to happen. Before this, I was going to do physics, maths and sciences because I thought [going into hospitality] was a risk, but after going through this competition, your confidence builds, you get to know people, and you see how fast hospitality is,” she said.

 

“I think that’s so important. It really changed my perspective, because I was passionate about the industry, but I thought it was risky to start.”

 

The Springboard FutureChef competition began in 1999 with just nine schools and 127 young chefs.

 

Since then, over 225,000 people aged between 12 and 16 have taken part in the contest.