Acorn winner 2007: Christopher Warwick
Age: 29
Position: Senior sous chef, Galvin at Windows, Hilton Park Lane, London
Career to date
Warwick began his career with five years in the kitchens of Manchester restaurants the Brasserie St Pierre, the Reform Restaurant and the Lincoln Restaurant, where he moved into pastry work. Having gained additional work experience in top restaurants such as the French Laundry, Warwick moved to Anton Mosimann's Private Dining Restaurant in London, rising to the position of head pastry chef. Following a six-month stint at the Square under Philip Howard, he joined Gordon Ramsay's three-star the Hilton Dubai Creek's signature restaurant, Verre by Gordon Ramsay, where he spent 18 months as head pastry chef before a brief stint with Marcus Wareing at Pétrus. Later he became part of the opening team for Maze in 2005. Warwick joined Galvin at Windows last year via a short spell as chef de partie at the Ledbury.
Why is he a winner?
Warwick has worked hard to build upon his early experience in Manchester, where he worked across all sections of the kitchen and first worked with pastry - most notably covering for the pastry chef at the Lincoln in her absence.
His hard work and drive has seen him gain a wealth of top-end experience, working under several Michelin-starred chefs. He has been part of the opening teams at Gordon Ramsay's Verre and Maze, as well as at the Ledbury and Galvin at Windows. Here, as senior sous chef under chef-patron Chris Galvin, he is honing his management skills and taking responsibility for areas such as recruitment, training, staff retention and finances.
Warwick continues to give over and above what is required of him, often coming in on his days off to support the team and assist with menu engineering.