Compass Chef of the Year 2012 winners announced
Eurest Services' Richard Abbott has been named Compass Group's chef of the year while Amy Duthie from Chartwells scooped the junior title.
They each saw off stiff competition of more than 300 entries to take part in a hotly contested final held yesterday at the Restaurant Show. Eight chefs took part in the senior competition final, which saw Abbott take gold.
Ben Sulston from Chartwells received the silver award and Dan Perea from Instore the bronze.
Duthie was among seven young chefs who competed in the junior category when she won gold. She was mentored by last year's junior winner Lee Warren, which meant Chartwells took the top spot in the junior competition for the second year running. Josh Powell from Eurest Services came away with silver and Innis Linn from ESS bronze.
Nick Vadis, Compass UK executive chef, commented: "The Compass Chef of the Year competition is a prestigious event for our chef teams and the hard work and dedication they put in to prepare for the event is huge.
"Competition day is therefore always a hotly contested event and this year was no different! I am really proud of all our chefs - both our rising stars and our more senior professionals - they displayed outstanding culinary prowess with the dishes they produced and demonstrated the exceptionally high standard of food that our chefs deliver."
Compass Senior Chef of the Year Abbott said: "This was my first serious competition and I was nervous all day. Since July when we had the heats I've been working closely with James Larkins, my regional executive chef, to practice and refine my dishes. The competition was really tight and the other chef's dishes all looked amazing."
Abbott went on to win his second award of the day in the newly introduced Know Your Food event, which asked chefs to create food that reflects Compass Group's commitments to health, wellbeing and sustainable sourcing. Gordan Mackenzie from ESS won the junior title.
By Janie Manzoori-Stamford
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