Marius Madou and Jonathan Gray win Roger Naylor Hospitality Skills Competition
Marius Madou and Jonathan Gray have been named joint winners of the annual Roger Naylor Hospitality Skills Competition at Westminster Kingsway College in London.
Madou, a hospitality butler at Credit Suisse, won the front-of-house award, while Gray, head chef at Lawrence Graham, won the chef award.
The competition, which aims to honour the best of the front-of-house and chef talent at Compass-owned Restaurant Associates, was judged by Albert Roux, Michel Roux Jnr, Silvano Giraldin, Skylon restaurant executive chef Adam Gray, and Jack Scott from Jascots wine merchants.
From scores of entries, eight chefs and eight front-of-house waiters were selected as finalists from across Restaurant Associates' business to battle for the accolade of best chef and best waiter on Tuesday 9 April.
As their prize, Madou and Gray each win dinner for two at a K Michelin-starred restaurant of their choice.
Michel Roux Jnr, a consultant chef for Restaurant Associates, said: "This competition gets to the heart of hospitality, highlighting the skill, talent and passion of front- and back-of-house professionals equally. It's great to see it still going strong after 11 years; standards were incredibly impressive this year."
The competition is named in memory of the late Roger Naylor, former executive chef for Restaurant Associates, who trained under Albert Roux, and commemorates Naylor's work in chef development. It invites chefs and waiters from Restaurant Associates to demonstrate the skills and expertise they regularly deliver to customers.