Keira Carolan named Young National Chef of the Year 2026

Keira Carolan from Simon Rogan’s Henrock restaurant in Bowness-on-Windermere has been named the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Young National Chef of the Year.

She beat runner-up Oliver Redgewell-Welch from Entier Ltd and Mitchell Collins from the three-Michelin-starred L’Enclume, who secured third place.

The announcements were made at an awards ceremony at the Hippodrome Casino in London’s Leicester Square on Tuesday night.

Carolan impressed judges with her winning menu, which consisted of a starter of monkfish, mussels, nasturtium and preserved tomato, a main course of chicken, foraged mushrooms, kales and celeriac, and a dessert of preserved strawberry, apple marigold, sheep’s yogurt and honey.

Eleven finalists were required to deliver a three-course menu in two hours with a focus on innovation, sustainability and seasonality during a cook-off at the University of West London.

The judging panel was chaired by Russell Bateman and included chefs Daniel Galmiche, Ben Murphy, Adam Smith, Paul Askew, Roberta Hall-McCarron, Graham Hornigold, Denis Drame, Orry Shand, Sarah Frankland, Paul Mannering and Hayden Groves.

Bateman, culinary development chef for TheTasteLab at Classic Fine Foods UK, said: “Mentoring the future talent in hospitality is so important to me and over the last two years I’ve been blown away by the ideas and level of cooking I’ve seen from young chefs. Congratulations to Keira who absolutely smashed it. She was consistent across all three courses delivering three delicious plates of food whilst being technically brilliant.”

David Mulcahy, competition director, added: “We always ensure this competition pushes young chefs to go outside their comfort zones whilst giving them the opportunity to cook for some of the most respected names in the industry. It’s the toughest culinary challenge in the UK for this age group, but every single finalist has risen to it and created dishes they should be proud of. We’ve got an incredible winner in Keira, and the Craft Guild of Chefs will be following her career and supporting every step of the way.”

The special award sponsored by HIT Training was presented to Annabelle Hughes for excellence in menu planning and cooking.

Carolan will receive prizes worth over £4,000, including trips to Amsterdam and Scotland.

The top three chef finalists will be offered a fine dining experience for two at Matt Abé’s upcoming Mayfair restaurant, Bonheur by Abé, and have been invited to spend time in the kitchen with his team.

The Craft Guild of Chefs was established in 1885 and has since become the leading chefs’ association in the UK.