L'Enclume's Tom Barnes wins Roux Scholarship 2014
Tom Barnes, sous chef at Simon Rogan's two-Michelin-starred L'Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, has won the 2014 Roux Scholarship.
The 25-year-old chef beat five other finalists who all prepared an Escoffier-inspired Roux family recipe of chartreuse of quail and sweetbreads with grape sauce at a cook-off held at Westminster Kingsway earlier today.
Barnes, who was a finalist in last year's competition, was battling it out against Scott Dineen, Goldman Sachs (BaxterStorey), London, Sabrina Gidda, AIG Group London (Restaurant Associates), London, Richard Pascoe, Oulton Hall, (De Vere Hotels) West Yorkshire, David Salt, BNY Mellon (Restaurant Associates), London, and David White, Barclays Wealth (ISS), London.
Commenting on Barnes' win, Michel Roux Sr said: "It is great to see a repeat finalist and that he had enough guts to enter, and not only to enter but he won hands down. A wonderful piece of work - clean, beautifully seasoned. When you have been to the final before it can work for or against you. You can think to yourself ‘what am I doing here again?', or you can just go there and tell yourself ‘this time it's going to be mine'. He did what he knew in his mind he wanted to do."
The chefs had two and three-quarter hours to complete the task in front of judges. Joining the Roux family this year were Brian Turner, Gary Rhodes, David Nicholls, James Martin, Andrew Fairlie and Angela Hartnett.
Barnes receives £5,000, courtesy of the Savoy Educational Trust, to support his development, and an invitation to cook and train under the supervision of a leading chef at a prestigious three-Michelin-star restaurant anywhere in the world for up to three months.