National Chef of the Year: Kuba Winkowski
Raymond Blanc and Gary Jones protégé Kuba Winkowski speaks to Vincent Wood about his journey to winning National Chef of the Year
A month later, in the bar of the Feathered Nest Inn, home to Amanda and Tony Timmer's three-AA-rosette restaurant and hotel, nestled in the idyllic Cotswolds village of Nether Westcote, and his exhaustion from the competition appears to have faded away. He is back at the pass, buzzing from plates to projects to media calls in the UK and abroad.
e win he took two years of his life to work towards is an extension to the way he has managed his career. He throws himself into vast long-term projects with a balance of patient commitment and undeniable energy. "I don't stop," he says. "I'm 38, so I'm still young. I believe I'm in a productive age now, and hopefully there will be a time in the future where I'll be able to maybe slow down a little bit, but at the minute I'm still challenging myself."
In his native Poland, Winkowski bounced from briefly studying mechanics to a course in financial management, before eventually setting his sights on Britain after a stretch of travelling. "Poland was going to join the European Union in May 2004, so I came in April. I knew the language, I knew some friends, and because of the EU it became easy, so that was all kind of an obvious choice."
He arrived without much of a plan, looking for an opportunity, but more than willing to accept that he and his partner - now wife - might have to turn back if they couldn't settle in the country. "Luckily," he says "I was living in Kent, in Thanet, and my friends said there was this great college with a very good reputation. So I went and they said no problem, it was free. I was like 'Really? It's all free? All of this?' I was really sort of gobsmacked, so I enrolled and I started in September 2004."
"I was really driven, really focused. I was finally doing what I really wanted to do and what the UK gave me in college - well, I found it incredible there was a place where there was £3m spent on brand new kitchens, new floors, all the equipment. I was really buzzing, because in Poland things like this didn't exist. But because I was driven and I knew this is what I wanted to do, I did a lot on the kitchen side, pastry side - I did whatever I could. I was on five days a week, nine to whatever, looking to put my fingers in any pie I could."
Reaching for the stars
Stages at Le Gavroche and Rhodes 24 in London followed, but Winkowski had already decided he wanted to stay out of the capital. He wrote to every two- and three-Michelin-starred restaurant he could, and eventually Belmond Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, invited him for an interview. He went on to stay for two and a half years - learning along the way the often punishing nature of life on the line. "After college you come out thinking you know everything because I was the best student, I was this, I was that, but the reality was completely different."
His time under Raymond Blanc and executive chef Gary Jones - who would later hand him his National Chef of the Year award - completed his education, both in developing his skills and his philosophy. "The garden, how to treat the ingredients, how to get the best out of them. You see Raymond Blanc and Gary Jones and they're both really inspirational people. It's great to be around them, especially Raymond, who is completely crazy; Gary, on the other hand, was the hard one.
On winning the competition  Kuba Winkowski's victory in the National Chef of the Year came after months of planning and practice. "It's a long process", he said at the time "and on top of the normal everyday job, to find those hours, to practice and design and plan, it's not easy. The last few weeks were flat out, and I think the worst sort of feeling is, 'oh I hope it's not going to go to waste'." One key advantage was his willingness to give the competition another shot after falling short on his first attempt. He added: "Coming back for a second time really helped because this time I knew more about the venue and the whole competition experience. This meant I only needed to think about the cooking." Ultimately, he was able to provide what the judges were looking for - which at the time Clare Smyth told *The Caterer* was respect for the ingredients with a focus on "precision, cooking and flavour". Simon Hulstone, meanwhile, said ahead of the result that the National Chef of the Year was ultimately "an ambassador for the industry".
Winkowski's winning dishes •Native lobster with oyster emulsion, celery, sea herbs, buttermilk •Yorkshire grouse, cabbage, foie gras, quince, celeriac, seeds •Sticky toffee with lemon, clotted cream, walnuts
[Kuba Winkowski crowned Craft Guild's National Chef of the Year >>](/articles/538598/kuba-winkowski-crowned-craft-guilds-national-chef-of-the-year) [Chef profile: Luke Selby, National Chef of the Year >>](/articles/514688/chef-profile-luke-selby-national-chef-of-the-year) [Get The Caterer every week on your smartphone, tablet, or even in good old-fashioned hard copy (or all three!).
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