INDIAN-BORN chef Hrishikesh Desai, head chef at the Brasserie restaurant at Lucknam Park Hotel in Wiltshire, has been named the winner of the UK’s National Chef of the Year competition. Thirty-year-old Desai, who was born and brought up in Pune, was named the winner after a live cook-off at the Restaurant Show at Earls Court in
London on Monday. The Indian chef, who studied French cuisine at the Institute Paul Bocuse, beat nine other finalists to win the competition. Adam Bennett, head chef at Simpsons Restaurant in Birmingham, and Frederick Forster, head chef at 44 Restaurant and Lounge in Hornchurch, Essex, were second and third respectively.
Desai won over the judges with his starter of fillet of bream with tomato, aubergine and mussel salad and crispy calamari, main course of breast and tortellini of duck with celeriac cream and apple chutney and dessert of extra bitter dark chocolate tart with raspberry and cardamom salad and yoghurt sorbet.
The contestants were asked to cook three courses in two hours after being presented with a mystery basket of ingredients. The panel of judges included chefs Atul Kocher, Jun Tanaka, John Campbell, Angela Hartnett, Chris Galvin, Peter Gordon, Ching-He Huang and Simon Hulstone.
Desai has also won the prestigious Roux Scholarship, which gives the winner a chance to learn from a three month stage at three-Michelin-starred restaurant. Desai chose to do his training under chef Thomas Keller at the Laundry Room in California. “I feel really happy to have achieved this at the first attempt. After winning the Roux Scholarship and the National Chef of the Year title I feel like I have passed my exams and now is the time to work harder and give something back to the industry,” Desai said after winning the competition.