Frederick Forster from Nuovo wins Craft Guild of Chefs National Chef of the Year 2011

Frederick Forster, head chef at Nuovo Restaurant in Essex, has been crowned by the Craft Guild of Chefs National Chef of the Year 2011.

His win follows an intense two hour cook off between eight finalists at the Restaurant Show held at Earls Court 2 this week, where his menu, style and execution of ingredients impressed the judges.

His winning dishes included sauté scallops with crab "Biegnet" and roasted breast of duck with braised thigh flavoured with smoked bacon.

Last month the field was whittled down from 40 contenders to the final eight following semi-finals in Sheffield and London.

Legendary figures in the culinary world Bruce Poole, Chris Galvin, Angela Hartnett, Atul Kochhar, Vivek Singh, Andrew Bennett, Gary Hunter, Mark Flanagan, Henry Brosi, and Graham Hornigold, were on hand to judge the dishes cooked by the finalists.

David Mulcahy, competition organiser and vice president of the Craft Guild, said: "All our congratulations go to Frederick on his fabulous achievement, in what was a tremendous end to another fantastic National Chef of the Year contest. In fact, the standard of quality on display throughout the entire competition this year has been remarkable.

"The dishes produced by the final eight were of such a high standard. Choosing a winner was never going to be easy, but all the judges were in agreement that Frederick created a winning menu from the original basket of ingredients. His menu was innovative, well planned and brilliantly executed on the day under enormous pressure."

For the first time in the competition, a 'mentors day' was held for the finalists where they received advice and guidance as well as a viewing of the choice of ingredients on offer for the final. Chairman of the judging panel, Andrew Bennett, said that the 'mentor's day' was a great addition and really got the competition going – "raising the level and making it very difficult for the judges".

As well as the title of National Chef of the Year 2011, Forster received a prize fund worth in excess of £12,000 including an exclusive study trip to France, courtesy of Lockhart Catering Equipment, plus wine tasting in the acclaimed Hermitage region and dinner at a three starred Michelin restaurant.

Other prizes for the winner included a money-can't-buy masterclass with Marco Pierre White, courtesy of headline sponsor Knorr. Electrolux also provided Frederick with the equipment from the competition theatre used to prepare the winning dishes.

Alyn Williams, chef patron at Alyn Williams at The Westbury, and Hayden Groves, executive chef at Lloyds of London, Avenance, were first and second runners up respectively.

The five other finalists were:
Craig Beacham, sous chef, The Elephant Restaurant & Brasserie
David Bush, senior chef de partie, House of Commons
Richard Edwards, head chef, Park Restaurant, Lucknam Park Hotel
Joe McCafferty, senior chef de partie, ROKA Restaurant
Simon Webb, head chef at Restaurant Associates

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