Winners of Young Chef Young Waiter Northern finals to compete in nationals

Four chefs and four waiters are going forward to the national finals of the Restaurant Association's Young Chef Young Waiter competition after battling it out in the northern regional finals held at Darlington College and Seaham Hall, Co Durham.

The finals will be held at Westminster Kingsway College, London on October 20. 
 
YOUNG CHEF
Winner of the Northern regional chef competition held at Darlington College was Chris Kenny (Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Oxford). 
 
Runners up were:
 
Lahiru Jayasekara (Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons)
Ryan Murphy (Turnberry Hotel)
Tom Parker (Northcote).
 
Chairman of the chef judges was Bruce Poole (Chez Bruce), with judges Kenny Atkinson (Rockliffe Hall), Aiden Byrne (Church Green, Lymm), Paul Heathcote (Heathcotes), David Mulcahy (Sodexo) and Andrew Pern (Star Inn, Harome).

 
YOUNG WAITER
Winner of the Northern regional waiter competition was Ben Dantzic (Restaurant Andrew Fairlie, Gleaneagles).
 
Runners up were:
 
Jenny Mackiewicz (Balmoral Bar, Edinburgh)
Max Smith (Northcote)
Adam Willis (Box Tree, Ilkley)
 
Chairman of the judges was Stephen Mannock (National Skills Academy for Hospitality) with judges Craig Bancroft (Northcote),  Rhuaridh Buchanana (Paxton & Whitfield),  Chris Davy (Rose and Crown, Romaldkirk), Simon Girling (The Ritz), Geoff Lawrence (Darlington College), Christian Perdrier (Alnwick Castle)  Julia Sibley (Savoy Educational Trust) and Simon Girling from The Ritz.
 
The southern regional chef finals will be held on 15 September at Thames Valley University, Ealing; von Essen's newly opened Hotel Verta, Battersea is the venue for the southern regional waiter finals on 16 September. 

The four winners in each category will join the northern regional finalists going forward to the national finals. 
 
Headline sponsor for the competition for the second year running this year is von Essen hotels, with the Savoy Educational Trust and American Express as founding sponsors.  New sponsors this year are Nestlé Professional, the National Skills Academy for Hospitality and Villeroy &  Boch. 
 
Among the prizes is a three-day study visit to Champagne for all the national finalists, courtesy of Laurent-Perrier, which will cover all aspects of the production and service of Champagne.

Words: Maria Bracken

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