Ten candidates: Two awarded Gold, six Silver and two Bronze…
Ten apprentice chefs from Lexington Catering and Galvin Restaurants competed for the Apprentice Challenge Cup, at Hotelympia on the 2nd March 2015. The pressure was on as they took to the stage to compete in a live 60-minute cooking competition, where they were on show for hundreds of people see, and the judges critiqued their cooking skills. The apprentices were given a list of ingredients six weeks before the competition. They had two weeks to provide a written entry before taking part in a practice cook-off.
All ten apprentices hit the grade, with Emily Clarke, Chef de Partie at GLG Partners at Lexington Catering and Charlie Smith at Galvin la Chappelle winning Gold for their dishes.
Rob Kirby, Chef Director at Lexington said, “Both Emily and Charlie really stood out because of their style, use of textures, presentation and most importantly flavour! What made the competition really special was that both gold medal winners were from each company. It was a real honour for me to judge alongside Chris Galvin and I’m really looking forward to next year’s competition.”
Other awards went to:
Daniel Goldfarb, Lexington Catering apprentice, based at BLP (Silver)
Emily Orton, Lexington Catering apprentice, based at London Business School (Silver)
Jordan Thomas, Lexington Catering apprentice, based at Trowers and Hamlin (Silver)
Charlie Bedford Stockwell, Galvin la Chappelle (Silver)
Noah Morrison, Galvin la Chappelle (Silver)
Jake Craughwell, Galvin Bistrot de Luxe (Silver)
James Robertson, Lexington Catering apprentice, based at CASS Business School (Bronze)
Krishan Makol, Lexington Catering apprentice, based at Knight Frank (Bronze)
Emily Clarke, Chef de Partie at Lexington says, “Winning the competition topped off a fabulous few weeks. We learned so much from one another and it was great to work with the apprentices from Galvin’s Chance. The whole team has worked really hard, not only over the last few days but throughout the whole challenge – and we’ve had huge support from everyone. It was quite daunting being on the stage for everyone to see. Thankfully, my cooking went down well and clinched the Gold for me.”
Rob Kirby, Chef Director at Lexington added, “It was fabulous to work together with Galvin Restaurants to support our apprentices and show other businesses the quality and passion young people have. We had an outstanding group of talented and inspiring apprentices who took part in this year’s competition. Their hard work and determination throughout the competition was amazing to see and the dishes presented were of Michelin Star standard.”
This was the first competition of its kind to mark the launch of Lexington’s Apprentice Scholarship and partnership with the Galvin brothers .
