Lexington Catering colleagues, Louise Roberts and Stuart Tarff scoop awards at the annual Association of Catering Excellence (ACE) ‘Ready Steady Cook’ challenge, which is designed to recognise young talent.
The pair battled it out against some of the very best young chefs in the foodservice industry at the ACE event, on Thursday 28th September, which was held at East Wintergreen, Canary Wharf. Stuart and Louise came second place and Louis was awarded the Next Generation Young Chef Award.
All competing teams were given a mystery bag of ingredients, 30 minutes to plan their menu and then just 20 minutes to cook two courses. Louise and Stuart impressed the judges with their menu and the duo came second place. Louise also was also won the Next Generation Chef Award.
Commenting on her win Louise Roberts, Junior Sous Chef at Lexington and winner of the Next Generation Young Chef Award said, “I haven’t had much time to think about it! The competition was physically and mentally demanding but I absolutely love what I do so it was also a lot of fun. The ‘Ready Steady Cook’ competition is a great way of pushing yourself to do things better and push the boundaries.”
Stuart Tarff, Head Pastry Chef at Lexington, was crowned the winner at Lexington’s LexChef 2016 competition and he was name ‘Chef of the Year’ at the Elior Awards For Excellence earlier this year. He said, “It was fabulous to take part in this year’s ‘Ready Steady Cook’ challenge and push ourselves. It’s such a great opportunity to meet some amazing chefs and present your skills.”
Rob Kirby, Chef Director at Lexington Catering said, “What an amazing result. This is so well deserved. Louise and Stuart have worked so hard. They are a fabulous example of chefs who are genuinely excited about what they do and have such a passion for creativity and simple but tasty food.”
