Thursday 15th November sees Lexington’s prestigious annual competition, LexChef, now in its sixth year, take place.
With six of Lexington’s finest chefs battling to named Lexington’s Chef of the Year 2012, this year promises to be the most competitive and exciting so far. The finalists will have two hours to cook two courses from the Lexington shopping bag which will be revealed to them later this week.
The finalists will be judged on five different categories; working practices, skill level, innovation, flavour and use of ingredients and presentation. The LexChef 2012 winner will be ‘crowned’ on the night and will win some fabulous prizes, including dinner for two with wine at a Michelin starred restaurant of their choice.
With highly respected industry judges Claire Clark, Alan Bird, Andrew Turner, Lawrence Keogh, Mark Flanagan and Amanda Afiya, the contestants will be pushing themselves to the limit this year. This year saw a record breaking 65 written entries from across Lexington’s business and included entries from front of house, kitchen porters and managers, for the prestigious annual competition. 38 semi-finalists were selected who then competed in evening cook-offs for a place in the final.
The competition between the semi-finalists was exceptionally high this year and the team of Lexington judges had a tough job whittling them down to the final six. Lexington’s six LexChef finalists have been named as; Jamie Delande, Simon Merrick, Javier Millet, Tamsin Roberts, Matt Jaynes, and Phil Read.
Rob Kirby, Lexington’s Chef Director, said “LexChef is a celebration of food, cooking and our people and this year looks set to be the best yet! Every year we are blown away by the enthusiasm and excitement shown for the competition across the business. The skills, passion and knowledge shown by all entrants were exceptionally high and the dishes produced in the semi-finals really were incredible. It’s going to be a fantastic night and we wish all of the finalists the best of luck rattling the pans!”
