Compass Chef of the Year 2013 winners revealed

10-Oct-2013 - Last updated on 27-Apr-2021 at 12:47 GMT

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Judge Jason Atherton with the Compass award-winners Craig Bateman (Junior), Chris Pulfer (Senior) and Jackie Kent (Apprentice)

Chris Pulfer from Restaurant Associates has been named the Compass Chef of the Year after a hotly-contested final at The Restaurant Show earlier this week.

Pulfer fended off competition from seven other chefs from across the various Compass divisions to win the title, with James Hart from UCL London coming in second and Shaun Reason from the Royal Military Academy (RMA) Sandhurst in third.

“This competition is fiercely contested by chef teams across our business and really showcases the amazing culinary talent that we have at Compass,” said the group’s executive chef Nick Vadis.

“The quality of the food produced was outstanding; these chefs are a real credit to our business and I’m sure many of the junior chefs we saw today will be our senior chefs of tomorrow.”

Eight senior chefs were given two hours to cook up a four-course meal, showcasing British produce and reflecting the latest food trends for a panel of industry judges, including Brian Turner and Jason Atherton.

Pulfer’s winning menu:

Amuse bouche: Heritage carrot espuma, pink grapefruit and puffed quinoa
Main: Ceviche of gunard, crispy cheek, radish and pak choi
Dessert: Ruby red beef, smoked creamed potato and parsley root

The Restaurant Show, which took place from 7-9 October, was also the stage for the Junior Compass Chef of the Year competition, which was won by Craig Bateman, also from the RMA Sandhurst. Andy Bastyan from MET office Exeter and Joel Rai from DACI Shrivenham came in second and third place respectively.

Apprentice Chef of the Year

This year’s competition saw the introduction of the Compass Apprentice Chef of the Year, welcoming eight of Compass’ newest talents to the competition theatre. Apprentice chefs were tasked with creating a fish dish in just 40 minutes, resulting in another win for the RMA Sandhurst with Jackie Kent securing top prize for her dish of Dover sole.

“Competing in this arena was an extremely daunting task for our apprentices but they rose to the challenge and I’m immensely proud of them, and all the chefs that took part,” added Vadis.

As part of their prize, the Junior and Senior Chef of the Year award winners will now travel to Dubai; to team up with the United Arab Emirates Compass Chef of the Year winner to recreate some of their dishes in a celebration dinner for 40 compass clients in the CAMEAT Business at the Jumeirah Emirates Culinary Academy.

Joining this year’s cream of the crop will be last year’s winners, Richard Abbott from Met Office Exeter and Amy Duthie from Haileybury College.