'I’m incredibly happy with how my life turned out. I could never have dreamed for more'
'MasterChef has given me a year to remember'
'I want to be the first Nepalese to be awarded a star'
Who is MasterChef: The Professionals 2020 finalist, Alex Webb?
MasterChef: The Professionals 2020 winner Alex Webb has not taken the past year off to rest.
Since his victory on the popular BBC programme, he left his role as head chef at Square One and has barely sat still between cooking private dinners; doing guest chef nights at Sussex in Soho with the Gladwin brothers; working in MC judge Monica Galetti’s kitchen at Mere to prepare a multi-course menu for a collaboration with Disney and cooking with his fellow contestants Bart Van der Lee, Santosh Shah, and Philli Armitage-Mattin at a Nomadic pop-up.
The chef is planning another event with them later this year, has some consultancy work in the pipeline as well as his first solo pop-up which is taking place on October 8th.
Ratings for MasterChef: The Professionals were through the roof last year – to the point that the series was even nominated for a BAFTA - which Alex not only credits to lockdown but the support received by all three finalists from around the globe.
“The show had the highest figures ever for a final,” owing to his being half-Australian, Bart being from the Netherlands and Santosh having “half of Nepal watching."
His experience on the show was "phenomenal," he said, and has opened up many opportunities as well as bringing him closer to the chefs he shared the spotlight with.
“We all get on really well, we’re good friends,” he said. “Even on the show when we were there we were always in the back room talking to each other, going through each other’s recipes and floating new ideas, we just got on really well – that’s why it was really good to cook together again, it was really good fun.”
A permanent site
As if the above isn't enough to keep his calendar full, Alex is working on opening his own restaurant, having secured a site and backing to do so, as well as partnering up with a manager to oversee it.
The chef hopes the site will open its doors in the summer of next year, and is planning a menu of modern French food “with my fun twist on it."
"Nothing too pretentious," he added, "but with the flavours to back it up: really rich sauces, mainly fish.” The restaurant will also have its own cocktail bar.
Busier than ever, he laughed, “MasterChef has given me a year to remember.”
The event on October 8th - which the chef is hosting in partnership with restaurant supply app Rekki, as well as with The Felix Project, an organisation which delivers surplus food to schools and charities, to whom £10 will go for every ticket sold - will be a chance for him to recreate some of the dishes that saw him through to victory on MasterChef, as well as to test out the concept and dishes for his restaurant.
A raffle will also be held on the night, with prizes yet to be announced.
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'MasterChef has given me a year to remember'
'I’m incredibly happy with how my life turned out. I could never have dreamed for more'
'I want to be the first Nepalese to be awarded a star'
Who is MasterChef: The Professionals 2020 finalist, Alex Webb?
