This year's Roux Scholarship 2016 final takes place on Monday, at Westminster Kingsway College, London and there are six chefs hoping to win the prestigious title - Tim Peirson

The Staff Canteen spoke to each finalist to find out more about them, their cooking style and why they entered the competition.

Name: Tim Peirson

Region: London

Age: 29

Works at: Kensington Place

Job role: Head chef

Cooking background: I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do so I started out pot washing in the local pub in Cheshire where I started to cook a little bit before moving to London with my girlfriend when I was 18. The first restaurant I worked in when I got to London was Green’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar where I stayed for a year and a half.

After that I spent a year and a half at 1901 and then went to Wild Honey for a year before moving on to One Aldwych where I worked with Tony Fleming for a couple of years. When he went on to open South Place Hotel I went to work with him as his sous chef before leaving to go to Kensington Place. I’ve been at Kensington Place for about a year now.

Who influences you most in cooking? The biggest influence has been working with Tony because he promoted me from chef de partie all the way up to sous chef so he really helped developed my skills and it was the first time I have really worked at a senior level where I had involvement and influence on the food. The way I think about putting dishes and flavours together has come from working with Tony, he’s really helped me develop that over time, so he’s probably the biggest influence.

How are you feeling about the Roux Scholarship? I work for D&D and they encouraged me to do it and it’s also the last year that I can do it as well so I thought it’s either now or never. I’m obviously quite nervous but there’s not really anything you can do for it, you can read books and you can look at what happened over the past couple of years to try and get an idea of what they might ask you but I believe the whole point of it is the fact you can’t prepare for it. It’s about everything you have learnt so far, so it kind of makes you feel a bit nervous. I spent quite a lot of time getting ready for the regionals and I knew roughly what was expected and what I had to do but this time I haven’t got a clue! But I also think there are five other people so it’s a level playing field as no one knows what’s going to happen and no one one can prepare for it.

What are your ambitions in cooking? I’m not really sure, I’m thinking about two weeks from now and that’s about it!

Read more about The Roux Scholarship 2016 final six here

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