Tom Hamblet was announced as winner of Springboard’s FutureChef 2015 at the National Final beating over 8,000 contestants to claim the title.
The competition took place at Westminster Kingsway College, where 12 finalists competed for the title. The finalists had already completed school, local and regional finals.
Tom, from Tanbridge House School, West Sussex, served up a menu of Poached fillets of sole, dill and spinach stuffing, purple sprouting turned potatoes and fish cream foam and a dessert of Vanilla Cake with raspberry sorbet, bitter chocolate ganache and caramel nut clusters.
The 15 year old said: “I’m so excited that I won. I can’t believe this has happened to me and I am privileged to be in this position right now.”
Springboard’s FutureChef is a nationwide culinary initiative delivered in over 500 schools nationwide.
The main goal of FutureChef is to help young people aged 12-16 to learn the vital life skill of cooking and understanding nutrition as well as providing invaluable insight into and inspiration for building a career within the hospitality industry.
Springboard’s Chief Executive Anne Pierce MBE said “Congratulations to all of our hard working, committed finalists. It really is amazing to see the quality of work by young chefs improve year on year, the talent we see as a result of the Springboard FutureChef initiative is remarkable and Tom is a true winner.”
Tom wins a behind the scenes visit to Henley Regatta where he will work with top chefs whilst his parents enjoy a boat trip along the River Thames.
Tom and his guests will return to Henley to enjoy full hospitality, courtesy of Sodexo.
Tanbridge House School wins vouchers to the value of £400, courtesy of Bunzl Lockhart and Tom’s mentor chef Christopher Basten receives a commemorative plate, courtesy of Steelite International.
Jai Parsons from Castlebrae Community HIgh in Edinburgh won second place. Jai will be able to invite 3 people to the Delaware North box at Wembley for the Summertime Ball 2015.
He will also undertake a work placement in the VIP area before the concert shadowing the Executive Head Chef for Hospitality, Mark Reynolds. The prize includes seeing the back of house area of Wembley Stadium, as well as Jai joining his guests for the concert itself, courtesy of Delaware North.
Third place went to Ciaran Liddy from Rathmore Grammar School, Belfast. He and his mentor John Paul Leake will work on a dinner with a celebrity chef and the Elior development chefs to produce a fine dining banquet for 100 VIP guests, courtesy of Elior.
The finalists were:
- Central and South Scotland – Jai Parsons, 15 – Castlebrae Community High School
- East Midlands – Max Faulkner, 13 – Lutterworth High School
- East of England – Ashleigh Sheppard, 15 – Stour Valley Community School
- North East – Ashleigh Hellowell, 15 - The Maltings College
- Northern Ireland - Ciaran Liddy, 14 – Rathmore Grammar School
- South West – Anna West, 13 - Penair School
- Wales – Siriol Richards, 16 - Ysgol Brodinefwr
- West Midlands – Carl Ridsdale, 16 – South Bromsgrove High School
- North West – Joseph Kelly, 13 – William Howard School
- North Scotland - Hannah Hunter, 16 - Ardnamurchan High School
- London – Georgia Morgan, 16 – Abbey Manor College
- South East – Tom Hamblet, 15 – Tanbridge House School
This year’s judges were:
- Head Judge: David Mulcahy, Culinary Director, Sodexo UK and Ireland,
- Steve Munkley, Executive Chef, The Royal Garden Hotel
- Matt Owens, Executive Pastry Chef, Fusion Catering Solutions
- Adam Degg, Head Pastry Chef, Chiltern Firehouse
- Simon Stocker, Advanced Practitioner< Westminster Kingsway College
- Joe Queen, Executive Chef, Tennents Training Academy
- Richard Davis, Executive Chef The Manor House
- Adam Handling, Executive Chef, Adam Handling at Caxton
- Hayden Groves, Executive Chef, BaxterStorey
- Anna Carmichael, FutureChef Winner 2014
