Lexington Catering announces its LexChef 2014

Lexington Catering have announced the winner of their 2014 Chef of the Year competition. The competition, called LexChef, took place yesterday at Knight Frank on Baker Street in London.

Tony Stuart, Hospitality Head Chef at Standard Bank was crowned Chef of the Year and said: “I'm incredibly proud to have won LexChef 2014 and it is the icing on the cake of a massively enjoyable and productive first year at Lexington.”

Besides the prestige of the title, Tony won a tasting menu for two, with wine, at Phil Howard’s two Michelin starred restaurant The Square.

The five other finalists were Louise Roberts, Commis Chef at Berwin Leighton Paisner; Kevin Macey, Head Chef at GLG Partners; Javier Millet, Head Chef at Coca Cola; Alex Rowe, Development Chef at London Business School and Matt Jaynes, Head Chef, Cass Business School. They all won a finalist’s trophy, a bottle of champagne and a signed copy of ’80 Cakes from Around the World’ by Claire Clark. The 32 semi-finalists also won a signed copy of the book.

The competition, a cook-off involving a selection of mystery ingredients only revealed to the chefs a few days before, was judged by an array of top judges including The Square's Phil Howard; Andrew Turner, Executive Chef for the Cafe Royal Hotel; Michelin starred restaurateur Jeff Galvin; Amanda Afiya, Editor at The Caterer; Mark Flanagan, Head Chef to the Royal Household; Clare Clarke, International Pastry Chef; and Elior's Food Development Director Peter Joyner.

Chef Director of Lexington Catering Rob Kirby said: “LexChef just keeps on getting better and better, year on year and in every way. The guys did an amazing job.” He said that Tony’s starter and pudding delivered “real chefy flavours and demonstrated exceptional technical skills,” but that it was “intelligent cooking all round.”

Tony’s winning menu was a starter of braised rabbit cannelloni, black pudding, shallots and girolles, followed by roast turbot, crab beignet, fennel, cavolo nero and gherkin ketchup with a dessert of dark chocolate delice, popcorn ice cream, banana caramel and hazelnut.

Head judge Phil Howard said that all the chefs delivered food with seasonality, passion and simplicity – his favourite kind of cooking.

Watch a video of the finalists below.

LexChef 2014 - final version from Nina Hollington on Vimeo.