Meet the National Chef of the Year 2019 finalists: Martin Frickel

National Chef of the Year 2019 finalist, Martin Frickel is senior sous chef at The Forest Side in Grasmere.

• Read more about National Chef of the Year here
• Who are the other National Chef of the Year 2019 finalists?
• What does it take to win National Chef of the Year?

Martin studied Kendal College before getting his first kitchen job as an apprenticeship at the Castle Green Hotel with chef Justin Woods. He also worked at Simon Rogan's L'Enclume, before meeting Kevin Tickle and getting his current job as senior sous chef at the Michelin-starred The Forest Side. At 18 years old, Martin reached the final eight of the Gordon Ramsay scholarship competition. He has also competed in the North West Young Chef of the Year competition in 2006/2007 and ten years later, he was the proud recipient of an Acorn award.

Why did you enter National Chef of the Year?

I wanted to give it a shot whilst I was still young enough. Both myself and my friend Matt Campbell agreed to enter to challenge each other and bring out the best in each other. Sadly, Matt passed away earlier this year whilst running the London Marathon so he didn’t get the chance to participate. So I’m doing this for him as well as myself.

How did it feel to get through to the final?

I was over the moon - I can’t describe how excited I was to receive the news. Especially knowing that I had the opportunity to show what I could do in the final. I was quietly confident after my performance in the semi-final. I was really happy with what I produced and felt that I’d made an impact with the judges that day.

Knorr and Unilever Food Solutions are proud to be longstanding sponsors of the National Chef of the Year competition. The foodservice industry is a significant and important part of Knorr’s business and we’re proud to have been by the side of culinary professionals since 1838.

Remember your first day? Watch our campaign film at www.ufs.com/knorr1838