Richard Skinner wins 2013 Blue Arrow Chef of the Year

Richard Skinner from Artizan was crowned the inaugural Blue Arrow Chef of the Year in London last night.

Richard fought off competition from fellow finalists Gareth Ruck from Investec and Luke Smith of Level 39 and impressed a star studded judging panel which included well-known celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli. Also on the panel were executive sous chef at Harrods Allister Bishop, David Mulcahy from Sodexo UK & Ireland, Jim Norris of Gather & Gather and Blue Arrow’s Sudha Saha.

Speaking about his win, Richard said: “It still hasn’t sunk in yet that I have won the Blue Arrow Chef of the Year competition! In the final you are not only competing against other finalists, but also against yourself to push yourself further.

“When I walked out of the kitchen I had no idea who had won. It had been a great day, in a hot kitchen, but really good fun too. It is a great feeling to be recognised for my achievement.”

The final challenge took place at Merchant Taylors’ Hall where three finalists had just two hours to produce four plates of food for a host of industry guests.

The judges took half an hour longer than anticipated to deliberate between the three chefs but eventually plumped for Richard who wins a gourmet break to Italy and also becomes Blue Arrow’s Resident Chef for 2014.

Jean-Christophe Novelli was very impressed with the quality of the food produced and he said: “For me the final three were all winners. The standard was seriously high and less than one point separated the person in first and third place, which shocked me a bit as I did not expect this to happen! The food cooked tonight was of the standard of a Michelin star.”

Founder of the competition, Charlotte Rush, was pleased with how the evening went and she said: “We are delighted to have crowned Richard our first ever winner of the Blue Arrow Chef of the Year competition after such a hotly contested battle.”

She continued: “Here at Blue Arrow we are committed to helping our candidates to develop and grow their careers, and we hope that competitions like this help our talented chefs, and their hard working support teams, to continue to flourish both now and in the future.”

Aside from the competition, Blue Arrow raised £400 on the night through raffle tickets in aid of Help for Heroes.