Winners of Wing Yip Chef of the Year announced

Lewis O'Carroll, a junior chef de partie at the Moat House, Acton Trussell has scooped the 2nd prize at the third National Wing Yip Chef of the Year competition which was held this week on Monday at the UCB Birmingham.

The competition was open to applicants aged between 18 and 25 years, studying or employed in catering and hospitality and with a passion for Asian flavours.

The applicants in the first stage were required to design an Oriental menu using ingredients of their choice with judges on the day including British Culinary Federation president Peter Griffiths and Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell.

Lewis, who has never entered any competition before, delivered two stunning dishes of:

• Lapsang smoked duck with thai consommé, compressed cucumber, corn, and spring onion.


• Pork fillet, satay king prawn, pak choi, coriander, carrot and star anise purée, peanut crumbleand oriental sauce.

Gemma Field from Selly Oak scooped the first prize of an exclusive trip to Hong Kong where she will sample the cuisine, work in Michelin-starred restaurants and explore the vibrant street food scene after cooking her two dishes of lobster combination and chicken crown poached in jasmine tea.

Miranda Lucien-Johnson (above right) from Restaurant Adam Handling at Caxton also received runner-up.

Matt Davies, Vice Chairman British Culinary Federation said: “Competitions for our young chefs are most important as it really does improve their artistic and culinary skills, and to compete at National competitions are invaluable to their ongoing development.

“I work very hard working with young chefs helping them develop their careers.”

Having won numerous medals himself when working for Andreas Antona Matt spoke of the standard of this year’s Wing Yip competition, he said: “The standard of the competition was awesome with some very talented chefs on parade and some excellent seasoned competition chefs competing.”

Find out more about this competition and photos from the day over on Wing Yip's Twitter page here.