Chef at The Cross at Kenilworth wins Young Chef of the Year award

Chefs from the left: Tom Phillips, the team UK candidate with chef Nathan Lane in the middle and Chef Director at The Cross at Kenilworth, who was the Team UK coach.

Nathan Lane the chef de partie at The Cross at Kenilworth was named the British Culinary Federation (BCF) Young Chef of the Year on Monday November 11.

Nathan competed against 14 young chefs in the final which took place at University College Birmingham.

Samuel King from The Ritz took second place and in third place was Luke Draper, a former apprentice chef at The Cross who now works at Cheals of Henley in Henley in Arden.

Nathan was Team UK’s commis chef in this year’s Bocuse d’Or world final and undertook stages in some of the world’s best restaurants before returning to The Cross this summer.

As the winner of the BCF Young Chef of the Year, he will now be automatically entered into the Young National Chef of the Year.

On winning the accolade Nathan said: “I put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this competition outside of my working hours so to be announced the winner was a massive weight off my shoulders. I felt that everything on the day went to plan and that what I put in front of the judges was worthy of a good position.

“It’s been a crazy year for me and this was the cherry on the cake - it’s ended the year in a very positive way.

"However, it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of Adam Bennett, Andreas Antona and everybody at The Cross who have contributed their advice and knowledge to help me achieve the winning dishes”.

Peter Griffiths, president of the British Culinary Federation, said: "I'm very pleased with how it has gone today, there have been some exceptional standards and the cooking skills have been a credit to all of the young competitors.

"This competition has been going for 22 years and grows bigger every year - we've seen a very worthy winner in Nathan who cooked tremendously today."

The finalists had two hours to cook a vegetarian starter, a main using rib eye of Irish beef and a dessert of their choice.

Nathan’s winning menu comprised:

- Tartlet of oeufs mollets, wild mushroom duxelle, Hollandaise sauce, herb salad,

truffle purée

- Pan roasted Ribeye of Irish Hereford beef, Roscoff onion farci, carrot braised in beef fat, crushed celeriac, crispy potato, Bordelaise sauce

- Grand Marnier souffle, pain d’épices, crème chantilly