Three Golden Apron Finalists Announced

The search for Yorkshire’s best young chef is nearly over following the semi-final of The Golden Apron Cookery Competition, which took place on Sunday 24th March. Eight young chefs put their cookery skills to the test at The Yorkshire Wolds Cookery School to try and gain their place in the final, which will take place on the 29th April at The Pipe and Glass Inn, South Dalton.

The semi-finalists included Connor Blades, Josh Whitehead, Jessica Berry, Daniel Franklin, Philippa Lister, Oliver Robinson, Alex Racey and Gemma Lawrence, who have all displayed excellent culinary skills throughout the competition.
The three talented youngsters chosen to compete in the final are Josh Whitehead, 18, Gemma Lawrence, 15, and Philippa Lister, 15. Josh represents Leeds Thomas Danby College, Gemma entered the competition independently and Philippa’s tutor at Wakefield Girls High School encouraged her to take part. All three are now busy polishing their skills ahead of the final, where they will be asked to cook for 70 VIP guests.

The most recent stage of the competition required the youngsters to recreate a starter and a dessert dish within two hours – simulating a professional restaurant chef environment. The starter they were asked to make was smoked haddock and pearl barley risotto with poached duck egg and grain mustard. The dessert dish was a lemon and rosemary posset with spiced summer berries and East Yorkshire sugar cakes. Both dishes were chosen by James Mackenzie from his own recipes.

The competition is sponsored by Sainsbury’s, JSR Farming Group and Cranswick Plc. The main prize is mentoring by James Mackenzie at his restaurant, The Pipe and Glass Inn, as well as a work placement at Cranswick working on the Sainsbury’s account.

James Mackenzie, Michelin Star Chef and co-organiser of The Golden Apron, comments: “It was great to see such a high standard of cooking from all the semi-finalists, which made it really hard to choose the top three. I think there were a few nerves on the day, but it’s good to know that there are some really good young cooks that will hopefully have a great career ahead of them in our industry. I am looking forward to the final at The Pipe and Glass to see how the final three cope with cooking for 70 people.”

JSR Chairman, Tim Rymer, comments: “Once again, the judges were really impressed with the presentation and taste of the dishes put in front of us. The fact that none of the semi-finalists had cooked these dishes before and could not see what they looked like before they started was an added bonus as we had 16 different takes on the same recipe – all of them were just brilliant so it was a real challenge choosing the 3 finalists!”

The Golden Apron is the creation of Michelin Star Chef, James Mackenzie and Tim Rymer, Chairman of JSR Farms. Launched in December 2012, it aims to find Yorkshire’s aspiring culinary talent aged 14-19, to encourage more youngsters to consider a cookery career and promote the use of locally-sourced, sustainable produce.

The competition is the first of its kind in Yorkshire and over 40 youngsters applied to take part. 16 of the applicants were chosen to make it through to the first heat of judging, where they were asked to create a dish using locally sourced pork, under a value of £10. Following this heat, eight youngsters were chosen to make it through to the semi-final.

The grand final dinner will take place on the 29th April at The Pipe and Glass Inn, South Dalton, where each finalist will cook a course for 70 guests who will vote for their favourite dish along with the judges.