Continental Chef Supplies & NECTA Find the North East’s Future Chef 2016
Continental Chef Supplies & NECTA’s hunt for the North East’s Future Chef 2016 came to an end yesterday, with student Lee McKinnell taking the crown at the annual NECTA Salon Culinaire.
The Level 3 Gateshead college student was mentored by professional chefs at Marco Pierre White’s at Hotel Indigo, Newcastle and was crowned winner after wowing NECTA judges with his Lamb, Pak Choi and Spring Vegetable dish.
Second place went to Newcastle College’s Alisha Goldsborough (mentored at Café 21) and 3rd place was Elliott Teasdale (mentored at The Broad Chare) from Gateshead College. Runner up was Chris Hall from Tyne Met College, mentored at The Keel Row, Seaton Delaval.
Sophie Hardy, Marketing Co-ordinator at Continental Chef Supplies, said: “We’d like to extend our congratulations to Lee, the other finalists, the tutors and mentors for all of their fantastic efforts. The standard of dishes was phenomenal this year and just goes to show what amazing culinary talent we have to celebrate in the North East”.
“We are thrilled to sponsor and provide our ongoing support to the NECTA Future Chef competition. It’s great to see so many businesses coming together and supporting the next generation of our hospitality industry and we’re looking forward to growing and evolving Future Chef from strength to strength”.
As well as ongoing support from Continental Chef Supplies, the event, taking place over two days at Newcastle Racecourse, was also home to the famous senior NECTA Chef of the Year, which Michael Hall from The Granby in Longframlington taking 1st place.
Douglas Jordan, NECTA Chairman added: “I’d like to thank everyone who attended the event and for the continuous support that Continental Chef Supplies has given to the Future Chef element of the competition.
This is a life changing opportunity for these ambitious young chefs to compete against one another to showcase their culinary skills, as well as develop their skills and create an invaluable platform for their future careers within the hospitality and catering industry and we will be behind them all the way. This is not just a competition; it’s an ongoing relationship between us and the students”.
Lee will receive a 1 week residential trip to Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir to work alongside some of the biggest names in the culinary world as well as a host of other prizes.
