The Roux Scholarship Announces its 18 Regional Finalists for the 2025 Competition

The Roux Family are delighted to reveal the names of the 18 chefs who will take part in the regional finals for The Roux Scholarship 2025. This year, 14 of the 18 finalists are new to the competition and they hail from establishments as far afield as Scotland and Devon.

The 18 chefs, and two reserves, were selected from their written recipes that had to use two gurnard fish, mussels, dulse seaweed and parsnips. They were submitted anonymously to the judges, who took part in the Recipe Judging day at The Waterside Inn on 19th February 2025. The 18 finalists will compete in two regional finals which will be held simultaneously on Thursday 6th March 2025 at University College Birmingham and University of West London, Ealing.

Recipe challenge

For the recipe application, Roux Scholarship 2025 applicants were invited to create a recipe for four people using two whole dayboat Cornish red gurnards each weighing 700g – 900g (maximum 1kg); 600g live St. Austell deep sea mussels; fresh (or dried) red dulse seaweed, together with two simple or composed garnishes/accompaniments, one including parsnip. A sauce had to accompany the dish. The regional finalists will have 2.5hrs to cook their dish, along with a dessert devised and prepared from a mystery box of ingredients given to them on the day. The judges will be looking for recipes and methods, which demonstrate the best balance of creativity, taste, style and practicality in the finished dishes.

THE CHEFS COMPETING IN LONDON: 

THE CHEFS COMPETING IN BIRMINGHAM:

Judging in London: Alain Roux, Brian Turner CBE, Emily Roux, André Garrett MCA (2002 scholar), Adam Smith MCA (2012 scholar), Angela Hartnett OBE.

Judging in Birmingham: Michel Roux Jr, Sat Bains (1999 scholar), Simon Hulstone (2003 scholar), Rachel Humphrey.

There are two chefs in reserve (should any finalists not be able to compete):

QUOTES FROM THE JUDGES

Chairman Michel Roux Jr: “It is great to see so many different establishments represented across the country and to see chefs who have been supported to enter the competition by past winners, our Roux Scholars, and past finalists. There were some very inspiring recipes using affordable ingredients and lots of skilful, innovative techniques as well.”

Chairman Alain Roux: “It has been good to see how the different chefs used the key ingredients to come up with a wide range of dishes, with interesting flavours, drawing on influences from around the world. I can’t wait to see them cooking the dishes in the regional finals and indeed that is the skill we look for in the recipe application – chefs must write a recipe that we really want to taste.”

Emily Roux: “The regional finalists came up with a very eclectic mix of recipes; All sorts of different ingredients were used, spices, lots of Japanese flavours as well, which I thought was interesting. Gurnard is a fish that I love, we currently have it on the menu, so I was happy to see it in all its glory in different forms.”

Adam Smith MCA: “It’s great to see the process of recipe judging from the other side now I’m a judge. It’s been great to see the diversity of different cuisines and see those influences on what people are cooking and the different interpretations of the four different ingredients that had to be included.”

Simon Hulstone: “I think it’s really a real good mix from up and down the country, to be fair. There is a really good range of establishments: there are a couple of contract caterers in there, some really big- name restaurants, so it is really good to see that they’re supporting The Roux Scholarship. For me, it’s nice to see that there are new names coming through and new people are having a crack at entering.”

Key facts:

• The paper applications are judged blind, so judges do not know the applicants’ identity, place of work, or any other details other than the recipe.

• Four finalists have competed in the finals before: Charlie D’Lima (2024), Rebecca Tough (2024), Darryl Shotlander (2024) and Liam Pride (2022).

• There are four female chefs competing in the regional finals, three of whom are new to the competition. They are: Katherine Altham, Nikoletta Theofylaktidou, Rebecca Tough and Erin Yates. For more information on the White Paper titled ‘Women Chefs and The Roux Scholarship’ published in 2022, see https://www.rouxscholarship.co.uk/diversity-and-the-roux-scholarship/

• The finalists come from a wide range of establishments, such as a private school in Devon, a Scottish inn once frequented by poet Robert Burns, contract catering restaurants and three-star Michelin restaurants.

• The rules dictate that chefs must be resident in the UK, but their backgrounds are hugely diverse with finalists coming from Great Britain and countries such as Australia, France, Canada and Greece.

• As well as looking at how enticing the dish is and the best use of ingredients, the judges were looking at costings of the ingredients. They also looked at whether quantities listed and costings were accurate. In some cases, errors in costing lost the candidate points.

• The judging panel 2025 is: Alain Roux, Michel Roux Jr, Brian Turner CBE, Emily Roux, Clare Smyth MBE, Angela Hartnett OBE, Sat Bains (Roux Scholar 1999), Rachel Humphrey, James Martin, André Garrett MCA (Roux Scholar 2002), Simon Hulstone (Roux Scholar 2003) and Adam Smith (Roux Scholar 2012).

Photography credit Francesca Acosta