Sodexo has revealed the eight successful chefs who will battle it out at the Chef of the Year 2022 grand finale.
The 90-minute live cook-off will take place at the Hotel, Restaurant and Catering (HRC) Show on 21 March 2022 at London’s ExCeL exhibition centre.
With a strong emphasis on plant-based and Future 50 foods, as well as sustainably sourced Norwegian seafood, competitors will have to produce three exciting dishes, including the ultimate street desert using Fairtrade chocolate.
Expert judges will scrutinise not only the dishes the chefs produce but also how much food waste they don’t create, tasking all the finalists to use as much of their ingredients as possible and even repurpose anything left over.
The eight finalists represent various segments of Sodexo’s business and demonstrate the diverse range of industries in which the company operates:
- Adam Collison – Corporate Services
- Adam Harty – Corporate Services
- Kyle Bowman – Sodexo Live!
- Ross Hamilton – Government
- Malcolm Givan – Corporate Services, Ireland
- Keith Pigott – Corporate Services, Ireland
- Adam Smith – Schools & Universities
- Matthew Shipley – Sodexo Live!
To get into the final, each of the eight finalists were judged by Sodexo’s National Craft Forum after submitting three dishes which met a specific set of criteria.
In preparation for the event, finalists recently attended a Mentor Day where they recreated their dishes for scrutiny and received one on one feedback by a team of expert industry chefs as well as a masterclass from The Craft Guild of Chefs UK National Chef of the Year winner, Nick Smith.
David Mulcahy, Food Innovation & Sustainability Director at Sodexo UK and Ireland, said: “Everyone at Sodexo is excited to see these chefs’ hard work and determination culminate in March’s final. The finalists going through to the live cook-off are simply Sodexo’s crème de la crème, and we hope they will pull on their imagination and flair to plate up three amazing dishes. The criteria for the final aligns with Sodexo’s own food strategy for great-tasting sustainable meal options and responsibly sourced food. We wish all finalists the best of luck.”
Image credit: Sodexo
