The 15 semi-finalists were seeded from competitions including the Craft Guild of Chefs Graduate Awards, Chaine des Rotisseurs Young Chef, Young Welsh Chef of the Year, Young Scottish Chef of the year, Young Game Chef of the Year, Young Grampian Chef of the Year, Young North East Chef of the Year, South West Young Chef of the Year, Master Chefs of Great Britain Young Chef of the Year, North West Chef of the Year, Guernsey Young Chef of the Year and UK Skills.

The YNCOTY semi-finalists will compete on the following dates:

Heat one – June 10 – Sheffield City College, Sheffield
Rory Welch, The Bridge Tavern, Newcastle upon Tyne
Luke Selby, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Oxfordshire
Thomas Lawson, Rafters Restaurant, Sheffield
Craig Bateman, Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Compass Group
Ruth Hansom, The Ritz, London
James Goodyear, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, Oxfordshire

Heat two – June 25 – Le Cordon Bleu, London
Nathan Cornwell, Lucknam Park, Bath
Connor Godfrey, The Ritz, London
Ricki Weston, South Lodge Hotel, Horsham, Sussex
Daniel Aires, Highlands College, Jersey, Channel Islands
Danny Hoang, The Grove, Watford
Claire Willett, Wyboston Lakes, Bedfordshire
Daniel Lee, Brooklands Hotel, Surrey
Antonia Morosi, Recipease Jamie Oliver, London
April Lily Partridge, The Club at The Ivy, London

The top five scorers will then compete against the three finalists: Julien Pickersgill, British Culinary Federation Young Chef of the Year; Josh Bingham, the highest achiever of the Craft Guild of Chefs Graduate awards; and the highest achiever of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Awards of Excellence, at the Restaurant Show on Tuesday, October 7.

Steve Munkley, vice president of the Craft Guild of Chefs and chairman of judges said: “It’s a privilege to be involved in a competition that attracts this calibre of chef. Every one of them has already demonstrated outstanding talent and skills and I look forward to seeing what they produce in the heats and final.”

Mark Sargeant, Young National Chef of the Year ambassador, added: “It’s a huge honour for me to be this year’s ambassador for Young National Chef of the Year and I can foresee it becoming an important and highly regarded stepping stone in the industry, following in the footsteps of the National Chef of the Year, which I won back in 2006. There are so many fantastic young chefs coming through right now and I'm very excited about mentoring some of these as part of my role in the competition.”

Stefan Horsnell, category marketing director at Unilever Food Solutions, the company behind the Knorr brand, commented: “Congratulations to all the talented young chefs who’ve made it through to the semi-finals this year.

“At Knorr, we believe in rewarding and nurturing young talent, which is why we’ve supported this competition since its launch. Last year we witnessed dedication and genius at the final, and can’t wait to see what’s in store for us this year. We’ll look forward to seeing how the competition unfolds.”

The winner and runners up will be revealed along with the National Chef of the Year 2014 at an awards ceremony following the final.

For more information, visitwww.craftguildofchefs.org, contact Clair Bowman on 01293 610329 or follow @TNCOTY #YNCOTY on Twitter.