Runners up were Luke Smith, head chef at the Level 39 restaurant in Canada Square for CH&Co, and Gareth Ruck, sous chef at South African investment bank Investec.

The competition took place at Merchant Taylors’ Hall in London, where the three finalists were given two hours to create a four-course menu to wow a judging panel of leading chefs.

These included: renowned chef Jean-Christophe Novelli; Sudha Shankar Saha, current Blue Arrow resident chef and chef patron at the Saffon Restaurant Group; Allister Bishop, executive sous chef at Harrods; David Mulcahy, craft and food development director for Sodexo; and Jim Norris, director of food for Gather & Gather.

Novelli said the standard was seriously high and that the food was of a Michelin star standard. “We had fun because the food was fantastic,” he said. “I wish that more competitions could be organised the same way, with the same level of candidates, because as a judge I thought the Blue Arrow Chef of the Year competition 2013 was the perfect recipe.”

Blue Arrow’s competition founder, Charlotte Rush, commented: “We are delighted to have crowned Richard our first ever winner of the Blue Arrow Chef of the Year competition after such a hotly contested battle. The standard was so high that all three finalists should be extremely proud of what they have achieved and the positive feedback they have received from our panel of judges.

“We are committed to helping our candidates to develop and grow their careers, and we hope that competitions like this help our talented chefs, and their hard working support teams, to continue to flourish both now and in the future.

“We also want to encourage more people to consider working within the catering industry, where we know there is significant demand for new skills and plenty of job opportunities available.”

Further information about the competition can be found at www.bluearrowchefworld.com