A heat in the south took place at Brooklands College on Friday 14th June whilst a northern heat was held at Sheffield College on Tuesday 18th June. Chefs could enter the exams in kitchen or pastry with an ambition of achieving the pass mark needed to cook at the final exam which will take place at the University of West London on Wednesday 4th September 2024.

For the kitchen tasks, the chefs completed a multiple-choice examination with questions relating to both classical and modern cookery. In the fishmongery test the chefs had to prepare one whole trout and for the butchery challenge they had to prepare a whole chump of lamb on the bone into two rumps.

Chefs then had to create an amuse bouche or appetiser using two puff pastry vol au vent cases followed by a trout starter using the fillets they prepared in the fish task. A mystery basket task included the lamb and a selection of ingredients selected by chair of judges Ben Murphy. With a final opportunity to impress the examiners, the chefs had to create a lemon meringue tart following a given recipe.

Ben Murphy, chef patron at Launceston Place, said: “When marking the Graduate Awards, I am looking for those chefs where we could really tell how much work had gone into the preparation. Chefs have the opportunity to come to the exam well-prepared as the Guild shares a detailed briefing pack and videos with them beforehand.

“Those who are successful will have the opportunity to go on to events such as Young National Chef of the Year and so we need to be confident they will be able to compete at that level. We saw some good innovation, creativity and culinary skills in the semi-finals, and I am hoping we see as many of them make the grade as possible.”

The 11 chefs going through to the kitchen final are:

• Rohin Geddes, The Royal Garden Hotel
• Joel Barton, CORD by Le Cordon Bleu
• Kai-le Tran, Royal Airforce Club
• Nick Grant, Launceston Place
• Inez Elfriede Roggema, Trivet
• Angelo Vinci, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons
• Paolo Marinosci, Mauro Colagreco at Raffles London at The OWO
• Ross Boyd, Amuse by Kenny Dagleish
• Callum O'Grady, House of Commons
• Ciaran Ryan, The Dog at Wingham
• Alessio Sneider, Soho House 76 Dean Street

In the pastry exam, the chefs had four hours to create 12 pieces of fudge, serve up a combination of soaked and unsoaked savarins as well as follow a recipe for a pear and almond tart. This exam also included a multiple-choice paper testing the candidates on their classical pastry knowledge.

The eight chefs have been selected to go through to the final pastry exam are:

• Catherine Ens, Launceston Place
• Jessica McKechnie, Cameron House
• Jessica May Erskine, House of Commons
• Deimante Duobaite, The Silver Birch
• Christi Myburgh, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Corner
• Ridhima Mhaiskar, The Dorchester
• Irene Magro, Rosewood London
• Krishna Rajesh,  Royal Air Force Club

Chair of pastry examiners Sarah Frankland, added: “One of the first things I wanted to do as chair was bring the pastry tasks in-line with the kitchen exam by including a theory element. Whilst it is only a small percentage of the marks, I feel it’s important that chefs don’t stop working on the theory side just because they have left college.

“I’m delighted that we have been able to take eight pastry chefs through to the final stage as they all showed so much potential at the semi-final. Now I want them to push themselves further and grab this opportunity to learn, develop and grow both personally and professionally.”

Next month these finalists will be heading on a two-day culinary tour where they will learn more about the tests for the exam as well as visiting Daylesford Organics, Cotswold’s Gold Oil, Little Oak Vineyard and North Cotswold’s Brewery.

The Graduate Awards sponsors support this event to help the Craft Guild of Chefs to develop young culinary talent. This includes The London Meat Co, Oranka, Savoy Educational Trust, Reynolds, Meiko UK, Essential Cuisine, City and Guilds, Robert Welch, Continental Chef Supplies (CCS), James Knight of Mayfair, Worshipful Company of Cooks, CCE London Ltd, University of West London, Lakeland Dairies, Grande Cuisine, Maldon Salt, NOWAH and Daregal Gourmet.