David Mulcahy, vice president of the Guild and director of the both the National and the Young National Chef of the Year Competitions, said: “The brief for competitors remains the same and it has been inspiring to hear that chefs have been working on their NCOTY entries and that this has provided them with some positivity during this crisis.

“This just goes to demonstrate how committed these chefs are to their craft and how important this competition is to our industry.”

The hotly anticipated cook-offs for both NCOTY and the YNCOTY will take place on Monday, September 7th at Le Cordon Bleu. Each competition will be filmed and then produced as 60-minute television productions that will be screened on Wednesday, September 30th, when the winners of each will be announced.

The screenings form part of Hospitality Week, five days of ‘virtual’ activity from September 28th to October 2nd that have been arranged to replace the original Restaurant Show due to take place at that time.

It will feature a range of webinars, competitions and downloadable reports for more than 700,000 newsletter subscribers, website users, show visitors and social media followers.

At the NCOTY grand final cook-off, competitors will be invited to present their original three-course menu from their online entry. This will ensure that your efforts at the entry stages are not lost and judges will have the opportunity to sample this work at the final.

It has been designed to minimise wastage as the mystery box will be significantly reduced this year. Chefs should also be aware that there may be some additional ‘must use’ ingredients added and provided for the final.

Full details will be shared once finalists are announced. However, adequate time will be given to make any necessary amendments to the original entry.

A live awards announcement of the new NCOTY and YNCOTY winners will take place after the screening of the finals, with finalists, judges and sponsors brought together in a live announcement to celebrate the winners.