When asked for her advice for future competitors, Carolan said: “The advice I would give to someone in the competition is to keep your menu simple and achievable with minimal equipment. I think focusing on the flavours and skills used to make the dish is very important.”

Finalists had to serve up a three-course menu in two hours following an innovative criteria. Judging this year’s hotly anticipated final was chair of judges Russell Bateman alongside Ali Howard, Chantelle Nicholson, Alex Angelogiannis, Phil Howard, Ollie Dabbous, Ruth Hansom-Rigby, Denis Drame, Graham Hornigold, George Blogg and Paul Mannering.

Speaking about achieving third place, she added: “It felt surreal to place third in YNCOTY. Being up against such incredible chefs, I was honoured to even get a place on the podium. I was so happy that my food had been well received by the judges. Since the competition I’ve just been carrying on with work. I’ve moved onto the pastry section at Henrock so I’ve been learning loads of new things.”

National hospitality and culinary lead at HIT Training Paul Mannering was given the specific task of observing food waste throughout the menu planning and cooking process.

He awarded the new food waste award to Carolan who has won a two-day stage with Adam Handling at any of his UK restaurant businesses as well as a one-day workshop or masterclass at any HIT Training Chef academy in the UK.

When asked about her future plans, Carolan explained: “In the near future I would like to stay at Henrock as I feel I still have loads to learn there and I’d like to see the restaurant achieve some accolades with our new head chef Mark McCabe.

“I would like to do something more competitions, definitely YNCOTY if I had the opportunity. In the long run I’d love to travel and work in some different restaurants and maybe potentially have my own someday with my boyfriend Dylan.”

Carolan named Nicolai Nørregaard at restaurant Kadeau in Copenhagen, Magnus Nilsson’s new opening in Sweden and Central in Peru as chefs or restaurants that she would like to work at in the future.

When asked about her favourite dish to cook, Carolan said: “My favourite dish to cook in work would be the venison as I enjoyed preparing it, the sauce and the broth.

“We also made a bun which all the braised trim gets rolled through which is fun to make. At home I love to bake bread and make sandwiches. I think sandwiches on good bread is one of my favourite things to eat.”