Craft Guild of Chefs Awards 2010

10th August 2010, 8:50am

Now in its 17th year, the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards showcased the best of the best on a midsummer’s night at the Lancaster London Hotel.

Themed as 'pure skill, pure talent and pure magic', these were all on parade at the 2010 Craft Guild of Chefs Awards ceremony.

More than 600 culinary professionals attended the event on June 24 at the Lancaster London Hotel, where the 39 nominees were spectacularly revealed when the walls of the room were raised amid mist and dazzling light to show each chef on stage.

This year was particularly outstanding for chefs in the cost sector where 16 caterers from this sector were acclaimed – six being presented with the Chef of the Year Award in their category.

The Craft Guild said that some of the categories were harder to judge than others because of the diversity of the category. The Cost Sector Catering Chef Award category, for example, covers a broad range from schools, hospitals and prisons to business and industry. The 2010 award went to Robert Kennedy, executive head chef for Compass at the Royal Military Academy.

Craft Guild chairman Andrew Green said the standard and number of entries were unbelievably high this year. "We initially had six judges to decide between finalists in each category, but this year we needed extra input because the standard was really high," he says.

An example of how the judging was no plain sailing was when the judges could not agree in one category, so it was decided to take the entries to another panel to adjudicate and come to a decision.

Green says: "It sounds like a cliché but this year really was something else in terms of the fantastic calibre of chefs out there."

Thirteen industry chefs walked away with an award, plus this year's Special Award reserved for an exceptional personality, went to the legendary Pierre Koffmann.

Craft Guild vice president David Mulcahy said this year the celebration was about a chef whose passion was traditional country cuisine and a commitment to excellence.

Koffmann's career began in the UK 40 years ago working alongside the Roux brothers before opening his London restaurant La Tante Claire to cook the food he liked to eat – a ground-breaking move at that time, says Mulcahy.

La Tante Claire had a long and successful run and along the way it collected three Michelin stars and rosettes galore, plus Koffmann developed some of the UK's best chefs – Tom Aikens, Marco Pierre White, Jason Atherton and David Everitt-Matthias to name just a few.

THE WINNERS

Apprentice Chef Award sponsored by Compass Group
Conor Stein The Royal Garden Hotel

Banqueting Chef Award sponsored by Nestlé Professional
Steve Golding Sodexo Prestige

Competition Chef Award sponsored by Electrolux Professional
Richard Bowden Compass Group

Contract Catering Chef Award sponsored by AAK Foodservice
Derek Reilly Sodexo

Cost Sector Chef Award sponsored by the British Frozen Food Federation
Robert Kennedy Royal Military Academy (Compass)

Development Chef Award sponsored by Aviko
Phil Rimmer Apetito

Education Chef Award sponsored by Town & Country Fine Foods
Norman Robertson Ayr College

Ethnic Chef Award sponsored by Kavis
Jitin Joshi Vatika Restaurant

New Restaurant of the Year sponsored by Manitowoc
Galvin La Chapelle

Pastry Chef Award sponsored by Callebaut
Sarah Hartnett The Park Lane Hotel

Pub Restaurant Chef Award sponsored by Premier Foodservice
Alistair Barlow The Fleece

Restaurant Chef Award sponsored by Falcon Foodservice-Williams Refrigeration
Sat Bains Restaurant Sat Bains

Young Chef Award sponsored by Heinz Foodservice
Adam Smith The Ritz

Special Award sponsored by Sodexo
Pierre Koffmann