Chefs from across the North East are preparing to go head-to-head in the kitchen as the region’s top culinary contest makes a welcome return after a three year break.
The North East Chef of the Year competition last whetted the appetites of food lovers in May 2019 when Ronnie Robson, then of the award-winning rosette bar and restaurant Leila Lily’s on Grey Street, Newcastle, lifted the sought after title. The long-running competition organised by the North East Culinary and Trade Association (NECTA) wasn’t able to be run in 2020 or last year due to the Covid pandemic.
But the always fiercely fought battle to be crowned North East Chef of the Year will again be played out on May 5 at the Grand Hotel Gosforth Park. It will be the finale to two days of hospitality themed classes and live competitions starting on May 4 that will also see the cream of the region’s catering colleges looking to cook up a string of winning performances.
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These will include Future Chef, where the North’s up-and-coming culinary stars get the chance to shine in a fast-paced 60 minute cooking contest to prepare an original main course dish and two covers. A range of other skills from across the local hospitality sector will also be showcased with sugarcraft, mixology, barista and floristry all getting their chance to shine at the NECTA North East Hospitality Salon, which the public can attend on both days.
NECTA chairman, Douglas Jordan, 71, retired from running the award-winning Jordans restaurant in Ryton, Gateshead a decade ago. He said he’s thrilled the hospitality salon is now back on the North East’s competitive culinary calendar after its enforced absence.
He said: “I’ve been at the colleges helping with exams and all the students and lecturers have missed the competition so much, as have the North East’s chefs and others working in the region’s hospitality sector. It’s marvellous to be running the event again.
"I really think it’s going to rekindle the spirit of the North East’s hospitality trade after what has been a tough couple of years. A lot of chefs and young people feel exactly the same.
"It would have been our 15 th anniversary of running the competition in 2020. Sadly we weren’t able to celebrate that milestone then, but given the break we have had this will be our 15 th show this May, so we will be marking the occasion in some way.”
It is the NECTA North East Chef of the Year that traditionally grabs the public’s attention. Past winners have included David Kennedy, who has worked at many of the region’s top restaurants, including with Terry Laybourne at the North East’s first ever Michelin star eatery, 21 Queen Street in Newcastle.
David’s protege, Andrew Wilkinson, is also a past winner from his days at Artisan at The Biscuit Factory in Shieldfield, Newcastle, and Parichat Somsri-Kirby won the title in her Cafe 21 Fenwick days. Douglas said: “Ronnie Robson has held the trophy since 2019 – the longest reigning winner. I’m looking forward to seeing who from the phenomenal pool of talent we have here in the North East is going to go home with it this year.”
The judges this May will include Michelin starred chefs Cal Byerley of Restaurant Pine at Vallum Farm in the Tyne Valley, and Jeff Bland, who began his career at what was the Gosforth Park Hotel in Newcastle. He went on to earn plaudits as executive chef at the Balmoral hotel in Edinburgh before his retirement.
Eight colleges will be taking part: Newcastle, Gateshead, Durham, Sunderland, Darlington, South Tyneside, Middlesbrough and Leeds City.
