Aramark Northern Europe Chef of the Year UK 2019 Winner

Following a day of outstanding performances by eight of the UK’s most talented chefs, Nick Thwaites was named the winner of Aramark’s Chef of the Year 2019 competition, and will advance to the next stage of the European finals, which takes place in London in April.

The intense competition saw eight chefs compete live, to produce an innovative menu of dishes using only plant based ingredients. They included Matt Doe, Wiolette Kuszyk, Bryce Lundie, Julien Atrous, Lou Chubb, Robbie McGuinness, Thomas Williams and the overall winner Nick Thwaites.

The key theme for this year’s national competition was “From Farm to Fork”. Finalists were required to prepare, cook and present two portions of a main course dish using plant based ingredients as the key ingredient. They also required to cook and present two portions of dessert with lemon as the key ingredient within 90 minutes.

Nick Thwaites was awarded the title of ‘Aramark Chef of the Year’ after he impressed and delighted the distinguished panel of judges with his crave-worthy dishes of Moroccan spiced chick pea pastille, with cauliflower, coriander and radish and a desert of dark chocolate orange tart with Italian meringue and charred blood orange.

Nick is the Group Executive Chef in the University of Westminster. On his decision to enter the competition he said “I wanted to challenge myself and put my skills to the test against my colleagues in Aramark.  I also thought the brief was very exciting and just by entering I knew I could learn a lot and hopefully develop some new skills along the way.”