Welcome to the 2016 Hall of Fame

There is no competition without competitors and what a line up this year’s event had. Eight very talented chefs, two of whom had been in the final before, Adam Handling and Larry Jayasekara. Technically you could add a third, Andrew Ditchfield, who assisted another finalist on previous years. This talented pastry chef wanted to prove that his knowledge went far beyond all things sweet and entered under his own name this year. Add a further five new chefs and the competition was on.

If the chefs competing were an impressive list, the senior judges ramped it up further. Headed by chair Claire Smyth, she was joined by an array of some of this country’s cooking elite – Phil Howard, Claude Bosi, Monica Galetti, Daniel Clifford, Nigel Haworth, Stephen Terry, James ‘Jocky’ Petrie, Jocelyn Herland, Graham Hornigold and Hideko Kawa, to name only half of the talented decision makers that would decide the 2015–16 winner.

Four covers and three courses to produce; two hours on the clock. The time was now or never. Sounds easy right? Factor in the crowd, the foreign environment, cameras and the pressure of the clock, trust me when I say far from it, you are starting from scratch.

There is a simple formula in this competition: cook more flavourful and technical dishes than your peers in the allotted time. However, there are some good strategies to employ. Get your starter out in a timely fashion and your food out hot, that’s obvious right? Harder than you may think without a hot plate to keep it all warm and juggling the cooking of the garnish and the protein. Each judge has a different view on presentation, however this carries less influence on the final marks than the overall taste, so the focus should always be on this. Work clean and smart, silly marks are lost for bad practices – particularly hygiene.

Two hours completed, each of the judges, divided into sub-groups to focus on starters, mains and desserts, submit their scores.

Then the agonising wait for the presentation. First the YNOTY are lined up in front of the audience, then the sponsors and judges are thanked, there’s some nervous fidgeting, then finally Will Torrent the MC makes the announcements in time favoured reverse order.

When it comes to the winner, there is an 'X Factor' style longer pause. Danny Hoang from Colette’s at The Grove took the title for YNCOTY 2016 and was absolutely blown away.

When the final moments of the big announcement for NCOTY, I was watching Larry on stage and my thoughts turned back to 2013, I knew exactly how he was feeling. The pulse quickens, you feel a shortness of breath and slight dizziness, I’ve either won, or not placed at all.