S. Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition: the grand finale
To celebrate the grand finale of the S. Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition, Great British Chefs jetted off to Milan to see the action first-hand, discovering some incredible young chefs from around the world in the process.
S. Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition: the grand finale
To celebrate the grand finale of the S. Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition, Great British Chefs jetted off to Milan to see the action first-hand, discovering some incredible young chefs from around the world in the process.
Milan’s Linate airport features all the typical trappings you’d expect of an international travel hub. Weary passengers scuttle around departure buses while vast industrial buildings litter the immediate foreground. It’s only when you notice things like the powerfully illuminated Emporio Armani sign above a nearby hanger that you remember that this is the home of Italian fashion. And while the Fashion Week crowds have long since departed come October, a new wave of city-bound visitors pepper the concourse: chefs.
Now in its 11th year, the S. Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition has quietly become one of the world’s leading cookery contests, spotlighting young talent from all four corners of the globe. Spending 48 hours in Milan ahead of the prestigious competition is no hardship for lovers of food; fantastic osso buco, tripe and other Milanese staples are always only a short trip away in the traditional dining rooms of beloved places like Trattoria Trippa and Masuelli. There’s more modern fare on offer too, in acclaimed restaurants such as Spore, Langosteria and Erba Brusca. But in every restaurant, from Dongiò to Al Grissino, ask for a bottle of ‘aqua frizzante’ and a chilled S. Pellegrino will swiftly land on the table: an ever-present fixture of Italy’s restaurant landscape.
It’s hard to get across just how seriously S. Pellegrino – and the chefs involved – take this competition. The grand competition hall is kitted out with eight state-of-the-art kitchens (one assigned to each regional chef) while teams of world-class waiters stand poised to serve the esteemed judging panel, itself made up of seven multi-Michelin-starred chefs. The pressure is on.
It’s been a long road to get here. The 15 finalists have each won a series of regional competitions in order to make it to the grand finale in Milan. The chefs have come from all over the world, from China to Peru, South Africa to Germany, each vying to take their successful qualifying dishes all the way. The competition runs every two years in order to whittle down the many hundreds of chefs competing at each regional heat to this selection of elite finalists when, over two days, each chef cooks their dish just once for the discerning judging panel.
The chef representing the UK is Ben Miller, who works at the two-Michelin-starred Alex Dilling at the Hotel Café Royal in London. He’s taken part in over a dozen cookery competitions before, but this is his biggest yet. Supported and guided by Santiago Lastra, the lauded chef-patron and founder of KOL in London’s Marylebone, Ben’s dish has been in development for the best part of two years.
Titled ‘An Ode to Sam Yee’, Ben’s dish tells the story of a past relationship, one in which Ben was warmly welcomed into a new dining culture that was worlds away from his native Canadian roots. The dish comprises a Creedy Carver duck breast filled with two farces (a type of stuffing) – one of Alsace bacon and the other, lardo with truffle – alongside a flawless siu mai-inspired dumpling, rice cooked in duck fat with confit duck leg running through it, alongside a lily and jasmine blossom tea. It’s remarkably elegant, and knowing it has been two years in the making helps you realise just how important this competition is to every chef taking part.
Ben didn’t grow up around this sort of food; he was pulled into cooking by chance when at school and only experienced fine dining once he was helping to create it. The relationship the dish is based on was with one who showed him there was more to cooking than just the craft of it. ‘I started to understand that you can translate messages and tell stories through food,’ he says. ‘Her telling her story to me taught me so much, practically too: she taught me how to do the fold I used on the dumpling’.
Speaking about Ben’s dish, and his role as a guide and mentor over the past two years, Santiago said: ‘It’s so important to respect what Ben has done and how long he’s been working on this dish. I just tried to elevate things in a way that makes sense for him: things like the cooking of the rice, temperatures and elevating the layers. On the plate the dish was already fantastic, but here good is not good enough, and we needed to make it a great dish. I was giving him feedback and he would go and work on it and it became spectacular.’
The constant dialogue between Santiago and Ben over the past two years was what really took the dish to new heights. Santiago himself confessed that Ben’s dish could easily sit on the menu at any three-Michelin starred-restaurant in the world.
Sadly, Ben didn’t go on to win the competition. Among such a talented cohort of young chefs, his dish was edged out by the finest of margins. Yet there is no shame in not winning when the standard is this high. Getting to the final means Ben is considered among the top 20 best young chefs anywhere in the world, which is already a remarkable achievement in itself.
Having the pleasure to witness the passion, creativity and sheer ingenuity of these young chefs, softly nurtured by the mature talents of their mentors, was a sincere pleasure – as was witnessing the elation of the winner (Ardy Ferguson, of the Michelin-starred Belon in Hong Kong). Chefs broke out their sharpies and signed his jacket after the final awards dinner and presentation.
With a guest list studded with ambitious young cooks, legendary Michelin-starred chef founders, glamorous New Yorkers and jet-setting journalists, the S. Pellegrino Young Chef Academy Competition solidified itself as one of the world's true tests of culinary skill. Here’s to the next decade of the competition, and all the young chefs to come.
SITES
