A CHEF working at a Michelin restaurant who participated in a competition to win a cooking scholarship is 'disappointed' after not winning.
26-year-old Alex Rothnie has been working at L'Enclume in Cartmel for five years and has risen up the ladder quickly with five promotions in that time to become senior sous chef.
He competed in the Roux Scholarship's highly-challenging final cook-off held at Westminster Kingsway College, London, on April 3.
For this year's final, Alex, alongside five other chefs, were asked to prepare their own dish using a variety of ingredients along the theme of Pâté Chaud de Lotte (hot monkfish pie) - a recipe originally created by the Troisgros family.
At the start of the competition, the chefs were shown a table displaying dozens of ingredients that would allow them to interpret the brief as they chose. The only ingredients they were obliged to use were the monkfish and whole black truffle.
April Lily Partridge was the winner of The Roux Scholarship 2023. The 29-year-old sous chef from The Ledbury beat five finalists.
Alex said the experience was 'really cool' and a 'nice' opportunity to meet 'very good chefs' however it was 'a bit disappointing.'
He said: "There was no shame in losing to April. When I finished cooking I didn't think I have done exceptionally well. I thought I had a chance but I wasn't certain that I really nailed it.
"The judges said really nice things about my performance. They were quite happy with my use of ingredients.
"If I do it again next year I have a much better idea of what I need to do in the final.
"It was really disappointing that I didn't win so I want to do it again."
The Roux Scholarship has been running for more than 30 years and is judged by Michel Roux Jnr, Brian Turner CBE and James Martin among many other Michelin-starred chefs.
Michel Roux Jr said: "It was an exceptional final. I thought we were in for a good final and so it proved. We had six finalists, six styles and six very different dishes. The new format allowed the chefs to truly show off their skills and character on a plate. Given a wider choice of ingredients they all rose to the challenge and our guest judges said they’ll be taking some of the ideas back home with them to France."
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