Carolan was crowned the winner after serving a three-course meal at the finals, held yesterday (7 October) University of West London. Taking the runner-up spot was Oliver Redgewell-Welch from Entier, with Mitchell Collins from L’Enclume securing third place.
Her winning menu included a starter of monkfish, mussels, nasturtium and preserved tomato, a main course of chicken, foraged mushrooms, kales and celeriac, and a dessert of preserved strawberry, apple marigold, sheep’s yogurt and honey.
This year’s final was judged by a panel of chefs including chair of judges Russell Bateman,Daniel Galmiche, Ben Murphy, Adam Smith, Paul Askew, Roberta Hall-McCarron, Graham Hornigold, Denis Drame, Orry Shand, Sarah Frankland, Paul Mannering and Hayden Groves.
“Being chair of judges for Young National Chef of the Year has been one of the highlights of my career so far,” says Bateman.
“Mentoring the future talent in hospitality is so important to me and over the last two years I’ve been blown away by the ideas and level of cooking I’ve seen from young chefs. Congratulations to Keira who absolutely smashed it. She was consistent across all three courses delivering three delicious plates of food whilst being technically brilliant.”
Carolan began working in kitchens at 15 and later undertook an apprenticeship at the Simon Rogan Academy working at Rogan & Co. She later worked at Henrock, located within Linthwaite House Hotel and L’Enclume and has since returned to Henrock, where the team is striving for a Michelin star under head chef Mark McCabe.