Meet the regional finalists 2025

The Roux Family are delighted to reveal the names of the 18 chefs who will take part in the regional finals for The Roux Scholarship 2025. This year, 14 of the 18 finalists are new to the competition and they hail from establishments as far afield as Scotland and Devon.

The 18 chefs, and two reserves, were selected from their written recipes that had to use two gurnard fish, mussels, dulse seaweed and parsnips. They were submitted anonymously to the judges, who took part in the Recipe Judging day at The Waterside Inn on 19th February 2025. The 18 finalists will compete in two regional finals which will be held simultaneously on Thursday 6th March 2025 at University College Birmingham and University of West London, Ealing.

QUOTES FROM THE JUDGES

Chairman Michel Roux Jr: “It is great to see so many different establishments represented across the country and to see chefs who have been supported to enter the competition by past winners, our Roux Scholars, and past finalists. There were some very inspiring recipes using affordable ingredients and lots of skilful, innovative techniques as well.”

Chairman Alain Roux: “It has been good to see how the different chefs used the key ingredients to come up with a wide range of dishes, with interesting flavours, drawing on influences from around the world. I can’t wait to see them cooking the dishes in the regional finalists and indeed that is the skill we look for in the recipe application – chefs must write a recipe that we really want to taste.”

Emily Roux: “The finalists came up with a very eclectic mix of recipes; All sorts of different ingredients were used, spices, lots of Japanese flavours as well, which I thought was interesting. Gurnard is a fish that I love, we currently have it on the menu, so I was happy to see it in all its glory in different forms.”

Adam Smith MCA: “It’s great to see the process of recipe judging from the other side now I’m a judge. It’s been great to see the diversity of different cuisines and see those influences on what people are cooking and the different interpretations of the four different ingredients that had to be included.”

 Simon Hulstone: “I think it’s really a real good mix from up and down the country, to be fair. There is a really good range of establishments: there are a couple of contract caterers in there, some really big- name restaurants, so it is really good to see that they’re supporting The Roux Scholarship. For me, it’s nice to see that there are new names coming through and new people are having a crack at entering.”

Main picture: Rachel Humphrey and Emily Roux judging the recipes at The Waterside Inn (photo: Francesca Agosta). 

Katherine Altham is chef de partie at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, where she works under our previous Honorary President of Judges, Hélène Darroze. She began her chef career after gaining a first-class degree in Egyptology at Oxford University, but had always enjoyed baking and cooking at home. When she got a job in a kitchen she realised a culinary career was her calling. Her previous roles include senior chef de partie at Ben Wilkinson at the Pass and pastry commis chef at Northcote Manor, Lancashire.

Liam Anderson is currently head chef at Midsummer House in Cambridge. He has previously worked at Chapter One, in the USA as a tournant at The French Laundry, and Moor Hall.

Swann Auffray was born and brought up in France before coming to the UK in 2014. He has previously worked The Great House Lavenham in Suffolk, at the Christopher Hotel in Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, and has been at The Little Chartroom in Edinburgh since February 2023 first as sous chef and now head chef.

Craig Johnston is head chef at the Angler restaurant in London, having previously been head chef at the now-closed Marcus Belgravia at The Berkeley. He has held various roles at acclaimed restaurants including Pollen Street Social and The Royal Oak. If he looks familiar, you may remember him as the winner of Masterchef: The Professionals in 2017.

Lachlan hails from Australia and gained extensive experience in Queensland and Melbourne before packing his knives and whites for jobs around the world, including at restaurants such as Per Se in New York, St John in London and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay. After returning home during the Covid-19 pandemic, he returned to London in February 2023 and is currently chef de partie at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay.

Liam Pride is one of four regional finalists who have previously competed in The Roux Scholarship and took part in 2022. He is currently junior sous chef at Fancetts in Cambridge, having previously worked at Tuddenham Mill in Suffolk and at Trinity in Cambridge.

Darryl took part in the regional finals in 2024, and built on his experience gained through an internship at Osteria Francescana under Italy’s Master Chef, Massimo Bottura. He has worked at The Dysart Petersham under Roux Scholar Kenneth Culhane since November 2023, and previously worked at Hide.  

Monty is currently senior sous chef at Whatley Manor in Wiltshire and has previously worked as head chef at the Montagu Arms in Beaulieu, and Peel’s Restaurant at Hampton Manor in Solihull where he grew up.

Marnix comes from Belgium and has held positions in some of Antwerp’s best restaurants. He is currently working at Hide in Mayfair as senior chef de partie, having worked there twice before. The restaurant has a good track record of supporting chefs in The Roux Scholarship, with both Luke Selby and Martin Carabott working there when they won.

Nikoletta works at Restaurant Associates in London as a fine dining sous chef. She started her chef career at Westminster Kingsway College in London, where the Roux Scholarship previously held its national final. She comes from Thessaloniki in Greece and tries to weave some of her Greek heritage into her menus at work.  

This is the second time Rebecca has qualified for the regional finals, having competed in London in 2024. She works as sous chef at a Vacherin site at Ashurst, a law firm in Liverpool Street. She has previously worked at the Princess of Shoreditch and Pomonas.

Erin is now working as head chef at Bar Valette having returned from working in Australia as head chef running the kitchen of Josh Niland’s restaurant Saint Peter in Sydney. She has previously worked at The Clove Club and Moor Hall.

Fraser Cameron is head chef at The Globe Inn in Dumfries where he has been working for more than five years, having previously worked at some of Scotland’s best restaurants including The Gleneagles Hotel. Fraser’s career got off to great start as he won the Andrew Fairlie Scholarship at the age of 17. Since then he has competed in numerous competitions and gained several accolades.

This is the second time Charlie has competed in the regional finals of The Roux Scholarship. He works at Crocadon Farm under Roux Scholar Dan Cox where he has also been learning about growing and preserving. He has previously worked at Petrus in London as well as No. 6 in Padstow. During the Covid-19 pandemic, he cooked more than 10,000 meals for the NHS and won the Staff Canteen Food Hero Award.

Alan Hughes works as a chef de partie at The Strathearn fine dining restaurant at Gleneagles. Having previously worked at Alessio’s Cafe and Bistro in Kirkintilloch, Glasgow he took the leap into fine dining. He was inspired from an early age to cook after watching TV shows and from watching his grandmothers cook for his family. 

The Roux Scholarship welcomes applications from chefs working in all kinds of establishments and so it has been great to see Harrison Miller qualify for the regional finals. He is sous chef at Blundells School in Tiverton, Devon, where he manages to team of 15 people and is responsible for order control. He is no stranger to competitions having been a finalist in young professional Southwest Chef of the Year in 2023 and a semi-finalist in 2024 in the professional category.

Oliver is senior sous chef at Coworth Park, where he works under Roux Scholar Adam Smith. He first worked there from 2016 to 2018, before working in roles in France and The Netherlands.

Tommy is chef-owner of Puro in Bristol, having previously worked at The Ethicurean and Frog by Adam Handling, among other restaurants. In 2023, Tommy took part in Masterchef: The Professionals and was in the final three chefs.

George is an Australian chef who works at the Rochelle Canteen. He will compete if any of the regional finalists have reason to drop out.

Kian works at The Painswick Hotel in Gloucestershire, and has held positions as a number of excellent restaurants in the Westcountry, including Paul Ainsworth at No. 6.

Judging in London:
Alain Roux, Brian Turner CBE, Emily Roux, André Garrett (2002 scholar), Adam Smith MCA (2012 scholar), Angela Hartnett OBE.

Judging in Birmingham:
Michel Roux Jr, Sat Bains (1999 scholar), Simon Hulstone (2003 scholar), Rachel Humphrey.

• The paper applications are judged blind, so judges do not know the applicants’ identity, place of work, or any other details other than the recipe.
• Four finalists have competed in the finals before: Charlie D’Lima (2024), Rebecca Tough (2024), Darryl Shotlander (2024) and Liam Pride (2022).
• There are four female chefs competing in the regional finals, three of whom are new to the competition. They are: Katherine Altham, Nikoletta Theofylaktidou, Rebecca Tough and Erin Yates. For more information on the White Paper titled ‘Women Chefs and The Roux Scholarship’ published in 2022, see https://www.rouxscholarship.co.uk/diversity-and-the-roux-scholarship/
• The finalists come from a wide range of establishments, such as a private school in Devon, a Scottish inn once frequented by poet Robert Burns, contract catering restaurants and three-star Michelin restaurants.
• The rules dictate that chefs must be resident in the UK, but their backgrounds are hugely diverse with finalists coming from Great Britain and countries such as Australia, France, Canada and Greece.
• As well as looking at how enticing the dish was and the best use of ingredients, the judges were looking at costings of the ingredients. They also looked at whether quantities listed and costings were accurate. In some cases, errors in costing lost the candidate points.