The 29-year-old chef, who entered the competition for the first time this year, beat five other finalists to the prize at a final at Westminster Kingsway College in London yesterday (30 March).
He wins a three-month stage at a three Michelin-starred restaurant anywhere in the world and becomes part of an elite club, which includes chefs Andrew Fairlie, Sat Bains and Simon Hulstone.
Scaramuzza, who worked with Fairlie at the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland before moving to Hibiscus, had to create turban of sole and salmon à la marinière to present to judges. This year finalists were only given the recipe details 30 minutes before the start of the competition and had three hours to make the Escoffier-inspired dish.
Scaramuzza said: "I enjoyed it. It was tough but I was quite happy, although a little panicky at the start. The pressure of the competition got to me a bit. I’d have loved an extra 10 minutes to improve the presentation. It was a good tough dish, nothing I’d cooked or even seen before, a pure challenge.”
Other finalists in the competition were:
- Scott Dineen, Goldman Sachs, (BaxterStorey), London
- Gavin Edney, Cliveden House, Taplow, Berkshire
- Sabrina Gidda, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, (Restaurant Associates), London
- Daniel Lee, JP Morgan, (Aramark), London
- Richard Pascoe, The Feversham Arms Hotel, Helmsley, North Yorkshire
Winner Scaramuzza also receives £6,000 along with a three month stage at the three Michelin-starred restaurant of his choice.
“I’d like to go to Benu in San Francisco for my stage. It’s a small kitchen and there’s nowhere to hide. It’ll be busy,” he said.