The 26-year-old chef beat off competition from finalists Dean Banks, a private chef from Scotland, and Oli Martin, head chef of Three Rosette County House Hotel, to claim the title last night (20 December).
Following seven weeks of challenges, Henry was part of the final three who had to cook a three-course meal for the main judges - Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and Greg Wallace – as well as a number of guests.
His winning meal comprised a starter of hand-dived scallop with marinated cherry tomatoes, roast tomato dashi, strawberries and coriander oil seasoned with sansho pepper; and a main course of loin and belly of suckling pig with a kimchi glaze and braised fermented hispi cabbage hearts, Nashi pear puree and sliced pears.
For dessert, he made an aerated mint white chocolate, lemongrass and coconut ice cream, passion fruit ripple and caramelised white chocolate crumb.
Tweeting about the final, Wareing described it as the “toughest yet” to have judged. “I’m going to put this out there now before you settle into the couch for the final show,” he wrote on Twitter. “This year has been on another level and the final was the toughest I’ve ever judged, I don’t want to give it away but we got home very very late.”
Henry now looks set to enter the Roux Scholarship 2019, the coveted cooking title that his current boss Sat Bains won back in 1999, responding to a tweet from the Roux Scholarship Twitter account with “going to give it a go”.