Roux Scholarship announces 2023 regional finalists

This year, 12 of the 18 finalists are new to the competition and they hail from hotels, pubs, private member’s clubs and contract catering establishments across the UK.

“It’s great to see that our regional finalists come from all over the UK and a variety of different establishments,” says Alain Roux.

The 18 chefs, and two reserves, were selected from their written recipes that used striploin of dry-aged beef, a beef offal ingredient and Belgian chicory. They were submitted anonymously to the judges, who took part in the Recipe Judging day at Roux at The Waterside Inn earlier this week on 22 February 2023.

The 18 finalists will compete in two regional finals which will be held simultaneously on Thursday 9 March 2023 at University College Birmingham and University of West London, Ealing.

“Regarding the recipes, I’m pleased to see so many chefs choose to cook the ox heart as part of their recipes, I really like that ingredient,” adds Alain.

“In general, there was a really high standard and I can’t wait to taste everything.”

Following a push for more diversity at the launch of this year’s competition, the Roux Family say they delighted to see an increase in applications from female chefs this year with four qualifying for the regional finals.

“It’s great to see some great female competitors in the list, some are ones that I’ve seen come through Future Chef competitions and so to see them now, getting into a competition at this stature, is fantastic,” says Simon Hulstone, a judge on the competition.

“But also, it’s great to see some previous finalists that have come back from over the years to have another go and to see some new names and new establishments getting involved.”