26 May 2009: Young Chef Young Waiter, the premier competition for young aspiring talent in the hospitality industry, organised by the British Hospitality Association and The Restaurant Association, has a new headline sponsor - von Essen hotels.
von Essen hotels, the group of 28 luxury country house hotels, is renowned for its standard of comfort and service as well as for the excellence of its cuisine.
"As a member of the BHA, we are delighted to be supporting this very important competition, which encourages young talent throughout the hospitality industry and throughout the country," says Nick Romano, von Essen hotels' chief executive officer.
"von Essen hotels aspires to the highest standards of service and cuisine and our support of the competition reflects this commitment. We are delighted to be financially supporting and hosting the competition in two of our hotels as well as providing one of the main prizes."
Bob Cotton, chief executive, BHA, welcomed von Essen hotels' support in the competition's 25th anniversary year. He said that the competition attracted over 200 entries last year from many well known, as well as lesser known, establishments.
"This year we want to increase this number and encourage many more entries from all sectors of the industry - hotels, restaurants and contract catering and leisure catering."
Bob Walton, chairman of The Restaurant Association, said that the sponsorship of von Essen hotels and the continuing long-standing support of the Savoy Educational Trust, HSBC, Sodexo, S.Pellegrino and Wild Harvest, together with new sponsors for 2009, Laurent Perrier and Matthew Clark, highlighted the importance of the competition in the industry:
"The competition is going from strength to strength, and we aim to make the 25th anniversary year the best yet," he said.
For further details:
Miles Quest
Wordsmith and Company
01753 645636
mq@wordsmith-and-co.demon,co.uk
Susannah Morrison
Brighter PR
020 7603 2168
Susannah.morrison@brightergroup.com
1. Young Chef Young Waiter is open to people who are 25 or under on the date of the competition. Previous winners have included Marcus Wareing (now with his own restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel, London), Roger Narbett (head chef to the England football team), Mark Sergeant (Gordon Ramsay at Claridges) and Brett Graham (The Ledbury). Simon King, general manager at D&D Skylon was an early young waiter winner.
2. Regional finals for chefs will be held at Darlington College (Wednesday 9 September) and Thames Valley University, Ealing (Wednesday 16 September) and for waiters at Seaham Hall, Co Durham (Thursday, 10
September) and Cliveden, Berkshire (Thursday 17 September). National finals are held at Westminster Kingsway College, London on Tuesday 6 October.
3. Application forms are currently being distributed and are available from Pauline Jackson at the British Hospitality Association/The Restaurant Association (pauline.jackson@bha.org.uk) - 020 7404 7744. They must be completed by July 7th.