Nathan learned to cook at Westminster Kingsway College, where he completed a three-year course. Following his studies, he worked in America, spending a year at a golf club members' club in Florida. He currently works at Goldman Sachs for BaxterStorey, where he has been for two years and holds the position of senior chef de partie, catering to the hospitality side of the business.

He has achieved notable recognition, including being named the highest achiever in the Graduate Awards and Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Annual Awards of Excellence. He also won first place in the Riso Gallo Young Risotto Chef of the Year competition and is a member of the Craft Guild of Chefs Culinary team.

Learning about food

Since around Year 9 at school, he has wanted to be a chef. He never liked the idea of an office job and believes he would have been driven mad sitting behind a desk all day. He enjoys being active and engaged with his work, feeling connected to the ingredients and processes involved. He takes pleasure in learning about where his food comes from and how everything is made.

In his early career, his mum inspired him as she has always loved to cook herself and always pushed and helped him to get to where he is today and still supports his journey. His mentor, Simon Webb also inspires him as he has always pushed and strived for him to be the best by nudging him to do competitions.

Straight to the final

Nathan was over the moon, to have been invited straight to the final. It’s an opportunity that he feels can’t be put into words. Only a handful get invited and to be a part of this prestigious competition is just amazing. He wanted to be part of it because he believes it’s one of the most prestigious competitions going and is something that would test his skill to the limit. He wants to learn to overcome new challenges, to meet and learn from all the experiences of the judges and other competitors.

His YNCOTY menu

For the starter, Nathan wanted to create a course rich in umami and feature artichoke, which he has always wanted to use more. He decided on a crushed artichoke filling. To introduce a foraged element, he chose Douglas fir, which he had not used before but was eager to try. He learned from a chocolatier during a recent trip to Lyon that infusing hard herbs and flavours for two days could enhance their impact, so he has applied this technique to create the Lincolnshire Poacher foam.

To highlight the exceptional Norwegian halibut, he chose to keep the preparation simple to let the fish stand out. He will brine the fish in a seaweed brine and crust it with Cornish dulse.

For garnishes, he is creating cucumber and salsify, which provides a refreshing and light contrast. Given his proximity to Leigh-on-Sea and his previous experience working in a fishmonger, he decided to include cockles in the dish, incorporating them into his beurre blanc.

To finish his menu, he wanted a light and clean dessert, so he selected apple and blackberry, flavours that are familiar yet complementary. To add a savoury element and round off the dish, he included thyme.

Winning would mean everything

Winning the title of Young National Chef of the Year would mean everything. To get noticed for this type of accolade would help him to move his career to the next level and to achieve even more. It would also give him more confidence in himself and the food he produces.

His future career

If he could work for any chef in London, it would be Adam Byatt as Nathan loves how he thinks about food. His passion to the craft and his passion to pass on his knowledge and keep things simple shows how good a chef he is. Globally he would love to work with Josh Niland in Australia as his passion for nose to tail fish butchery has always intrigued Nathan and he would love to learn as much as he could from him and bring it back to the UK.

Looking ahead he is unsure of where he hopes to be in ten years as he keeps changing his mind, but he would like to be at least a sous chef, maybe a head chef running his own place, whilst still taking part in competitions on a bigger scale.

Least favourite task

His least favourite kitchen task is debearding and cleaning mussel shells as he remembers doing loads when he first started out, and just found the task long and never-ending. However, he would never say no to a job as he believes you can always learn something from everything.