Keaton started his culinary career pretty late, having initially studied business, economics, and accounting in college before pursuing a degree apprenticeship in business management.

After a year, he realised it wasn’t the right path for him so aged 19, he shifted to an apprenticeship in the kitchen at the Lowry Hotel in Manchester and joined The Angel at Hetton a year later. He spent two and a half years there before he took a break to work at The French in Manchester, and Moor Hall. He has been back at The Angel at Hetton for about six months now as a chef de partie, where he is currently moving around the sections as needed.

Making the move to cooking

Keaton was academic in school and was always pushed towards the route of finance, so he actually wanted to be a chartered accountant when he was growing up! He is very glad he made the swap as he has learnt to appreciate more finer things and experiences in life.

Holiday celebrations

When he found out he had made the final, he was on holiday, so he was sent a picture confirming his place. He was very happy about it as he’d been a bit nervous about potentially not making it with it being his last opportunity. It’s safe to say, he celebrated with a mojito by the pool.

Growing as a chef

Keaton competed in this event a few years ago but looking back he felt he was way too young and inexperienced. He has grown a lot since then and with his own supper clubs he feels he has started to develop his own style and wanted to put that to the test.

If Keaton had to choose one name who has helped him the most in his career it would be his current boss, Michael Wignall, as he has learnt so much working under him. From when he was a commis, Michael would instil a disciplined way of working and take him through the technical side of cooking. Keaton was encouraged to come up with new dishes each week and run them by Michael for feedback. This massively helped Keaton and allowed him to build confidence as a young chef.

Another influence in his career is Mark Birchall from Keaton’s time at Moor Hall. Working for him opened his eyes to a different style of food with a focus on ultra local British produce using the gardens and local area. This was something he found truly inspiring and will take forward throughout his career.

His YNCOTY menu

For his Young National Chef of the Year starter, the agnolotti brief mentioned using one foraged or local ingredient and this really excited him. Since working at Moor Hall, he has started growing a lot of herbs and vegetables in his garden for using at home and for his supper clubs. He’ll be making a pesto using a mixture of herbs from his garden including verbena, chervil, lemon balm and parsley. This will be paired with a goat’s milk ricotta and lemon thyme velouté.

For the halibut main course, the use of just two elements and a butter-based sauce played a huge part in his inspiration. He wanted to do some classical cooking which packs a lot of flavour, so will be cooking the fish in a fumet under a cartouche gently on the stove and using that liquor for the sauce. The dish will include a mushroom puree and artichoke barigoule as this shows some good classical cooking with a modern twist.

When considering what to create for the choux pastry dessert, Keaton thought about doing an eclair or Paris Brest, but he feels in an event like this you have to be true to yourself and do what you enjoy. A filled choux bun is something he would order when he sees it on a menu and looking at the time of year, blackberries immediately came to mind. With the abundance of sweet cicely growing right near his house, it made sense to him. The addition of mead to bring them both together makes him feel like it’s a very cohesive menu to create an ‘elegant lunch’ feel.

Getting his name out there

Winning Young National Chef of the Year would be amazing for his career. He already runs his own supper clubs in Manchester and it’s no secret that he wants this to turn into a restaurant of its own one day. He believes that winning would propel this vision forward as his name gets out there more. The opportunity for networking post-win is probably the thing he would value most; he never knows who he might meet and the potential opportunities they could present.

Culinary inspirations

There are so many chefs he admires, but if he had to narrow it down to a few it would include Jan Hartwig from Restaurant JAN. He finds the presentation amazing and appreciates the incorporation of classical cooking with great flavour profiles. He would love to get to Munich and eat there soon.

Anne-Sophie Pic from Restaurant Pic is another culinary hero as he loves the combinations she incorporates into her food, especially her use of different flavours and floral elements.

Julien Royer from Odette is another inspiration as the attention to detail that is so visible in the plates of food is nothing short of first class. Keaton finds the combination of classical elements with deliciousness truly inspiring.

Looking ahead

In ten years’ time, Keaton hopes to have his own restaurant with a Michelin star and a strong team that consistently push each other to be better. Thinking about his least favourite culinary job, whilst he does really enjoy working the pastry section of a kitchen, the need to weigh everything out can become quite monotonous especially when building something that requires several layers, like an opera cake.