Starting his culinary path under Martin Burge at Farncombe Estate and developing his skills through stages at celebrated restaurants including Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons and The Angel at Hetton, rising star Ben is driven by a desire to constantly step outside his comfort zone.
Making his Competition Debut
This will be Ben’s very first competition, having been encouraged to enter by his mentor Paul Leonard. Inspired by Paul, Ben speaks highly of his current role at The Forest Side Hotel, saying how much he loves the discipline in the kitchen, the proper cooking and Paul’s food. Since starting the role, he’s grown as a chef, expanding his skills and knowledge. The YNCOTY competition has also helped him develop, teaching him about adapting to time pressures and not over complicating processes.
Signature Style and Final Menu
While Ben feels it will take more time and experience to fully define his signature style, he loves sharp, simple plating celebrating hyper seasonal produce. He’s passionate about the ingredients grown at The Forest Side Hotel’s vast kitchen garden and enjoys making use of their greenhouse cress, flowers and foraged ingredients in dishes.
Ben is also a champion of using the whole animal in his cooking, whether that’s bones and trim in his consommé or the haunch of venison he’ll be serving up as his main course in the final. His love of foraging and not overcomplicating flavours will be well showcased in his dessert, which will feature foraged damson.
Looking to the Future
Ben says the most valuable piece of advice he’s received as a chef is to step outside of your comfort zone, it’s something he’s really taken to heart and feels has got him to where he is now. He doesn’t plan to stop following this advice anytime soon either, he hopes to continue pushing himself to learn and to undertake more stages in future.
When asked what advice he has for other young chefs competing, he stressed the importance of practising and added a reminder to his peers that “if you’ve got a slight feeling that you’ve forgotten something, you definitely have!”