Young Chef 2026

The Rotary Young Chef is a well-respected competition with the national final being sponsored by Filippo Berio.  The students are aged between 13 and 17 and required to produce a two-course healthy meal for two, on a budget, to a set time which is judged by professional chefs. 

It is a demanding task which they face working on their own.  It is noticeable that it gives  the students greater confidence that they can succeed which then helps as they face the challenges of exams and their future, whatever career they choose.

For Gosport, the annual Young Chef competition got off to an extremely good start last November with our club round when nine students from Bay House and Brune produced some amazing dishes. 

We are lucky in Gosport that we have the teachers, such as Richard Bloxsom from Bay House, and Linda Young from Brune Park that have supported the competition for over 12 years. 

After a very close competition Barakat from Brune Park and Freya from Bay House were selected to go onto the Rotary Wessex District competition.  Here they would compete with students from the Channel Isles, the Isle of Wight and both Dorset and Hampshire.  Over 150 students in the Wessex District entered Young Chef.

The Rotary Club of Gosport manages both the Wessex District and the Southeast Regional rounds.  Havant and South Downs College allow us to use their facilities, and we are supported by some great judges.  They are all busy professional chefs who give up some of their free time to judge and advise the entrants.  Harvest Fine Foods sponsor the prizes at the regional competition, which have for many years been presented by the Mayor of Havant. 

Gosport’s entrants to the District Round, Barakat and Freya, did very well but were not selected to go onto South East Region competition.  This covers Wessex, London, Kent Surrey Sussex and Gibraltar.  Our district entrants to this were Rubie from Jersey and Freddie from Southampton.

At regional level, over 500 students would have entered the competition.  Rubie’s menu of pan fried sea bream and a dessert of dark chocolate fondant was fantastic, and she was selected to go forward to the National Final, which was held in Romford, Essex.  Here she did well but was not the winner.  That said, she is only 14 and has shown great promise.

Overall, over 3,000 young people from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England entered the Rotary Young Chef this year.   

They never seem to fail. There are often little disasters, but they recover and always produce fantastic meals.  In that respect they are all winners and we in the Rotary Club of Gosport are proud to offer them the opportunity to show their value and talent.  If only our media would make more of the many young people who enter such competitions, and who work to take an active part in their community, and less of those that for many reasons go off the rails.