Young British Foodie Awards: meet the Nigellas and Jamies of tomorrow

From butchers to bakers to mead-makers, Britain’s next culinary generation were celebrated at The 2015 YBF (Young British Foodie) Awards at Tate Britain. With judges including the acclaimed chef Nuno Mendes and cocktail legend Tony Conigliaro, winning a gong was no easy task for the finalists, who had been put through their paces at a gruelling round of judging last month.

So who are the Nigellas and Jamies of tomorrow? Here are the winners.

The veg chef: Phil Walther, 22

You might soon see a lot of restaurants imitate Walther’s cult creation: golden beetroot, cooked gently in ash. The young chef, whose experience includes working at Mugaritz in Spain and Ryugin in Tokyo, serves it with a peach vinaigrette, slices of fresh peaches, wood sorrel and wild nasturtium salt. Awarding him the YBFs 2015 Veg category gong, chefs Simon Rogan and Claude Bosi said they were blown away by the young flavour visionary, who is usually to be found tucked away in his restaurant, Croft Kitchen, on Holloway Road.

The blogger: Laura Goodman, 30

Could Goodman be the next big food blogger? Of her blog Sheisbutters.com, Goodman says: “In 2014 – light years after everyone ceased caring about blogs – I started a blog. I wanted a fantasy space where I could write with abandon about food with loads of gluten and cream cheese in it.” She amused judges of The YBFs' Fresh Voices in Food Writing category with her Mexicana entry. “Laura has a fresh voice, energy and edge - and makes me want a slab of tres leches,” says judge and restaurant critic Marina O’Loughlin.

The street-fooders: Hannah Lovett, 28, and Marcelo Sandoval, 28

Manchester-based Yakumama, aka Lovett and Chilean-born Sandoval, triumphed over their fellow Street Food finalists, thanks to their pillowy Cuban beef empanadas stuffed with rare breed beef picadillo, olive and sultanas. Like Bao,the Taiwanese bun purveyor who won in 2013, their imminent move to bricks and mortar when they open their first restaurant should cement their cult following.

The baker: Lucie Bennett, 30

Fleur de Sel's Lucie Bennett’s must-try bake is carrot and caramel cake, legendary for its layer of salted caramel through the centre and fluffy vanilla cream cheese cheese frosting and candied orange. Baking judge Lily Vanilli said Bennett’s baking was the next big thing, because “she combines classic training with home-grown produce and a very unique approach.”

The chef: Adam Rawson, 25

Like last year’s chef winner, Tomos Parry, who subsequently opened the hottest restaurant in the capital, Kitty Fisher’s, 2015’s chef champion Rawson pushes the boundaries. The Pachamama head chef’s showstopper is scallop tiradito, Peruvian rum, foraged sea vegetables, fermented cucumber, as well as seabass ceviche with a divine tiger’s milk, which wowed judges Nuno Mendes, James Knappett and James Lowe. Rawson says:  “I’ve been lucky working under some incredible chefs, gaining experience in street-food [he used to work for Lucky Chip burgers] and winning burger tournaments like the Slider-Decider.” Watch this space.

The meat man: Will Yates, 39

Chef Neil Rankin and Turner & George, the founders of the UK's Meatopia festival, awarded Yates of Billy Franks the meat gong for his “obsessive, madcap dedication to drying, curing, fermenting anything meaty he can get his hands on". Alongside Yates' jerky, latest experiments include n'duja, cured beef rump cap and Texan chilli made with ox cheeks. The cured rump was the stand-out for the judges. Yates says next “I want to win a place at the World Chilli cook off in the USA in October.”

The booze-hound: Tom Gosnell, 28

Gosnell, who started his Peckham meadery in 2012, is single-handedly making mead cool. “We’ve stuck to the roots of mead, using just honey and water to create it. There are no additives – apples, grapes or hops – so it’s a really pure form,” explains the winner of the Alcohol category, whose meadery is the first in London and one of the first in the world to make this style of mead.  Oskar Kinberg of Oskar's bar uses his historic drink for cocktails while fêted che, Ollie Dabbous claiming "it goes down like lemonade".

The coffee couple: Holly Bowman, 25, and Alex Kragiopoulos, 25

Running the Leeds-based coffee place, North Star, Bowman and Kragiopoulos have queues around the block for their espressos, single origin and filter coffee. The first coffee roasters in Leeds, Krag started the business in September 2013. The rest is history. Coffee pilgrims come from far and wide to try this year’s YBF Coffee winners’ speciality grade Arabica coffees “which we roast on Roxanne – our 5KG Toper”.

The mover and shaker: Matt Chatfield, 30

Talk to a food-lover about Cornish produce and they will normally mention Matt Chatfield from The Cornwall Project. Winning the wildcard category, Honorary, Chatfield is the supplier responsible for linking the likes of top butcher Ian Warren in Launceston and the obsessive “leaf” genius Sean O’Neill, aka the Modern Salad Grower, to luxury establishments such as Claridges and The Ledbury and pioneering restaurants like Tom Adams’ Pitt Cue and James Lowe’s Lyles.

Chloe Scott-Moncrieff is co-founder of The YBF. For more of the most incredible new food and drink faces (and their comestibles) of 2015, see the shortlist on the Young British Foodies website