Over the last decade I have filled most of the judging roles at the Young Chef and Young Waiter of the Year Competition. I’ve done the waiter judging where you stand around with a clipboard watching people eat; one year I joined the chefs to judge the food in the kitchen (a humbling experience the chef judges had a dozen or so Michelin stars between them and an unsurpassed knowledge of technique); and on several occasions I’ve done the easy bit which is to sit and eat a good lunch.

The format is simple – the chefs and waiters draw lots to decide who works with who and then each pair is responsible for their own table of four guests. The Chef half of the partnership works up the menu and his or her Waiter decides which wine goes with what. We were seated at table seven and our waiter was Phillipe Bonjean from the Ritz hotel (both slick and charming, he came a respectable third, the Young Waiter of the Year was Matthew Mawtus from Gordon Ramsay at Claridges). Our table seven chef was Simon Christey-French from the Square, he won the overall prize and is definitely a name to look out for.

His menu read well, celeriac bavarois, roast chestnuts with a bay leaf foam and Parmesan straw; followed by pan fried mackerel fillet, mackerel rillettes with pickled cucumber, sour dough and frisée; then slow roast rib of Yorkshire beef with cep purée, wild mushrooms and a Bordelaise sauce, red wine jellies; finally a vanilla rice pudding with rum soaked prunes, orange and orange madeleines. The amuse was very rich, the creamy celeriac balanced by the foam, candied chestnuts providing some texture. The fish dish was sound. The fried mackerel a little under-seasoned but the rillettes a total delight. The beef was mega. A thick tranche of meat, perfectly cooked (our table had requests for medium, medium rare and blue and they were all fine). The presentation was fascinating and I cannot recall evey having seen food plated this way before - the meat was topped with a splash of sauce that led away across the plate. The garnishes were added as if riding the wave of sauce – a disc of bone marrow, a perfect cep, a few crisp potato roundels. It made some of London’s prissier “tall food” specialists look very fussy indeed. The sauce was also novel in that a rich, sticky, traditional Bordelaise sauce had little spheres of jelly running through it, like smart tapioca. These were made from jellied red wine (molecular gastronomy gets everywhere) and gave the sauce a pleasant and unusual mouthfeel. Then Christey-French dished up a stonking vanilla rice pudding with rum soaked prunes. He’s a worthy winner and someone you will doubtless be hearing a lot about in the future.

This year’s competition was unusual due to the amazing dominance of Philip Howard’s brigade at the Square:  Christey-French took first prize; Joshua Pelham also of the Square came second; and Sinnead Finnegan also of the Square came third. That’s one kitchen with an immense amount of young talent.

Charles Campion

The Square, 6-10 Bruton Street, W1 (020 7495 7100)