A Teignmouth student has cooked up a storm to be named as Devon Junior Chef of the Year 2024.

Tom Sinclair, who attends Trinity School in Teignmouth, beat off competition from seven other aspiring chefs in the Devon final at Exeter College on Wednesday (June 26).

The 15-year-old schoolboy’s dish of Surf ‘n’ Turf ravioli with a dill and lime Hollandaise sauce and a roasted garlic king prawn was judged to be the best of the group of Devon finalists who were aged between 12 and 15. Tom will now compete in the South West Junior Chef of the Year final on October 5 against competition winners from Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

As Tom prepares for the final, he will be mentored by Scott Paton, the Michelin-starred executive chef at Acleaf, Boringdon Hall, Plympton.

Competition co-founder, chef Michael Caines MBE DL, said the standard of cooking in the Junior Finals continued to improve year on year. ‘Tom created a delicious meal which was highly rated by the judges in what was a very competitive final,’ Michael said. ‘He demonstrated skilful use of local ingredients in this very impressive dish,’ he added.

The judges of the Devon final were Mark Dodson, Michelin-starred chef proprietor of The Masons Arms at Knowstone, and Matthew Pickett, hospitality curriculum manager at Exeter College.

The winner of the South West Junior Chef final will be offered work experience with Michelin-starred chef David Everitt-Matthias at his restaurant, Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham.

And finalists from all six counties will be automatically entered into the regional finals of the Springboard FutureChef school chef competition in January 2025 to compete for a place in the FutureChef national final.

The South West Chef of the Year competition celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. As well as the junior chef competition, there are categories for home cooks, professional, young professional and student/apprentice chefs.

‘Developing new talent remains one of our key drivers with this competition and its gratifying to see many of our previous young winners go on to have successful careers in the catering industry,’ Michael noted.