20-year-old wins Young Scottish Seafood Chef of the Year

30 Jun 2010

Nico Simeone, who works at 'Number One' in Edinburgh's Balmoral Hotel, has won the prestigious Young Scottish Seafood Chef of the Year award, beating five other finalists. During a 90-minute 'kitchen showdown' at the Edinburgh School of Food and Wine, Simeone and the other finalists submitted recipes for starters and main dishes, with artificially-reared species (such as mussels or salmon) for one dish and wild-caught species (such as langoustine or haddock) for the other.

The finalists were judged on their imagination, cooking, preparation and presentation skills and their use of Scottish produce, and Simeone's "ceviche of mackerel, avocado puree and langoustine beignet" particularly impressed the judges. Ian MacDonald, one of the judges, said that "the quality of the entries was very high and it is great to see such enthusiasm for seafood cookery." He also added that Simeone was a "worthy winner".

more...