Crieff based chef in the semi-final of a prestigious competition
The Junior Sous at the Glenturret Lalique restaurant is competing to win the Roux Scholarship
Jonnie Ferguson, a junior sous at the Michelin-starred Glenturret Lalique restaurant in Crieff, has won through to the semi-finals of a prestigious culinary competition.
The chef will compete in the Birmingham regional final of the Roux Scholarship on 24th March 2022.
The competition was established in 1983 and is recognised as one of the most acclaimed chef's competition in the UK.
The 25-year-old will have his dish's judged by talented chefs such as Michel Roux Jnr, Brian Turner CBE and James Martin.
The young chef last year reached the final six while working at a restaurant in England and is hoping to go all the way this year.
The winner will be in for a terrific set of prizes which include three months working in any three Michelin-starred restaurant in the world, a cash prize and others such as trips to a coffee factory in Italy and champagne in France.
The talented chef is trying not to think about a potential winning prize, he said: "Ideally I have to think about that after winning it but I'd love to go to Asia. I think it's one of those where you're given that kind of opportunity of being able to pick wherever you want to go in the world, to try and maximise it and go so somewhere that would probably be quite difficult for me to organise on my own.
"Somewhere a bit further afield and also see things that I wouldn't normally see. where I work."
On what it would mean to win, he said: "It would be massive for me. Personally it's a huge goal of mine to win the competition. It's massive for any young chef. The opportunities it presents are huge and massively invaluable."
The chef will be looking to wow the judges with a recipe from the pre-set ingredients of dover sole, brown shrimps and pasta plus a garnish and sauce of the chefs choice.
Alongside cooking the fish dish, the semi-finalists must also cook up a desert given to them on the day in a mystery box. Jonnie is hoping his previous experience will help him through. He said: "It's nice going in there knowing you're cooking the fish dish but also I quite like the challenge of the pastry side of it.
"Having to think on your feet a little bit. It's quite exciting. I was kind of more nervous about it last time because I didn't know what to expect. Whereas, this time I know that I managed it last time so there's no reason you can't do it again."
He added: "I think it feels like a bit more pressure on myself because I really want to be involved in the final again and now that I've been there once I'm desperate to be there. It was an amazing experience in itself even though I didn't win it and, yeah, obviously it would be amazing to win it. I like to think that I feel a bit more prepared and I can take things from last year."