Chef Paul Moran wins Hawksworth Young Chef Scholarship 2013

Yesterday Paul Moran (pictured) won the inaugural Hawksworth Young Chef Scholarship competition, held at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in Vancouver, BC. The 26-year-old from Kelowna, BC stood the heat of the kitchen to beat nine other finalists to win a $10,000 cash prize presented by Chefs’ Table Society of BC and a stage at an international restaurant of his choosing.

During yesterday’s final, Paul cooked alongside nine other contestants – each finalist created a recipe using specified ingredients and created their dish for the panel of Canada’s most revered chef judges. Paul made it to the final three with 23-year-old Brad Masciotra from London, Ontario and 27-year-old Carmen Ingham from North Vancouver, BC who was named Le Creuset’s Rising Star. The trio was challenged to a black box cook-off using the mystery ingredients of Freybe Schinkenspeck, steelhead trout, lobster, meyer lemon, heart of palm and almonds to create a winning dish.

Paul’s main and dessert dish wowed the panel of judges with his creativity and he won points for his technical ability, judged by Hawksworth Restaurant’s Chef de Cuisine Kristian Eligh and President of the Chefs’ Table Society of BC Chef Scott Jaeger in the kitchen. Paul also won over the judges during a taste test that impressed the panel of Chef David Hawksworth, Chef Vikram Vij, Chef Normand Laprise, Chef Mark McEwan, Chef Anthony Walsh and respected food writer Jacob Richler.

“All the judges have been blown away by the dedication, passion and creativity of the young chefs,” says Chef David Hawksworth. “We created this competition to find the creme of Canada’s culinary talent and we’ve found it in Paul Moran. I’d like to thank the judges for giving their time and providing these emerging chefs with the inspiration to take their culinary career to the next level.

“We couldn’t have held this competition without the help of our sponsors and we’d like to thank founding sponsors Chefs’ Table Society of BC for the $10,000 prize, the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts for providing an excellent venue and a special thanks to Freybe, Canadian Linen, Hawksworth Restaurant and Le Creuset for their generous support. We look forward to next year’s competition and unearthing more young homegrown talent in 2014.”