Catering cook David Matheson was crowned the north-east’s top chef at an awards ceremony in Aberdeen last night.
The Granite City’s Chester Hotel, which only opened at the start of March, took the hotel restaurant of the year title.
Mr Matheson, who works for north-east catering company Entier, won the overall prize in the Grampian Chef of the Year contest.
He was also named contract chef of the year after impressing judges with a citrus and shellfish consomme starter, loin of lamb main and chocolate and peanut butter fondant desert.
The young chef award went to Mathew Lobban, who works at the Chester Hotel, while Bob Miller of the Milton Brasserie at Banchory took the seafood chef title.
Sam Ritchie of Banchory’s Raemoir House Hotel won the pastry chef of the year accolade.
The chef honours were presented at the Marcliffe Hotel after a tense two-day cook-off, involving 36 finalists, at Aberdeen College.
Judges for these categories included Federation of Chefs Scotland president Ian MacDonald, Scottish chef of the year David Littlewood, Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles’ head chef Stephen McLaughlin, Joe Queen of Braehead Foods and Kevin MacGillivray of SimpsInns.
Mr MacDonald said: “The finalists have surpassed the judges’ expectations.
“The competition has grown in popularity and we agreed that we would judge over two days this year, which has afforded my team the time to deliberate in more depth.”
Judging for the restaurant of the year, hotel restaurant of the year and bar food awards took place earlier this month.
Aberdeen’s Fusion Bar and Bistro won the restaurant of the year title and the No 1 Bar and Grill in the city’s west end took the bar food award.
These categories were judged in secret visits by Michelin-starred chef Bruce Sangster and UK Masterchef Jeff Purves.
Mr Sangster said: “I am delighted to see that the standard of food at the finalist restaurants has continued to improve.
“I started judging the category four years ago and am heartened to see that previous finalists have listened to my recommendations, but also that new businesses are taking part and cooking at a much higher level than I saw in my first couple of years of judging the competition.”
The annual awards are organised by industry body Hospitality Training, whose general manager, Karen Black, said: “The competition has been a great success.
“Year-on-year, the chefs improve and continue to impress.
“Everyone did extremely well but our congratulations go to the winners, who produced some inspiring dishes.”
Current sponsors of the annual awards, now in their 19th year, include Braehead Foods, G McWilliam Aberdeen, ESS, Turriffs of Montrose, Simpsons at Buckie, North East Scotland College, the Press and Journal, the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa and Steelite.