''The Chef's Protege'' is a 2013

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream ...

television cooking series that was cancelled after one season. It was a serialized competition that followed three

Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin star (classification), stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The ac ...

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a k ...

s becoming

mentor Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...

s, as they return to their old

catering Catering is the business of providing food service at a remote site or a site such as a hotel, hospital, pub, aircraft, cruise ship, park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and r ...

college A college ( Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

s to select and train a protégé. Each chef has an initial group of seven student candidates and over the course of the series must eliminate less able candidates until they choose the one who will become their protégé. The climax of the series is a head to head competition of all three protégés where they cook for the chef's own mentors, who will judge them not only their skills as a chef, but also by how well they are able to represent their mentor's style and philosophy of cooking.

Chefs and mentors

The three chefs and their mentors who appear in the program are: *

Tom Kitchin Thomas William Kitchin is a Scottish chef and owner of The Kitchin, where he became Scotland's youngest winner of a Michelin star. Kitchin and his wife Michaela opened The Kitchin in 2006 on Leith’s waterfront. The restaurant was awarded a ...

, the head chef of the one Michelin star restaurant

The Kitchin The Kitchin is a fine dining restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland, run by Tom Kitchin and his wife Michaela (née Berseilus). It serves fresh Scottish produce in a French style from Kitchin's time spent with Alain Ducasse. It was awarded a M ...

who was mentored by

Pierre Koffman Pierre Koffmann (born 21 August 1948) is a French professional chef. He was one of a handful of chefs in the United Kingdom to have been awarded the coveted three Michelin stars at his restaurant La Tante Claire in London. Until December 2016 h ...

La Tante Claire La Tante Claire (''The Aunt Claire'') was a restaurant in Chelsea, London, which opened in 1977 and 1998. Owned and operated by Pierre Koffmann, it gained three Michelin stars in 1983, and held all three until the restaurant moved premises in 1998 ...

. *

Theo Randall Theo Randall (born 1967) is an English chef who specialises in Italian cuisine. He is the proprietor of Theo Randall at the InterContinental Hotel London Park Lane, although he is perhaps best known for being awarded a Michelin star at The Rive ...

, the head chef of Theo Randall at the InterContinental and former holder of one Michelin star at The River Café in London where he was mentored by

Ruth Rogers Ruth Rogers, Baroness Rogers of Riverside, (; born 7 July 1948) is an American-born British chef who owns and runs the Michelin starred Italian restaurant The River Café in Hammersmith, London.Adam LusheRecord 10 women chefs win Michelin sta ...

before becoming its head chef. Randall was also mentored at the same establishment by

Rose Gray Clemency Anne Rosemary Gray (née Swann; 28 January 1939 – 28 February 2010) was a British chef and cookery writer. With Ruth Rogers, she set up The River Café in 1987, which won a Michelin star in 1998. It was here that the talents of Jamie ...

, who died before the series was commissioned. * Michel Roux, Jr., the head chef of the two Michelin star restaurant

Le Gavroche Le Gavroche (''The Urchin'') is a restaurant at 43 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair, London. It was opened in 1967 by Michel and Albert Roux at 61 Lower Sloane Street, its premises until 1981. Albert's son Michel Roux Jr is the current chef patr ...

, who was mentored by his father

Albert Roux Albert Henri Roux (8 October 1935 – 4 January 2021) was a French-British restaurateur and chef. He and his brother Michel operated Le Gavroche in London's Mayfair, the first restaurant in the UK to gain three Michelin stars. He helped tra ...

at the same restaurant before becoming its head chef.

Colleges

The three colleges featured are: * Perth College, where Tom Kitchin studied. *

Brooklands College __NOTOC__ Brooklands College is a further education college in Weybridge and Ashford, England. In August 2007 Brooklands merged with Spelthorne College in Ashford. The Weybridge campus is in the grounds of Hugh F. Locke King's historic mansi ...

, where Theo Randall studied. *

University College Birmingham University College Birmingham is a university in Birmingham, England. It was awarded full university status in 2012 along with Newman University. It is not a member of Universities UK. The university was awarded 'University of the Year' in the 2 ...

. While Michel Roux, Jr. did not attend this college himself, the Roux family have strong ties to the college.

Episodes

The series consists of twenty episodes, initially broadcast on consecutive weekday evenings over four weeks. Each of the first three weeks focused on a different chef each week reducing their initial seven candidates down to two semi-finalists with Kitchin appearing in the first week, Randall in the second week and Roux in the third. The final week had the semi finalists compete for the place as each chef's protégé over the first three nights in the same order as the opening weeks. The penultimate night is devoted to the proteges cooking a three course menu for their mentor of which two dishes were selected to go forward, after feedback to improve them by their mentor, to the final night for judging by the chef's mentors themselves.

Winner

The competition was won by Jamie MacKinnon, Tom Kitchin's protégé, who scored forty points from the chef's mentors, beating the protégés of Theo Randall and Michel Roux, Jr. who scored thirty six points each.

Future

All three protégés have been offered jobs by their mentors when they complete their college education. Michel Roux Jr. has asked the runner up to his protégé to contact him when they finish also.

External links

* *
The Chef's Protege at The Shine Group website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chef's Protege, The 2013 British television series debuts 2013 British television series endings BBC high definition shows British cooking television shows BBC Television shows Television series by Endemol English-language television shows