Top Young New Zealand Chef To Compete In Mexico For International Title

Josh Ross, the head chef at Parliament’s prestigious Bellamy’s Restaurant is shortly to leave New Zealand to compete in the International Jeunes Chefs Rotisseurs 2022 (Young Chef of the Year competition) run by the Chaine des Rotisseurs, an international association of gastronomy.

Josh, 26, won the New Zealand Jeune (Young) Chef Award last year, but the international competition was delayed until October his year.

As New Zealand’s representative in the international competition being held in Mexico City, he will be competing against seventeen other young chefs from Europe, Asia and the Americas for the international title.

He says he is “quite excited and obviously nervous.”

The competition has several rounds and runs according to the mystery box format which is standard for such culinary events.

Chefs are given a box of ingredients and asked to compose a three-course meal. Points are awarded for the menu, their preparation, presentation, organisation and for the meal itself.

In addition to running Bellamy’s and his own cafe called Twenty Eight in Lower Hutt, Josh has been practising every Sunday for several months using the mystery box format under the guidance of Anita Sarginson, an accredited and very experienced New Zealand culinary judge.

“I haven’t had a lot of free time lately, but the training has been very helpful and very useful in expanding my skills,’ he said.

“Being a head chef has certainly been to my advantage. I got to head chef at the age of 23, and the reason for that was working at Logan Brown where Shaun Clouston the co-owner, believed in me and mentored me and it seems to have worked out well.

“I am really looking forward to competing. It’s tough, stimulating, tiring and exhilarating all at the same time, and obviously I want to do well.”

“Josh is a hugely talented, dedicated, and knowledgeable young culinarian, he is the perfect representative for New Zealand, and we wish him every success,” says David Shackleton, the head of the Chaine des Rotisseurs in New Zealand.

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