A Rising Star

After serving up a superb menu against fierce competition, Isabella Raccagna, our Chef de Partie at Farmer, Butcher, Chef was last night crowned the winner of the 'Sussex Young Chef of the Year' at the Sussex Food and Drink Awards.

Isabella is the first female chef to have won the accolade following a ‘MasterChef’ style cook-off against five other highly talented rivals.

Goodwood Group Executive Chef, Darron Bunn said: “This is an incredible achievement for Isabella to win such a highly regarded and distinguished award. All the judges including Michelin starred chefs praised Isabella for her outstanding cooking and innovative menu.”

A seven-course banquet where all the winners were announced was held at the Amex Stadium in Brighton and hosted by patron Sally Gunnell OBE and Danny Pike of BBC Sussex.

Goodwood Entertaining and Hospitality Managing Director, Andrew Coggings added: “I am tremendously proud of Isabella for winning this prestigious title. This award also acknowledges the great work done by Darron Bunn and his culinary team in developing and inspiring young talent at Goodwood.”

The young chefs were asked to create a special spring menu to mark the change of the seasons. The three-course dinner or lunch had to showcase ingredients from Sussex producers, farmers and growers with a budget of £15 per person and only 90 minutes to produce two plates of each course.

Isabella, an enthusiastic chef who joined Farmer, Butcher, Chef six months ago, impressed the judges with her passion and use of locally sourced food from the Goodwood estate which shone through her menu.

For her starter Isabella used locally foraged sea herbs with a citrus cured sea bream served with pickled red cabbage, pickled shimeji mushrooms and a cabbage gel. This was followed with a pan fried lady steak, cooked in dripping with mushroom ketchup and wild garlic served with baby Jerusalem artichokes and oyster mushrooms. For dessert Isabella delivered a challenging unique twist with an apple and cherry blossom sorbet, rosemary crumble served with Chantilly cream parfait.

Receiving her award Isabella said: “I am completely speechless, and that is surprising for me. I just want to keep doing what I'm doing and get better at producing tasty food and making it look great.”

The judging panel included the nationally acclaimed chef and Great British Menu Winner, Matt Gillan from Electro Pirate, George Blogg from Gravetye Manor, Tristan Mason from Restaurant Tristan, Daniel Clifford from the two Michelin star Midsummer House and Fran Villani, food blogger and designer along with sponsor and former restauranteur Adrian Burr from Blakes Foods.

We are also delighted that Farmer, Butcher, Chef and Goodwood Home Farm were runners up in their categories: ‘Sussex Eating Experience of the Year’ and ‘Sussex Food Producer of the Year’.