The Jersey junior sous-chef hoping to wow national judges with 'quirky' dish

ITV CHANNEL
Jacob started his training at Longueville Manor aged 16. Credit: ITV Channel

A Jersey junior sous-chef says it would be "surreal" to win a national title recognising his culinary skills.

Jacob Gosselin, 24, is set to compete in The Craft Guild of Chefs Young National Chef of the Year (YNCOTY) grand final today (8 October) at the University of West London against other top-class chefs.

Jacob is a junior sous-chef at Longueville Manor and has been tutored by Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone as part of the competition.

Jacob started his training at Longueville aged just 16. Since then, he has been named Young Chef of the Year in 2017, 2018 and 2023 and has made the YNCOTY final twice before, in 2018 and 2020.

Jacob is now dreaming about the prospect of gaining national recognition.

He told ITV News: "To win it would be quite surreal. It would be the highest peak of my culinary career.

"It's hard to describe it because it would be such a surreal moment."

Earlier this year, Jacob won the Channel Islands Young Chef of the Year award but has huge aspirations of taking victory in London where a win would earn him an educational culinary trip to Norway.

The Scandinavian country is a key theme of this year's YNCOTY contest, with the finalists learning about sustainable fishing practices ahead of their task in the final - to create the best main course dish using fresh Norwegian halibut.

Although halibut is not a fish found in Jersey's waters, Jacob hopes to add a splash of flavour from the island in his dish, which he hopes will wow the judges.

Jacob hopes his halibut dish will wow the judges. Credit: ITV Channel

He said: "We work with it [halibut] sometimes at Longueville so I'm garnishing that with Jersey black butter which is quite a quirky way of doing it.

"[It's] a little bit risky but the flavours in the dish, as a whole, work."

As part of the judges' set brief, Jacob will also be cooking a vegetarian agnolotti dish as a starter and choux barrel accompanied by a pear and Jersey blackberry compot as well as a caramel chantilly for dessert.

While Jacob is excited about today's competition, he says he, and the other finalists, will be cooking under huge pressure.

He said: "There'll be six of us in the kitchen at one time. Judges walking round. Cameras walking round."

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