Five young chefs in Wellington, the country’s capital city, competed for the title of the National Bailliage’s Best Young Chef for 2021, with the winner having the chance to take part in the International Final of the Chaîne’s Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition.

The young chefs had four hours to prepare and serve four portions of three courses from a mystery box of ingredients revealed to them only at the start of the day.

Organised by the local Bailliage of Wellington, the National Final was held at Le Cordon Bleu Culinary Institute.

Joshua Ross, aged 25, who is the Head Chef at Bellamy’s by Logan Brown, the restaurant at New Zealand’s Parliament Buildings, won a very closely contested contest in which the judges said that only a few points separated the winner and the fifth place!

Joshua is also a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu. He was naturally delighted at his success and is looking forward to taking part in the international competition.

His winning menu was tarakihi and lime coconut ceviche with salt and pepper squid, which was followed by seared hare loin, porter braised legs, Brussels sprouts, with confit of leek and Jerusalem artichoke puree. Dessert was poached rhubarb with Diplomat cream and orange passionfruit granita.

Joshua trained at Le Cordon Bleu while getting work experience at Logan Brown, one of Wellington’s leading restaurants. He started in 2014 becoming Sous Chef in January 2018.

Later in 2018 Joshua became Head Chef at Bellamy’s by Logan Brown when the dining room came under the control of private owners. Joshua was instrumental in setting up the kitchen and menu which showcases top quality New Zealand ingredients.

Co-owner Steve Logan says of Joshua, “Josh’s passion for, and love of, his craft shows up in the perfect plates of delicious food that he and his team create. He has such great people, communication, and management skills too that he continually develops.

“Josh has been a pleasure to work with from the very first meeting to the present. He is calm, confident, has a sense of humour and an egoless maturity that endears all who come into contact with him,” Steve Logan said.

The Bailliage of New Zealand has run its National Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition since 1993. Bailli Délégué David Shackleton says it has been the Bailliage’s focus to develop young chefs and promote up and coming talent.

For his part, Joshua says “I love the creative aspect of my role; being able to design a whole menu, then changing it seasonally and getting to experiment with various ingredients.

Another awesome part of my job is foraging for different ingredients, every second morning we go out and collect ingredients such as sea succulents, celeries and wild porcini mushrooms from different spots all over Wellington.

Sometimes Members of Parliament bring foreign delegates to Bellamy's for lunch, so we try to incorporate a lot of native ingredients into our menu to showcase the top-quality foods we have in New Zealand.”

He added that sustainability is an important part of the Logan Brown approach, which is also practised daily at Bellamy’s.

“We use free-range pork, wild venison, and line-caught fish - we do not use trawled as it is not good for the fish quality, nor is it good for sustainability.

It’s about being respectful of the environment in which these top ingredients are coming from, and if a certain fish is being over-fished that season, we do not use it in our dishes. You don’t want to be a restaurant contributing to a certain species going extinct.”

That’s Josh, New Zealand’s Jeunes Chefs Rôtisseurs Competition finalist. I have no doubt we will hear great things from this young chef in the future.

John Bishop
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