The Hour

Craig Hawthorn was announced the winner of The Hour’s competition Chef’s Apprentice on Monday after his three course menu wowed judges Sue Lawrence, Jeff Bland, Steven Doherty and special mentor Jean-Christophe Novelli.

After whittling down thousands of applications from young cooks in Scotland aged between 16 and 18, Craig was picked as the winner of the cooking competition and will now spend two weeks working for executive chef Jeff Bland at his Michelin-starred number one restaurant.

The 17-year-old school and college student from Renfrewshire was up against tough competition in the final as he took on Hazel Hourston, Amy Henderson and Stephanie MacDonald.

But Craig’s three-course meal of seared scallops with black pudding and candy apple with a celeriac puree, wood pigeon breast with wild mushrooms and a potato rosti, and a tasty rhubarb crumble was enough to win over the celebrity chefs on the day.

“It has been such an incredible journey from getting the phone call to say I had been accepted to standing there and Sue announcing me as the winner,” Craig said.

“The highs were definitely standing there in the first round getting my name called and the mentor session with Jean-Christophe [Novelli] was amazing.”

Jeff Bland was impressed with the level that the young cooks were able to achieve and was very pleased that they all took the sourcing or produce seriously.

“We didn’t want to pitch our expectations too high because they are 16 years old but I think after the paper judging and the first round we were taken aback a bit,” the Celebrity chef said.

“The knowledge they had was unbelievable, they had really taken all the elements of the competition on board.

“The marvellous thing is that they all felt sorry for each other when they went out…it showed a different side to the young people of today.”

Despite winning the competition, Craig’s journey is far from over and Bland says that the young chef still has a lot of work ahead of him as he prepares to work in a Michelin-starred Number One restaurant.

“We were looking for good honest cooking, taking nice products and cooking them nicely with a bit of passion and a bit of flare,” Jeff explained.

“Through the heats, he [Craig] just got better and better, he deserves what he got but he has got a lot of hard work ahead of them.”

Despite getting pipped to the post by Craig, the other three finalists got a welcome surprise when it was revealed by the judges that they would also receive some work experience at either The Cook School at Braehead, The Jacqueline O’Donnell School and the Jean-Christophe’s Novelli Academy all up for grabs.

Watch: the moment when Craig was revealed as the Chef’s Apprentice 2009.

Read all about the contestant's journey during their time on Chef's Apprentice. If you fancy trying some of the recipes demonstrated on the show, visit the dedicated website.