That's just for starters!

Instead of a career in sport, he decided to follow a family tradition into the restaurant trade. The risk paid off when Joel, a demi chef at Harvey Nichols’ Fourth Floor Café and Bar in Leeds, was crowned Young Yorkshire Chef of the Year. The 21-year-old grew up in the catering business – his father runs Monkmans Bistro in Ilkley – but it wasn’t until Joel left college that he decided to make a career out of it.

“I used to help my dad out when I was a boy so I was used to a restaurant environment, but for a while I wanted to go into sports therapies,” says Joel. “I did a BTEC in sports development at Craven College but, after working for my dad while I was a student, I realised what I really loved was cooking.”

Joel went with his instincts and followed his father and grandfather into becoming a chef.

He was taken on at Harvey Nichols and had been there just a year when he was entered for the prestigious Young Yorkshire Chef of the Year contest. For the final, at York Food Festival, Joel cooked two courses in an hour, costing under £10 and using local seasonal ingredients. His winning dishes included a main course of Addington partridge and beetroot and pearl barley risotto with pickled butternut squash, griolle mushrooms and sage beurre noisette. His dessert was poached autumn fruits with Ampleforth cider and Sabayon with crumbled rosemary shortbread.

“It was intense because I was working under close scrutiny,” he says. “It was the first competition I’d entered. Chef put me forward and I just went for it.

“Winning the title has been a great confidence boost. I worked hard perfecting my meals and spent hours practising after work and at home. It was useful – and daunting – testing my dishes on my more experienced colleagues but everyone at work was really encouraging. I love cooking and just want to get better.”

Joel says working at Harvey Nichols for the past 18 months has been valuable experience.

“I grew up in a restaurant family but the bulk of my training has been here,” he says. “I’ve learned the basics; I started with ‘prepping’ vegetables and went on to starters and soups. Everything here is made from scratch with seasonal ingredients so I’ve learned a lot about making things like soups and sauces. I can’t understand why people buy sauces in jars when you can make something with natural ingredients that’s so much more tasty and fresh. I don’t smoke so I have a good palate, which is important when I’m putting different flavours together and trying things out.”

Joel is encouraged by executive head chef Richard Walton-Allen to put forward ideas for the menu. “I look after the side orders and come up with suggestions, it’s all part of the learning process,” says Joel. “I learn from Chef every day. It’s not just about the cooking; you learn about time management and being organised, keeping your workplace tidy and preparing everything in advance. That kind of discipline is vital for a chef, it stays with you for life.

“To be a chef, and really feel that’s what you want to do, you need a passion for food. It gets intense in the kitchen, there’s a lot of pressure, and you have to be driven and organised to cope with that. There’s a great buzz that comes with the pressure, you kind of thrive off it.”

When he’s at home Joel likes to cook curries, using ideas he picked up on travels to Asia. “After college I went travelling for a while to places like Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia and picked up recipes. I like doing Thai curries and noodle soups,” he says. “Cooking at home helps me relax. I get my mates round to try things out. The curries usually go down well.”

It all sounds a bit ‘Jamie Oliver’, with a bunch of lads digging into some tasty ‘tucker’ their mate has just rustled up. Does Joel see himself as the next hot young TV chef? “I haven’t really thought along those lines – I think I need a bit more experience first!” he laughs. “I grew up watching chefs on TV and I think they’ve had a big effect on the way people cook at home. I enjoy watching The Great British Menu because it features some of the country’s best chefs. For now, I’m just happy learning, and building my experience. Like most chefs, my aim is to eventually become a head chef. Harvey Nichols is a great place to start. When I decided this was what I wanted to do, I pushed myself and applied here – and it paid off.

“It helped that I’d grown up in a restaurant environment,” adds Joel. “I was washing up for my dad when I was 13 and I grew up watching him work, so I had a taste of what it was all about. My parents both cook and they’re really supportive of me.” The winter menu at Harvey Nichols Café and Bar includes such dishes as roast white onion soup, with mushroom and spinach pappardelle broth, poached seared pheasant breast and Yorkshire game terrine. Side dishes prepared by Joel include roast flat mushrooms and crispy ham, green beans with chemoula spiced chickpeas and purple sprouting broccoli with white onion butter.

Richard Walton-Allen makes a point of using seasonal ingredients. “Our seasonal variation changes every eight to 12 weeks,” he says. “The winter menu lasts until March; we use staples of root vegetables, game and deep water cold fish. Diners prefer seasonal food, it makes sense. Seventy five per cent of our produce is local, including lamb, beef, pork and dairy, and all our suppliers are local. We have a good relationship with the people who produce our goods.”

Richard encourages chefs on the apprentice scheme to go for competitions. “It’s good experience and helps to build confidence,” he says. “Joel deserves this award and him winning it is an inspiration to the team here.

“Joel is learning from the people he works with and gaining experience of working in a commercial environment. Younger chefs work around different sections of the kitchen, they’re constantly moving around. I have a very open attitude to them coming up with ideas; if they suggest something that works for the menu it generally follows that they’ll take more care over that particular dish. We have a constant rota of ideas.”