Stu Deeley wins BBC Two’s MasterChef: The Professionals; opening own restaurant in Birmingham in the spring

23 December 2019

Stu Deeley, who was the head chef of fine-dining restaurant The Wilderness in Birmingham until Friday (20th December), has been named MasterChef: The Professionals Champion 2019. He will open his own restaurant in the city's Jewellery Quarter in the spring.

Stu is the 13th professional chef to be awarded the highly-esteemed title and becomes part of MasterChef history alongside the other exceptional champions: Craig Johnston; Gary Maclean; Derek Johnstone; Steve Groves; Claire Lara; Ash Mair, joint winners Keri Moss and Anton Piotrowski; Steven Edwards; Jamie Scott; Mark Stinchcombe and last year’s winner, Laurence Henry.

Taking on 47 fellow professional chefs in the quest for gastronomic glory, Stu cooked through seven increasingly intense weeks of culinary challenges and produced outstanding dishes along the way.

Stu wowed not only chefs Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and MasterChef’s seasoned judge Gregg Wallace, but also received high-praise from critics and top UK chefs during the competition. He impressed in the Critics Round, prompting Tom Parker Bowles to describe his cod dish as “an ambitious, intelligent, beautifully-put together dish” and Jay Rayner to call the blood orange sorbet in his dessert “brilliant”. In Semi-Finals Week, when the contestants cooked at Michelin-starred chef Ollie Dabbous’ Hide restaurant, Ollie told Stu he delivered “really elegant plates of food” and was a “very talented chef with a bright future.” The critical acclaim soared further during Chef’s Table, with Jun Tanaka calling his pork and langoustine dish a “masterclass in beautiful ingredients, cooked perfectly”, Galton Blackiston naming it the “dish of the day”, and two-Michelin starred Mark Birchall telling Stu “that dish was amazing. Everything was cooked absolutely perfectly.”

Reacting to his win, Stu said: “I can’t believe it. I’ve never won anything in my life so to win this today is such an unreal feeling. I’m so, so happy.

He said: “It’s a great feeling that my food is of a style that people understand. That’s all I wanted. It’s been, honestly, one of the best things I’ve done in my life. I want that buzz and excitement to carry on.”

Marcus Wareing commented: “Stu’s food is daring, it’s different. He came in here to find confidence. Look at the chef that’s going to leave this competition - what a star we have found.”

Monica Galetti said: “What a surprise this chef has been in the competition. Every dish brings an element of surprise. He is the complete package.”

Gregg Wallace added: “I love Stu’s food. Here’s a lad who has grown up in Birmingham and has fallen in love with the flavours that surrounded him. There is a proper Stu-original stamp over everything he does. It’s different and it’s brilliant. He cooks in a style of his own. I don’t mind saying it, I think he is unique.”

In a punishing final week, Stu was up against chefs Exose Grant Lopo-Ndinga, Olivia Burt, and Yann Florio, who left the competition on Wednesday night. Stu had to use every ounce of skill, grit and creativity to outshine his competitors in rounds of increasing difficulty and pressure, which pushed the nerve and culinary ability of the chefs to extremes. The challenges included: creating and delivering a Michelin-standard dish for 22 international culinary titans working in Britain today; travelling to Lisbon to learn from and work under the Portuguese trailblazer, chef José Avillez, at his flagship two-Michelin starred restaurant, Belcanto.

The competition reached its ultimate level for the finalists, when they were asked to create their last menu and deliver the best three-courses of their lives for judges Marcus Wareing, Monica Galetti and Gregg Wallace, in three hours.

Emphasising his menu was about “food that has no boundaries. It can be from any country, any area of the world and can be fused together to make something delicious”, Stu started with a soy and mirin-smoked salmon ballotine, with crispy salmon skin, cherry tomatoes marinated in dashi vinegar, chilli-flavoured taramasalata, smoked almonds and sorrel, served with a dashi-infused tomato essence. Gregg said: “It’s an absolutely incredible dish. Your culinary brain has worked this out and it is brilliant” and Monica felt it had “great flavours, great textures - delicious.”

Stu’s main was lovage and rosemary-brined guinea fowl, topped with a yeast hazelnut crumb, soy glazed guinea fowl thigh, hen of the wood mushrooms, celeriac purée, celeriac barigoule, lovage emulsion and a spiced guinea fowl sauce. Marcus reacted saying: “that is probably one of the best guinea fowl dishes I’ve ever eaten. I can’t fault that dish at all. Absolutely outstanding, I think that’s brilliant.”

Finishing his winning menu - inspired by his love of eating milk and cookies – was a cep and milk chocolate cookie, dusted in coffee cep powder, a milk chocolate and yoghurt cream, a cookie tuille, cep caramel, coffee gel, salted milk ice cream and a coffee and milk and foam. On tasting Stu’s dessert, Marcus told him: “You couldn’t have finished your competition with a better dish.”

Considering Stu’s whole winning menu, the judges commented...

Monica Galetti said: “I’ve loved Stu’s dishes today and I’m so pleased he brought back what I’ve loved – his use of spices.”

Marcus Wareing commented: “His imagination runs wild. I thought his food was brilliant. Technically, fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed all three courses.”

Gregg Wallace told Stu: “You’ve learnt these flavours because they’ve been on the streets where you’ve lived. I’ve never seen fusion done as well as you do it. Never.”

Born and bred in Birmingham, Stu lives within a mile of where he grew up, with his fiancé Natasha and two-year-old son, Jack. Stu found cooking gave him needed focus when he was young and describes discovering this new passion: “I don’t come from a foodie background and it was like nothing else I’d ever experienced. It was fast-paced, there were always things going on and it was really interesting to me. I felt like I fitted in, in that environment.”

He trained at Halesowen College and was hugely influenced by the foods around him growing up. Stu creates dishes to showcase the cuisines available in Birmingham with a love for Asian flavours and produce.

On his MasterChef experience, Stu said: “I'm a person who sometimes lacks self-belief and I don’t like to push myself into the limelight. That's why I chose to enter the competition; to show my little boy that if you want something, you have to face your fears and go and get it. The most challenging part for me was the Skills Test. I just stopped thinking like a chef!

“Winning is not something I ever believed I could do. It’s been an amazing feeling to keep passing each round and beating my own expectations.

“When Jack watches this back on the telly, I don’t think he’ll understand how difficult it’s been to be away from him. But it’s all worth it. Jack’s going to be proud of his dad!”

Speaking about his next steps, Stu says: “My plans for the future are still under wraps, but I will be undertaking a project in Birmingham soon - watch this space.”

Applications for MasterChef: The Professionals, 2020 are now open: masterchef.com/professionals