Dawn Roberts and Tommy Trinder beat seven hospital teams at a four-day final in Birmingham, cooking three courses for £6 to £8 a head. The dish that won it.

Two chefs from Watford General Hospital are the NHS Chef of the Year 2026 champions. Dawn Roberts and Tommy Trinder won the national title after a four-day final at Xcelerate, Edgbaston Cricket Ground in Birmingham, beating seven other hospital teams.

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the hospital on Vicarage Road, announced the win on Friday 9 October. Their employer, the hospital caterer Medirest, published its own release the same day.

The quick answer

  • Who: Dawn Roberts, head chef, and Tommy Trinder, chef, both at Watford General Hospital.
  • What: NHS Chef of the Year 2026, the national cookery competition for chefs working in the NHS, now in its sixth year.
  • Where and when: a four-day final at Edgbaston, Birmingham, in the week of 5 October, with eight finalist teams.
  • The dish that stood out: a dessert of turmeric-poached pear, baked yoghurt, warm ginger cake, cinnamon crumb, pear reduction and pear crisp.

What they had to cook

This is not a free-for-all cookery contest. The brief is written around what hospital kitchens actually have to work with. According to the trust’s announcement, every finalist team had to:

  • produce a three-course menu for £6 to £8
  • make the starter plant-based
  • make one course completely allergen-free
  • use no nuts in any dish

The Medirest release says the eight finalists “demonstrated how high-quality, nutritious food can be delivered within standard hospital budgets, service times and operational constraints”. In other words, the winning menu is one a hospital could put on a ward.

Facts panel: NHS Chef of the Year 2026 final. Budget £6 to £8 for three courses. Starter plant-based. One course allergen-free. No nuts anywhere. 8 finalist teams. 4-day final at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Winners: Dawn Roberts and Tommy Trinder, Watford General Hospital.
What the Watford pair had to cook to. Graphic by Watford Today
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The pair were mentored through the competition by Rhys Richardson of Eat Curious.

A blue plate with a whole poached pear, a round ginger cake glazed in sauce, a quenelle of baked yoghurt with crumb on top, and a thin pear crisp standing upright
The winning dessert: turmeric-poached pear, baked yoghurt, warm ginger cake, cinnamon crumb, pear reduction and pear crisp. Photo: supplied by Compass Group UK and Ireland

What the chefs said

Dawn Roberts, in the trust’s announcement: “It’s been a fantastic experience. We went into it hoping to learn, get involved and do well, and we’ve really enjoyed the journey. Meeting mentors and people from different hospitals and sharing experiences has made it so worthwhile.”

She added, in the Medirest release: “Our winning dessert was something different and I am so proud of it, and it was lovely to see it come together so well.”

Tommy Trinder: “Winning NHS Chef of the Year makes me feel proud of what we can achieve as a team when we are under pressure. The most enjoyable part of the whole competition was the final challenge, cooking all three courses.”

Stuart Finn, the trust’s director of environment, said: “We are incredibly proud of Dawn and Tommy. This national recognition is testament to their talent, creativity and dedication, and to the exceptional standards they bring to their work every day.”

Who runs the hospital kitchens

Dawn and Tommy work for Medirest, the healthcare catering business of Compass Group UK and Ireland, which runs the kitchens at Watford General. Medirest says this is its second NHS Chef of the Year title in six years: its chefs Manuela Miccoli and Alejandro Bedoya Hernandez won in 2024. Neil Mitchell, Medirest’s business director, said the company is “the only foodservice organisation to have ever won”.

Phil Shelley, NHS England’s national lead for food, is quoted in the same release: “Good nutrition and hydration are essential components of healthcare, supporting recovery, improving patient outcomes and enhancing the overall patient experience.” He said the standard this year “has been incredibly high”.

What it means for you

  • The people who cook at Watford General just won the national title for doing it well. The trust says the pair “play an important role in creating dishes for our staff and visitors to enjoy”, so the kitchen that won is the one serving the hospital’s restaurant and its wards.
  • The brief matches real hospital budgets. Three courses for £6 to £8, with a plant-based starter and an allergen-free course, is the kind of constraint hospital caterers work to every day. The win says something about what can be done inside it.
  • It is a rare bit of national good news for the hospital. Watford General’s long-promised redevelopment has slipped again, into the Government’s “Wave 2” from 2030. We covered that in our parking enforcement and scrutiny story. Its chefs winning the NHS’s own cookery competition is the other side of the ledger.

Local awards closer to home are also open: nominations for Watford’s own Audentior Awards recognise volunteers and community groups across the town.

Sources