“Fresh ingredients included, lamb loin, fresh whole sherri fish and a duck breast, as well as a nice selection of fresh vegetables and fruit.
“After writing the recipe they had two hours to prep, cook and present their final dishes,” he explained.
The final dishes were judged in three categories: main course, dessert and hygiene.
Gold-medal winner Darwesh was the highest-scoring chef on a combined score across all three categories, but silver and bronze medals were also handed out, along with a hygiene award.
Judges Pamela Gould, chef de cuisine at Le Méridien Mina Seyahi’s Barasti Bar, and Gabriele Kurz, chef at Madinat Jumeirah’s Magnolia restaurant, said they had been impressed by the standard of this year’s participants.
“It’s the second year of the competition now and we’ve seen several participants from last year come a long way, so we were impressed,” said Barasti’s Gould.
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Nestlé’s Sidhu, the third judge at the event, added: “At a junior chef level there are very few competition opportunities; although this is changing, there is still a lot of work to be done to improve the standard.
“At this year’s Female Chef of the Year, we were delighted to see a major improvement in the standard brought to the competition,” he added.
“It was above my expectations and the girls were really competing well. I could see that all of them had practiced before the competition and their passion was evident in their creations.”
Commenting on Darwesh’s win, Barasti’s Gould said her dishes were “simple, eye-catching and tasty”.
“You could have actually put them on a menu; they were extremely good,” she noted.
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