Chefs Challenge 2011 - winners announced

Warwick Conferences opened its doors again to host this year’s Chefs Challenge Competition 2011 and the beautifully refurbished Scarman House was a very appropriate setting to celebrate exquisite food and fantastic service levels.

The Chefs Challenge was billed as a celebration of the skill and dedication of Chefs across member venues of both IACC and Conference Centres of Excellence and it did not fail to deliver. With the proliferation of cooking programmes and people travelling the globe our food experience becomes ever more sophisticated and our attitude towards food we are served ever more critical.

Conference Centres of excellence venues deliver the most suitable food for the event taking place, whether a working lunch or an important dinner our chefs enjoy the challenge of stretching their creativity to deal with the smallest of budgets for food to those wishing to celebrate something special with a fine dining experience.

The chef’s challenge was an opportunity for some of the best chefs in our sector to be recognised by their peers and a distinguished panel of judges from across our industry. The judging took place under tight Salon Culinaire conditions and once again the judges were impressed by the high standard of Cooking

“The standard of food and service we witnessed today has once again assured me that Conference centres of excellence and IACC venues are among the best in the country.”

“Every one of our finalists should be very proud of their achievements today. Well done to you all!”

Graham Crump, Chairman of the judges, Executive Development Chef at the University of Warwick and Secretary General of the education committee of the world association of chefs was assisted by:

• Jim Eaves, Chairman of the British Culinary Federation
• Jerry Toth , Group executive chef for the sundial group
• Peter Griffiths MBE, Director of Le Salon Culinaire
• Graham Day, Food Health & Safety Manager at the University of Warwick
• Steve Lambert, Senior Catering Officer University of Brighton
• Tony Freeman from S H Jones & Company

Food is an important factor in supporting the success of an event whether it’s the conditions in which it’s prepared the nutritional content or the way it tastes and looks. This competition really tests the chefs’ skills in these areas, but it’s meaningless if the cooking conditions don’t reflect the reality of our chefs in their day to day professional lives. That is why there are strict entry conditions and restriction on the types of food that can be used and of course the amount each chef can spend on their menu.

You might think this restricts creativity, but speaking to one chef who took part he disagreed and said “we enjoy the challenge and much prefer the competition to recognise the day to day challenges we face, after all it’s not hard to create fine dishes with the most expensive ingredients, with lots of chefs buzzing around the kitchen as you might find in a Michelin starred restaurant, we provide tasty, healthy food that fuels our delegates through their busy day at our venues. We do get the opportunity to show off at dinner, but during the day it’s all about speed and nourishment and being flexible enough to fit in with the needs of the delegates and organisers”

Richard Harrison said “this is the 13th year of this competition and the standard gets better and better each year, much as it does on Masterchef, but it’s a testament to the colleges such as Stratford College who continue to train and develop first class chefs and recognise the importance of developing raw talent not only into great cooks, but great kitchen managers too by teaching them the basics of business, so they have a better understanding of managing budgets and careful purchasing. We are grateful to Stratford College who continue to support this event year on year”

Further thanks go to all supporters, who without their generosity this event could not take place.

Tim Chudley, a trustee of Meeting industry meeting needs (MIMT) was on hand to receive the proceeds of the charity raffle, which generous attendees raised during the awards dinner.

Finally, we are delighted to announce the following winners from the Chefs Challenge Competition 2011.

• Gold Award went to Raymond Thomson of the Stirling Management Centre
• Silver Award went to Lisa Morris of Ashorne Hill
• Bronze Award went to Paul Worthy of Woodland Grange
• Best Hygiene Award went to Raymond Thomson of the Stirling Management Centre
• Best Starter Award went to Vincent Wood of Wyboston Lakes
• Best Main Course Award went to Raymond Thomson of the Stirling Management Centre
• Best Dessert Award went to Raymond Thomson of the Stirling Management Centre
• Best Food Service Skills Award went to Peter Tedford of the Stirling Management Centre
• Chairman’s Award for Best Team Work went to Raymond Thomson and Peter Tedford of the Stirling Management Centre.

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