South West Chef of the Year 2010

The winners and judges at Ashburton Cookery School - SW Chef of the Year 2010

Date of final - Thursday 5th August

Venue for final - Ashburton Cookery School

Ashburton Cookery School offers the UK’s widest range of cookery courses designed to suit beginners, experienced cooks and professional chefs, focusing on hands-on cookery training, top quality, local, organic produce and inspirational teaching.  Courses are provided in new, excellently equipped kitchens, by chef tutors who are highly regarded, qualified lecturers with extensive experience of working in the catering industry.

Object of competition

To devise a two course meal for two people (starter and main course) using as much regional produce as possible

Classes

Three classes:

•    Young Professional – Aged 16-22 and working or training in the catering industry

•    Professional – Aged 23+ and working in the catering industry

•    Home Enthusiast – Aged 16+ and not working or training in the catering industry

Judges

•    Michael Caines MBE – ABode Hotels and Gidleigh Park
•    Peter Gorton – Horn of Plenty
•    Christopher Tanner - Tanners Restaurant and The Barbican Kitchen
•    James Tanner – Tanners Restaurant and The Barbican Kitchen

Finalists:
Home Enthusiast Class
Mary Atherton, Buckland St Mary, Somerset             WINNER                       
Starter:     Tomato tart with basil, salad leaves and salsa verde
Main:         Venison Fillet with mushrooms, green beans and potato dauphinoise

Anthony Normile, Exeter, Devon
Starter:     Pencil fillet of lamb on a medley of peas, broad beans and shallots in a minted, creamy sauce
Main:         Warm salad of John Dory on a bed of baby ratatouille

Liz Truscott, Lyme Regis, Dorset
Starter:     Red onion tarte tatin with goat’s cheese cream and wild leaf garnish
Main:         Pollock fillet on crushed new potatoes with broad bean, courgette and watercress salad

Young Professional Class
Ben Champkin, The Eastbury Hotel, Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset                 WINNER
Starter:     Seared line-caught bass, crab fritter, gooseberries, rainbow baby chard and red sorrell
Main:     Roasted Duroc loin, slow-cooked belly, crisp crackling, Burrow Hill cider syrup and summer vegetables

Lucy Hinchcliffe, Lucy’s Kitchen, Newton Ferrers, Devon
Starter:     Home-grown garden pea velouté with a soft poached Beeches Farm quail egg and Moostone Meats ham hock
Main:     Pan fried wild Cornish sea bass, with home-mad tagliatelli, Yealm Estuary samphire, Fowey cockles and capers with Langage Farm creamy white wine sauce.

Michael Mellard, Whatley Manor, Malmesbury, Wiltshire
Starter:     Salad of Devonshire goat’s cheese, dressed with pickled beetroot, cider jelly and watercress with honey-glazed apples
Main:     Roasted loin of Wiltshire lamb, garlic semi-gel, pea mousse and crispy sweetbreads with white wine sauce infused with rosemary

Professional Class
James Coward, Les Bouviers, Wimborne, Dorset
Starter:    Carpaccio of Poole Bay line-caught mackerel and hand-dived scallops with chilli vegetables and home-grown baby beetroot
Main:    Roasted rack of Canford Magna lamb with poached lamb fillet, thyme potato haché, cabbage lorraine, buttered baby spinach, caper and fresh rosemary sauce

Matthew Downing, The Jack in the Green, Rockbeare, Devon                             WINNER
Starter:        Steamed wild seabass fillet with tomato and crouton salad, basil oil and basil cress
Main:    Pan fried fillet of veal with a fresh white truffle and thyme risotto, crisp sweetbreads, steamed baby vegetables and a morel mushroom sauce

Ross Tregidgo, Harris Arms, Lewdown, Devon
Starter:        Crab, leek and saffron tart with brown crabmeat pureé and summer vegetable salad
Main:        Pan-fried turbot with herb potato knish, red pepper chutney and beurre blanc sauce

Finalists were selected by the judges based on:

•    The quality and imagination of the recipe
•    The balance of the courses and the ingredients
•    The skills required to create the menu
•    The use of ingredients grown/reared/produced in the South West

Young Professional – priceless industry experience!  The winner of this class will have the opportunity to work in the kitchen of one of our esteemed judges.
A set of 12 plates from the Villeroy & Boch Hotel Collection

Professional – a voucher to spend on kitchen equipment
A set of 12 plates from the Villeroy & Boch Hotel Collection

Home Enthusiast – a two-day advanced course at the Ashburton Cookery School
A set of 12 plates from the Villeroy & Boch Hotel Collection

All finalists will receive a Villeroy & Boch inscribed commemorative plate.

Sponsors

•    Farm and Cottage Holidays    www.holidaycottages.co.uk                    

•    Villeroy and Boch            www.villeroy-boch.co.uk                                

•    Ashburton Cookery School    www.ashburtoncookeryschool.co.uk