Drive to find top chefs will start
A competition to find the best chefs in Staffordshire is being launched on Monday.
A competition to find the best chefs in Staffordshire is being launched on Monday.
The Staffordshire County Council-run Staffordshire Master Chef and Young Chef of Tomorrow competitions starts at Stafford College.
The overall winner gets £1,000 and a trip abroad. The young chef winner can learn culinary skills at a Michelin star restaurant. Entrants are judged on written submissions and six finalists in each category go through to a cook-off at the college on May 12. Awards will be presented at the Moat House Hotel, Acton Trussell, that evening.
Any Staffordshire chef aged between 16 and 20 and 21 upwards can enter by submitting a menu based on preparing a three-course meal for two prepared in under two hours using wild sea bass, live crayfish and other ingredients costing no more than £20. The closing date for entries is April 22.
Staffordshire County Council chairman, Councillor Terry Dix, said: "We have had a very successful Young Chef competition for three years, but this is our second year for the seniors in a master class competition. The winners of both categories will receive remarkable experience both here and abroad."
The competition is the latest initiative in the Taste of Staffordshire scheme, which, for the past nine years, has been helping to promote and reward quality and excellence in food and drink served and produced within the county.
The search to find the best in several separate categories culminates each year in a gala presentation evening in September and with the publication of an annual Taste of Staffordshire booklet.
The campaign - sponsored by SteeliteÊ International - has gone from strength to strength since its inception, and the Master Chef and Young Chef competition is the latest means of helping to raise standards within the local catering industry.
Judges will be Paul Gilmore, of Restaurant Gilmore, near Uttoxeter; Matt Davis, head chef at the Moat House, Acton Trussell and Eric Bruce of the British Culinary Federation. Entry forms are available from Chris Paine on 01785 619346 or be e-mailing ccpaine@staffordbc.gov.uk
By John Corser
