12th April 2013
Autumn 2009 - Skills for Chefs 2009
Now in its 12th year, the Skills for Chefs Conference showcased two days of culinary excellence and a valuable insight into the future of food.
The promise of a diverse mix of people, activities and insights were fulfilled at the Skills for Chefs conference at the University of Sheffield in July where many leading chefs, food scientists as well as industry pundits shared their expertise.
Delegates were given food for thought with two days of presentations on a range of culinary issues from cooking in the credit crunch to an insight into halal food and tomorrow’s food, plus cooking and tasting sessions presented by award winning chefs.
This year the Craft Guild of Chefs took a more active role providing the university’s training and development manager David McKown additional support, and the Guild’s Culinary Academy of young chefs led by Andy Twells helped mastermind the gala dinner.
McKown said: “The University of Sheffield is proving to be a highly popular venue for catering conferences in the UK. As well as the annual Skills for Chefs, the university also holds an annual master chefs dinner and in the past has hosted the University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) conference.”
Chef presenters at the conference included keynote speaker Sat Bains, owner of Michelin starred restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham; Peter Sidwell of the Good Taste Café in Keswick; BPEX development chef Alan Paton; Simon Hulstone, owner of the Elephant Restaurant in Torquay and National Chef of the Year; Compass Group’s Nick Vadis; Cyrus Todiwala, owner of Café Spice Namasté and Andy Aston of Restaurant Associates.
Bains demonstrated three dishes that included modern twists on traditional techniques and interesting seasonal ingredients. He used scallops from the Isle of Skye – raw and roasted for taste and texture, plus marsh samphire.
He also combined sea vegetables, specially sourced from The Forager in Kent, with oyster and egg yolk, to get a rich oyster mayo to go with his dry aged beef – a take on surf ‘n’ turf.
He said it was important to know about the chemical structure for flavours. “We need to learn the science of food to make us better cooks, and it’s important to learn food’s chemical structure to know what properties it gives to provide balanced delicious food.”
His berries in season with meringue and praline highlighted local sourcing. He said the strawberries came from his postman’s allotment and the elderflower was gleaned from his car park, and he reckoned that around 85% of his ingredients are now British.
Sidwell, who switched from fine dining at the HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf in London to his novel approach to cooking with local produce at his café in Keswick and in unusual locations, held up a recipe book and spoke of how things had changed in the culinary world. He also told delegates how his own creative marketing had achieved the press coverage it did and how doing things like his dinner for 70 climbers up a mountain caught the imagination, and that he was still looking for new and extraordinary places to cook.
BPEX’s Paton showed three ways of making the most of ham hock from a simple ham and white bean soup, to a twist on ham, egg and chips, and ham, egg and pineapple with sweetcorn popcorn.
Adding a serious note to the sessions, Tony Goodger, foodservice trade manager at the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board which includes both BPEX and EBLEX among its divisions, focused on the halal market that is growing at a considerable rate, and showed a short DVD to demonstrate the most humane way of slaughtering animals to satisfy the halal meat market. He said the recognised standard for halal meat is EN45011 and only two organisations in the UK ticked the right boxes – UK Halal Corporation and the European Halal Development Agency.
Hulstone’s session went over his experiences in competitions such as the National Chef of the Year and the more recent Bocuse d’Or. He raised the issue about support for Bocuse d’Or and how more was needed from the industry if the UK was to compete with candidates such as the Americans and the Norwegians who have far more support than the Brits. He demonstrated a recipe for scallop and prawn roulade with caviar sauce and cauliflower purée.
Cooking in the credit crunch was the theme of Craft Guild chairman Nick Vadis’ session. With fish as the main ingredient, he showed how easy and cheaply dishes such as mackerel, sea bass and Thai red fish curry can be prepared. He also presented a new twist on the bowl food concept.
Meanwhile Aston created dishes using regional and seasonal produce alongside two local producers that were ready to be quizzed by the audience about the food.
Traditional dishes were shown in Cyrus Todiwala’s colourful way ranging from a rich Parsee style bread and butter pudding that he said you can eat for breakfast, to a feijoada a la Goa, a recipe that originated in Portugal that included Goan spicy sausage, and masala rice. At the same time he shared information about cooking Indian food with ingredients such as rose essence and dulce de leche and the ‘better for you’ spices such as turmeric and ginger.
For the first time live culinary contests were staged at the conference where contestants had to create winning meals from a mystery basket of ingredients to decide the winners of the 2009 Skills for Chefs Cost Sector Chef of the Year, Restaurant Chef of the Year and the Skills for Chefs Chef of the Year.
The inaugural winners were: Gerry Henry, chef co-ordinator at the University of Derby; Alan Paton, who has recently joined the Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Club and Spa at Nayland, near Ipswich; and Mickael Weiss, head chef at Coq d’Argent in London respectively.
The awards were presented after the lavish gala dinner created by University of Sheffield’s executive chef Tracy Carr and Compass executive chef Andy Twells along with the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Culinary Academy. Celebrity Masterchef contestant and TV presenter Hardeep Singh Koli presented the awards.
• For further information visit www.skillsforchefs.co.uk
Delegates were given food for thought with two days of presentations on a range of culinary issues from cooking in the credit crunch to an insight into halal food and tomorrow’s food, plus cooking and tasting sessions presented by award winning chefs.
This year the Craft Guild of Chefs took a more active role providing the university’s training and development manager David McKown additional support, and the Guild’s Culinary Academy of young chefs led by Andy Twells helped mastermind the gala dinner.
McKown said: “The University of Sheffield is proving to be a highly popular venue for catering conferences in the UK. As well as the annual Skills for Chefs, the university also holds an annual master chefs dinner and in the past has hosted the University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) conference.”
Chef presenters at the conference included keynote speaker Sat Bains, owner of Michelin starred restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham; Peter Sidwell of the Good Taste Café in Keswick; BPEX development chef Alan Paton; Simon Hulstone, owner of the Elephant Restaurant in Torquay and National Chef of the Year; Compass Group’s Nick Vadis; Cyrus Todiwala, owner of Café Spice Namasté and Andy Aston of Restaurant Associates.
Bains demonstrated three dishes that included modern twists on traditional techniques and interesting seasonal ingredients. He used scallops from the Isle of Skye – raw and roasted for taste and texture, plus marsh samphire.
He also combined sea vegetables, specially sourced from The Forager in Kent, with oyster and egg yolk, to get a rich oyster mayo to go with his dry aged beef – a take on surf ‘n’ turf.
He said it was important to know about the chemical structure for flavours. “We need to learn the science of food to make us better cooks, and it’s important to learn food’s chemical structure to know what properties it gives to provide balanced delicious food.”
His berries in season with meringue and praline highlighted local sourcing. He said the strawberries came from his postman’s allotment and the elderflower was gleaned from his car park, and he reckoned that around 85% of his ingredients are now British.
Sidwell, who switched from fine dining at the HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf in London to his novel approach to cooking with local produce at his café in Keswick and in unusual locations, held up a recipe book and spoke of how things had changed in the culinary world. He also told delegates how his own creative marketing had achieved the press coverage it did and how doing things like his dinner for 70 climbers up a mountain caught the imagination, and that he was still looking for new and extraordinary places to cook.
BPEX’s Paton showed three ways of making the most of ham hock from a simple ham and white bean soup, to a twist on ham, egg and chips, and ham, egg and pineapple with sweetcorn popcorn.
Adding a serious note to the sessions, Tony Goodger, foodservice trade manager at the Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board which includes both BPEX and EBLEX among its divisions, focused on the halal market that is growing at a considerable rate, and showed a short DVD to demonstrate the most humane way of slaughtering animals to satisfy the halal meat market. He said the recognised standard for halal meat is EN45011 and only two organisations in the UK ticked the right boxes – UK Halal Corporation and the European Halal Development Agency.
Hulstone’s session went over his experiences in competitions such as the National Chef of the Year and the more recent Bocuse d’Or. He raised the issue about support for Bocuse d’Or and how more was needed from the industry if the UK was to compete with candidates such as the Americans and the Norwegians who have far more support than the Brits. He demonstrated a recipe for scallop and prawn roulade with caviar sauce and cauliflower purée.
Cooking in the credit crunch was the theme of Craft Guild chairman Nick Vadis’ session. With fish as the main ingredient, he showed how easy and cheaply dishes such as mackerel, sea bass and Thai red fish curry can be prepared. He also presented a new twist on the bowl food concept.
Meanwhile Aston created dishes using regional and seasonal produce alongside two local producers that were ready to be quizzed by the audience about the food.
Traditional dishes were shown in Cyrus Todiwala’s colourful way ranging from a rich Parsee style bread and butter pudding that he said you can eat for breakfast, to a feijoada a la Goa, a recipe that originated in Portugal that included Goan spicy sausage, and masala rice. At the same time he shared information about cooking Indian food with ingredients such as rose essence and dulce de leche and the ‘better for you’ spices such as turmeric and ginger.
For the first time live culinary contests were staged at the conference where contestants had to create winning meals from a mystery basket of ingredients to decide the winners of the 2009 Skills for Chefs Cost Sector Chef of the Year, Restaurant Chef of the Year and the Skills for Chefs Chef of the Year.
The inaugural winners were: Gerry Henry, chef co-ordinator at the University of Derby; Alan Paton, who has recently joined the Stoke by Nayland Hotel, Club and Spa at Nayland, near Ipswich; and Mickael Weiss, head chef at Coq d’Argent in London respectively.
The awards were presented after the lavish gala dinner created by University of Sheffield’s executive chef Tracy Carr and Compass executive chef Andy Twells along with the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Culinary Academy. Celebrity Masterchef contestant and TV presenter Hardeep Singh Koli presented the awards.
• For further information visit www.skillsforchefs.co.uk