The phenomenal growth of Local Authority Caterers’ Association’s (LACA) static culinary display salon, Finishing Touches, highlights the burgeoning number of little known culinary heroes tucked away across the country, who have the ability to produce exquisite works of art.

For the second year running, Vicky Scott, who works for school caterer Taylor Shaw in Durham, took the Best in Show prize for her decorated novelty cake depicting a garden festival, brimming with imaginative characters that wowed the judges.

In 2009 she won top prize for her representation of the Wallace & Gromit characters, and earlier this year she took part in the static salon display at Hotelympia winning silver for her novelty cake creation.

Now in its fourth year, the competition organised by LACA in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs is aimed at anyone employed in the local authority catering sector, who is capable of producing excellent craft pieces. It provides them with the opportunity to show off skills which would not normally be seen in their everyday profession.

This year there were eight categories, which included two new ones for bread rolls and a floral sugarcraft display piece, and the entries were exceptionally high in number recognising the entrants keenness in being able to showcase their talents to a wider audience.

The Craft Guild, whose senior members were on the judging panel, set the criteria for each category. These included the Guild’s vice president Steve Munkley, plus Nick Hollands and Lee Maycock, who judged each category individually before selecting the overall winner.

This year Munkley was particularly pleased with the number of entrants in the two new categories – 10 in each – and the quality of the showpieces.

Some of the exhibits were tasted – petit fours, canapés, sandwiches and wraps – and in the case of sandwiches and wraps each one had to be suitable for a secondary school menu, and be sensitive to the costs in such an environment.

Maycock was impressed by the attention to detail that went into every one. “The salon is getting bigger and bigger. These are all school caterers but some of their work is not far from Olympic standards. Some of the new category sugarcraft exhibits looked very real,” he says.

Munkley also believes the exhibits are getting better, plus there had been a huge entry in the cake category where the skills of the competitors shone.

He says that in particular the showpiece from the overall winner Vicky Scott ticked all the boxes as far as the judges were concerned, who thought her ‘flowerpot men’ garden came to life thanks to her attention to detail.

“The facial expressions of the characters in the garden were fantastic,” says Munkley.

“The great part of this competition is that you can see how it is evolving and we get lots of feedback, particularly from those who want advice as to how they can improve on their scores.

“You have to remember that this is not their usual environment.”