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12th April 2013

Spring 2011: Wessex winners

Written by: Admin
The Wessex Salon Culinaire was one of the star attractions at this year’s Hotel & Catering Show at the Bournemouth International Centre in Dorset.
With culinary skills and master classes, and a raft of products, equipment and services from more than 200 exhibitors on display, the Hotel & Catering Show in Bournemouth organised by the CEM Group showcased the industry’s best.

The event, officially opened by Andrew Stembridge, managing director of five star Chewton Glen Hotel in New Milton, Hampshire, featured some of the UK’s top chefs, plus competitions highlighting both front and back of house skills.

Wessex Salon Culinaire, in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs and sponsored by Nestlé Professional’s CHEF brand and Coastline Produce saw hundreds of chefs compete in a range of hot, cold and static classes using a variety of skills and creative recipes.

Craft Guild vice president and a co-ordinator of the Wessex Salon Culinaire Steve Scuffell said there were 750 entrants for the culinary competitions and 100 for front of house, the latter’s best ever tally. Different skills classes had attracted large numbers too – for example knife skills that give people the confidence to cook, he explained. The salon display was also a cornucopia of skilfully produced exhibits from decorative cakes and petit fours to fat carvings and bread.

For the first time ever the Wessex Salon Culinaire included the debut of Nestlé Professional’s Taste of Toque, a spin off from its bigger premier college culinary competition Nestlé Toque d’Or.

Its aim was to inspire colleges to enter the main competition – the Nestlé Toque d’Or. Several colleges that had never entered the big one before, or had entered a long time ago, were invited to participate. College student and lecturer teams were asked to produce a main and a dessert for no more than £5 per head for six covers, and design a restaurant concept that would be verbally presented to the judges before cooking began. The judging panel included top chefs James Tanner, Steve Oram, Daniel Ayton and Tony Robinson, plus Stephen Mannock from the National Skills Academy.

Worcester College of Technology steamed ahead and won, and its winning team, Nick Bryan and Richard Wainman, who together with a guest each will now be going to the Nestlé Toque d’Or awards at The Dorchester Hotel in London in July as Nestlé’s guests. The winners and those who achieved second and third place – Julian Biddulph and Ramon Ramos from Westminster Kingsway College and Marlon Luke and Claire Willett from Bedford College, will also be going to the competition’s finals at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in June.

Nestlé’s events manager Martin Webster said that while the competition was close, the team from Worcester stole the show with its fantastic effort and skill. “We really hope that this taster competition has been a valuable learning experience and that we will see some of these talented students and colleges in the Nestlé Toque d’Or programme next year.”

In other competitions held over the two days, the winners of Nestlé’s CHEF@Salon competitions were Paul Ayres from the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel with a silver ‘best in class’; Dave Hill from Autograph the food people with a bronze ‘best in class; Barry Kearns of Chichester Cathedral Enterprises with bronze; and Marlon Luke from Bedford College with a certificate of merit.

In the Caterer, Licensee & Hotelier Student Chef of the Year Dharam Ramlogan and Danny Hoang from Westminster
Kingsway College won gold; Rebecca Reeves and Joseph Masters from Thanet College won silver; and David Gilbert from Chichester College won bronze.

Winners of Brend Hotels Group Chef of the Year were Danny Downs and Ian Worley of Saunton Sands Hotel. Jack Stoner from the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth won The Coastline Produce Sea Bass Challenge.

The Masterclass Theatre sponsored by Nestlé Professional’s brand CHEF, Bournemouth & Poole College and Robot Coupe, and supported by publisher Dewberry Redpoint’s Eat Out magazine, staged a host of demos by leading chefs, and seats were in high demand.

This popular feature’s line up included: TV chef James Tanner; Cyrus Todiwala, one of Britain's most widely admired Indian chefs; as well as Alice Churchill, BBC2’s ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ semi finalist, to name just a few.

A four course gourmet dinner created by BBC celebrity chef James Martin, Luke Matthews, executive chef at
Chewton Glen, and the executive chef at the Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott, Clyde Hollett, was attended by more than 130 guests and raised in excess of £3,000 for the industry’s charity Hospitality Action.

James Tanner said the show was a fantastic event showcasing everything in relation to the hospitality industry all under one roof.

“There was a good mix of people attending from future talent right through to industry professionals. Shows like this are important for the industry because it gives up and coming chefs and restaurant professionals the opportunity to experience competition work, and test their talents as well as provide visitors and suppliers the opportunity to do business.”

• The 2012 Hotel & Catering Show takes place from March 14-15 at the Bournemouth International Centre. For full show information and competition results, visit www.hotel-expo.co.uk or call 01425 485040