Four star foodies
Newcomer's success
Central London restaurant L'Oranger saw off competition from fellow shortlisted candidates Maison Novelli and Simply Heathcotes to scoop the Best New Restaurant award in the 1997 Good Food Awards.
The award was presented to L'Oranger's head chef, Marcus Wareing, by Chris Zanetti, managing director of category sponsor Gleneagles Spring Waters.
There were also awards for Ready, Steady, Cook, voted favourite cookery programme, and Ainsley Harriott, named favourite TV personality. The winners in all 15 categories were decided by votes from readers of BBC Good Food magazine and a panel of judges.
Plating up a winner
Gerald Roser, chef-patron of Roser's Restaurant, St Leonards-on-Sea, has been named Wedgwood International Chef of the Year 1997 after a cook-off against 14 other finalists competing in the annual Wedgwood Chef and Potter Competition at the Grand Hotel, Brighton.
The judges, including Nico Ladenis, Brian Turner, Roy Ackerman and Richard Shepherd, gave Roser first place for his two dishes: pike soufflé with lobster sauce, and lemon and lime mousse with bitter orange sauce. He wins £15,000 of Wedgwood fine bone china.
Chefs cook with Booker
Six finalists competed in a cook-off at Westminster College on 5 September to decide the winner of the Booker Recipe Competition.
The panel of judges, including Antony Worrall Thompson, awarded the first prize of Thomas Cook holiday vouchers worth £1,000 to Dez Turland, head chef at the Royal Duchy Hotel, Falmouth, for his baked apple and date pudding. Turland trained under Michael Quinn at the Ritz and has been in his current post for five years.
Gary Rosser of the Queensbury Hotel, Bath, took second prize with his roast fillet of cod with hazelnut parsley crunch and braised pearl barley, cinnamon and lemon.
Each recipe had to include at least three Booker products, take no longer than 30 minutes to produce, and cost no more than £2 per serving or 75p for a dessert.
Russian trip for young chef
Twenty-one-year-old chef de partie Victoria Shipley has won the final of the 1997 De Vere Hotels Young Chef of the Year competition.
Shipley, who works at the Belfry Hotel in Wishaw, beat five other finalists in a cook-off at the University of West London in August.
Her menu was Oriental duck confit with hot and spicy Thai vegetables; fillet of veal with sp„tzle and girolles; and white chocolate brñlée with port and Madeira ice-cream. She wins a trip to the Second Russian International Salon Culinaire at the Equiphotel exhibition in Moscow in November.
