UK-NZ link scholarship
The UK-NZ Link Foundation, which promotes educational and vocational exchanges between the UK and New Zealand, is calling for entries to its annual Hospitality Scholarship.
The competition is open to trainee chefs, aged between 18 and 21 as of 1 December, who are working either full- or part-time in the hospitality or food industry in the UK. You must also hold a British passport.
The competition is backed by New Zealand's most high-profile chef in the UK, Peter Gordon of London restaurant the Providores. Entrants are required to devise a three-course menu costing less than £30 for four covers centred on specified New Zealand produce and wine.
The first course needs to showcase seafood and be accompanied by a Sauvignon Blanc or Chardonnay; the main has to be built around a meat and accompanied by a Cabernet Sauvignon or Pinot Noir; and the dessert has to use fruit and be matched with a sparkling wine.
Initial judging will be done on paper by a panel of industry experts headed by Gordon. The top six candidates will be invited to present their menu at a cook-off on 2 October at London's Westminster Kingsway College. Closing date for applications is 31 July.
The winner's all-expenses-paid trip to New Zealand for up to five weeks includes stages at some of New Zealand's top restaurants as well as the option of a week's holiday.
This is the second staging of the scholarship, which is held in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs. Its inaugural scholar was Eddy Rains of the Castle House hotel in Herefordshire.
For more information contact Francis King at the UK-NZ Link Foundation on 020 7839 3423 or send an e-mail to link@linkuknz.demon.co.uk.
Young Chef young WaiterThe hunt is on to find the UK's top young restaurant professionals - front and back of house - as this year's Young Chef Young Waiter competition kicks off.
The competition, one of the most prestigious on the circuit, is open to anyone under the age of 25 on 21 December who is working full-time in the UK's hospitality industry.
Up for grabs, apart from the kudos of winning, is a cash prize of £2,000 and a week's study trip in Cuba for each winner. In addition, all finalists will be taken on a trip to France to the Louis Roederer Champagne cellars.
The first round of the event will be judged on paper by panels headed by Philip Howard, chef-proprietor of London's two-Michelin-starred the Square, for the chefs, and Annie Schwab, co-proprietor and front-of-house guru of Lincolnshire's Winteringham Fields (also two-Michelin-starred).
Following this, 32 chefs and waiters (16 from each discipline) will go through their paces in September at regional semi-finals at St Helen's College in Merseyside and Oxford Brookes University. The top 16 (eight chefs and eight waiters) will then progress to the grand final in London at the beginning of October.
Young Chef Young Waiter is organised by the Restaurant Association in association with American Express and has major sponsorship from the Savoy Educational Trust. Closing date for entries is 23 July. For further information contact the Restaurant Association on 0845 880 7744 or e-mail
rachel.pearson@bha.org.uk.
London Aperitif a la Francaise
Cellar Gascon has picked up the title of Best Ap‚ritif Bar and Clapham's Thyme restaurant Best Ap‚ritif Restaurant in the inaugural London Ap‚ritif … la Fran‡aise Awards.
The awards marked the introduction of the first International Ap‚ritif Day, which took place on 3 June in 17 cities around the world. The winners were picked after 120 establishments had been reviewed across the capital during April and May. There was also a special prize for Silvano Giraldin of Le Gavroche for his outstanding contribution to the ap‚ritif experience.