Suppliers Schwartz for Chef and Mövenpick Ice Cream will both be challenging professional chefs to devise innovative uses for their products at next month's Hotelympia show in London.
This year's Schwartz for Chef Flavour Pairing Challenge will require teams of two chefs to cook and present two-course meals for two in just 45 minutes in front of a live audience using two of Schwartz's predicted top flavour pairings for 2012: rosewater and ginger, sesame and cumin, bourbon and pink peppercorn, green tea and rosemary, grapefruit and coriander, yogurt and saffron.
The winner will be rewarded with a Salon Culinaire medal and a session for eight at a McCormick Flavour Creation Session workshop.
Meanwhile, Zuidam UK's executive pastry chef Matt Owens will be demonstrating imaginative desserts based on ice-cream at the Craft Guild of Chefs' Skillery on 28 February to provide inspiration for the Mövenpick Gourmet Dessert Chef of the Year competition, developed in partnership with the guild.
Details of the competition to win a luxury weekend for two in Geneva (and a Pâtisserie & Desserts day course at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons for the two runners-up) will be unveiled by Mövenpick on stand S3030.
The Skillery, sponsored by the likes of AAK, Alaska Seafood, Bernard Matthews Foodservice, Kraft Foods, Nestlé and Tilda, will feature 40-minute demonstration slots based on education, rising stars, international flavours and the use of specific ingredients.
The current line-up includes Henry Brosi and Christopher Basten (excecutive chefs at the Dorchester and Marriott County Hall hotels respectively), L'Anima chef-patron Francesco Mazzei, Compass executive chef Dennis Mwakulua, the Hoxton apprentice restaurant and bar team, and caterer and food writer Sophie Wright.
By Angela Frewin
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