The Caterer Blog

Hi - I’m Joanna Wood and I’m the chef editor on the magazine. I’ve worked on Caterer for nearly 10 years now, so I guess that makes me one of the longest serving members of the team (oldest, too, but let’s not go there, please).

I initially came to the magazine as a freelance journalist and joined six years ago, as deputy editor of the section before taking over from Amanda Afiya as chef editor three years later. My patch, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, deals with in-depth features on all things cheffy: profiles, recipes (like the recent bumper crop from some of our Michelin starred pub chefs), and craft-based features like our monthly Masterclasses (watch out for our next one on veal, coming up in our 15 Feb issue).

At this stage, I think I need to front up and tell you all something. When I first started writing for the magazine it was as a journalist, rather than as a specialist food writer. I had a passion for good, fresh food and produce (doesn’t every one?), but hadn’t a clue what being a professional chef entailed. I soon found out. Long hours, comparatively little pay for most people – not to mention fallen arches, even a lovely condition known quaintly as ‘chef’s arse’ (which, thankfully, I’ve not seen in the flesh).

So Jamie O's latest TV program called "Jamie's Chef" aired on Channel four last night and you can't fault the man for his dedication to his Fifteen Foundation, which helps disadvantaged people to make better lives through cooking at his restaurant.

So with Jamie O back on the airwaves again, I was wondering how his popularity measured up against the other super celeb chef Gordon R
So here it is - the google fight and who wins? Use the Google fight link to find out or continue reading.

Gareth Gates won a 12 minute pop career, Rick Waller won a spot on Celebrity Fit Camp, Steve Brookstein (X Factor 2004) won anonymity but Aaron Craze won The Cock Inn in Beazley End. So maybe not all television competitions are inherently evil.

To call the TV show Jamie's Chef a television competition is unfair, it was essentially a competition (between Fifteen graduates) that was televised. And anyone who watched it would have seen 'Big Al' (he's not big, he old; for a Fifteen graduate) coming out trumps and winning the proprietorship of The Cock Inn.

However, the programme subsequently showed him turning the place into an Italian restaurant, ballsing-up service and nearly burning down the pub. To quote mentor Trevor Oliver, Jamie's dad "Hopefully he'll make it but the odds are against him." Since the programme finished, reports have also surfaced that the locals have abandoned the "poncey" gastropub.

In today's Sun newspaper TV chef James Martin has come under fire because some the recipes in his latest cookbook seem to lack originality.

The Saturday Kitchen host's eponymous cookbook reportedly includes three desserts resembling those of Delia Smith as well as six dishes that are similar to a recipe book called Pie.

While the publishers of these books have decided not to pursue the matter, the whole story raises the question of whether there actually is such a thing as originality when it comes to recipes.

A lot of chefs I have asked about where they find their inspiration say they nick ideas from everywhere they can, including other chefs and recipe books.

So I guess the question is: "Is there anything wrong with nicking ideas?"

What do you think?

In a neat example of symmetry last time we interviewed Bromie chef Glynn Purnell he was heading up a new restaurant, Jessica's, and excited about a future that would shortly deliver a Michelin star and had already granted AA Newcomer of the Year and promotion for his beloved Birmingham City.

Well speaking to him this week and coming full circle, Purnell was talking once again about an exciting new restaurant - this time his own called Purnell's, which is due to open in July - and looking forward to a season of top flight football after Birmingham's promotion back into the Premiership.

Not a bad time to be in Birmingham I suspect and of course wish both parties success in their endeavours.

It'll be interesting to see if Steve Bruce and his boys can match the ambition and ability of Purnell but at least the manager and ex Manchester United star will have a new venue to celebrate/commiserate in as the football season unfolds from August.

Jessica's to close as chef Glynn Purnell starts up on own>>

So the people at the Beeb have announced the chefs who will represent Britain in France this week as part of the BBC2 programme the Great British Menu. Hats off to Mark Hix who secured two of the four courses - the main and the dessert - and to Richard Corrigan who will be serving the fish starter. But the chef who I'm happiest for has got to be Sat Bains.

I first met Sat eight years ago when he was competing in the Roux Scholarship. Despite being out of work at the time, he went on to win the 1999 Roux Scholarship title, spending his three month stage at Le Jardin des Sens in Montpellier with the Pourcel twins.

The cheffing world is reeling from the news that 2006 Roux Scholar Pravin Sharma passed away last Thursday (2 August). The sous chef at London’s Courthouse Hotel Kempinski had been suffering from Leukaemia in recent months and was undergoing a course of treatment.

Bobby Kapoor, head chef at the Courthouse Hotel Kempinski in London and Sharma's boss, wrote to me today to describe his former colleague and friend. He writes:

Hot on the heels of watching Marco Pierre White in action in the kitchen the other day I had the honour of watching another master of his art in central London when I attended the launch of Adventure Gourmet @ Café Spice Namesté.

Cyrus Todiwala the acknowledged master of Indian cooking showed off his skills before a small group of peers and journalists and treated us all to a selection of some fantastic dishes.

The kheema no puff pattice – spicy lamb mince cooked in a puff pasty sheet were like little pieces of heaven. The prawn with Goan curried rice looked and tasted like angels on the wing that danced across the tongue before delivering a final chilli inspired kick to my taste-buds. And the duck tikka xacutti had some perfectly cooked slices of duck cooked in xacutti masala, the world’s most complicated curry with no less than 21 ingredients which all had to be pan roasted before being pureed with roasted coconut.

The proof may well be in the pudding but a Devonshire catering company reckons it has the solution to festive stress – it’ll do the cooking of the notorious Christmas lunch for you.

As long as you get your orders in before the 15 December, Banquet in a Box will deliver an allegedly gourmet meal straight to your door.

Whether you’d be able to wing it at the Hilton on Park Lane to give the brigade a well deserved rest I’m unsure, but if the Christmas lunch simply isn’t very (a)ppealing maybe this is the answer (or a simply crackers idea).

Apparently all you have to do is cook the turkey – this is already sounding personally challenging – and reheat the traditional accompaniments and sauces.

Better still, no cleaning up either so you can hit the wine and fully enjoy that traditional afternoon kip.

Heard of any other time saving ideas or cool Christmas party venues? As ever, do le me know.

Remember though, a pre-packaged dinner is for Christmas not life you skank!

With knife crime doggedly in the headlines and the Government keen to be seen to be tackling it, it seems chefs may find themselves public enemy number one.

I took a call from a reader that as well as running a business consultancy lives a life as a chef for hire.

He’s found himself in hot water a few times recently after The British Transport Police launched Operation Shield.

The nationwide initiative is designed to combat knife crime on the rail network. Part of the way officers have been doing this is through the use of portable and fixed metal detectors at mainline stations.

The chef in question said that as he often worked in Manchester taking a car around the city was a pain and the train was his preferred means of travel. Problem being that he’d set off the detectors a few times and had a lot of explaining to do when police opened up his case and found, well, a damn lot of knives.

Apparently a bit of fast talking and a membership card for his local chef association has thus far got him off the hook but conversations with colleagues reveal he is far from unique.

So have you been caught out and what advice if any can you give?

Jamie Oliver has made sure Channel 4 gets some free publicity for the beginning of its Food Season, starting tonight at 9pm, by lambasting Sainsbury’s - the company that pays him £1.2m a year to front its food campaigns.

Oliver laid into his golden goose, after the supermarket avoided taking part in a public debate about the welfare of battery farmed chickens, despite being asked by Oliver himself.

The TV chef also asked bosses of the country’s other three main supermarkets, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons to take part. But they did not show up.

This ain’t no job advert site. But every now and then you get such an affinity for a restaurant that when they need a hand in maintaining their standards, you’re more than willing to help.

The restaurant in question is Rochelle Canteen, the bijou gem hidden away in the Rochelle School, just off London’s Arnold Circus. Run by Melanie Arnold and Margot Henderson, wife to Feargus of St John’s fame, it’s officially the canteen to the artists of the A Foundation now resident in the former school. Turning out delicious, simple, St John’s-style food to the 40 covers in the tiny, sparse, French window-fronted dining hall on site, it’s the perfect place to wile-away an afternoon.

Over the past two years, amongst other acclaim, Fay Maschler has featured it in her pick of restaurants for 2006 and Mark Hix tipped Margot “as the chef to watch” for 2007.

But head chef Kevin McFadden, formerly a junior sous chef at St John’s Bread and Wine, has left for a spot of travelling in South America and Margot is desperate for a talented replacement. “Head Chef experience is not necessary, more important is a passion for food and organising”. So if you think of you can handle the task of running a small seasonal, British restaurant, why not get in touch.

Read on for Margot’s full advert and for details of how to get in touch.

With the refuse crisis in Naples forcing residents to burn rubbish, Michelin starred chef Giorgio Locatelli has caused a stink of his own by suggesting the released chemicals are ending up in the food chain.

Locatelli believes local milk and buffalo mozzarella is tainted and said he certainly wouldn't feed the produce to his children. For more, click on the the blog entry below.

Like some chemicals with your mozzarella? in full>>

Made in Italy: Giorgio Locatelli recipes>>

Ultimate domestic goddess Delia Smith has hit out at celebrity chefs saying they’re ridiculing the public with fussy recipes and arrogant attitudes.

In an interview with Norfolk Eastern Daily Press, the 66-year-old, whose new cookbook, How to Cheat at Cooking, comes out on Friday, slammed the snobby, elitist cookery programmes by celebrity chefs for making fun of enthusiastic amateurs at home. She added that her mission has been to encourage everyone to enjoy cooking.

“I do not want to knock television chefs. I think it is great to have lots of cooking on TV, enabling people to learn about different food and ingredients,” Delia said.

“But what I do not like is amateurs being made to feel like they are being ridiculed. I think people should be encouraged if they are watching a programme. It puts everybody off if you have got some very, very top chef saying 'No that is not right. You haven't got it right’.”

However, Delia added she could not fault television chefs Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. “I really love Jamie and Nigella. I think they are both really good at helping people with their cooking,” she said.

Oh yes. You are seeing this right. Don’t look for a neck-based seam – we’ve squinted hard and there isn’t one. Rhodes has gone all beef-cake on the world, before casting aside his modesty and posing, stripped to the abs and pumping some serious iron, for that bible to the overweight and image-obsessed; Men’s Health magazine

Exclusively, and in direct conflict with the sculpted hunk of man-muscle posing here, Caterer once had a peak at the pre-inflated Rhodes. Back in 1993 an impromptu uncladding at the tail end of a kitchen session revealed a torso more akin to a hairy-topped teaspoon than anything you’d want protecting you should Grossman have kicked off on the Masterchef set.

But, according to Men’s Health, the 47 year-old is up at 4.30am every morning crunching weights and tucking into the sort of punishing regime long-serving jail-birds and Travis Bickle-style nascent psychopaths embark upon.

It seems that there's never a dull moment in the life of a celebrity chef... and never a day that they're out of the news...

Marco Pierre White spoke in Monday's Times about cruising, sandals and democracy whilst Tuesday's Mirror reported that (in between filming his latest TV series in the US) the "explosive chef and the highly-volatile Nancy Dell'Olio are now an item." Well, with Sven Goran Eriksson now off to to manage the Mexico national team, the coast is clear for MPW. Just imagine the rows over shampoo though.

Meanwhile Gordon Ramsay got a dose of his own medicine as Liam Gallagher had a few F-Words for the ubiquitious chef, and finds himself in more competition with his wife Tana, who, not content with outselling her husband's last cookbook with her own Family Kitchen, decided it's now time to take on her fiery-husband on-screen, declaring herself ready to do a cooking show with Gordon according to Tuesday's Daily Record.

Several papers also reported on Monday on how Gordon gets his kids to eat greens... a model for parents everywhere.

Jamie Oliver had a busy Monday as the debut single from his protégé Tim Kay (on which Jamie plays drums) was released on the same day he opened his new Italian restaurant in Oxford.

Marco Pierre White (MPW) returned to the small screen earlier this week, with the first episode of his four-part TV series Marco's Great British Feast. The show features the man on a trip around Britain in search of the country's three finest dishes, which he plans to cook for a group of 200 diners in the final episode.

Unsurprisingly, MPW's well-publicised reputation as the ultimate enfant terrible of the culinary world played a big part in the show and many TV critics didn't respond well to his egocentric way of presenting. Here's a round up of what some of them had to say about the show.

It seems given even a hint of a theme those good people in Yorkshire will run with it, hence as the Beijing Olympics get under way we have the Pudding Pentathlon.

Yes sports fans, while pudding is not the obvious choice of althletes it is at least 100% performance enhancing drug-free.

The sweet, which follows fast on the heels of Yorkshire's Black Swan's take on the Credit Crunch, has been created by the Best Western Monkbar hotel in York's head chef Dave Asbury and has five different desserts from the five continents represented by the Olympic Rings.

The desserts lining up under the starter's gun are:

Europe - bread and butter pudding

Oceania - peach melba

Asia - banana fritters

America - key lime pie

Africa - taste of Africa (a tiramisu-style dessert layered with Kenyan coffee sponge).

Quite enough to keep any human-rights protester fuelled and comfortable up their pylon of choice for days.

Sodexo in Olympic hopeful sponsorship deal>>

Tourism industrygroup set up for 2012 London Olympics>>