Recently in Cookery competitions Category

Adam Smith, premier sous chef at the Ritz in London, has been named the 2012 Roux Scholar.

Smith, who had entered the prestigious competition for the first time this year, won the title following a fierce cook-off in the kitchens of London's Westminster Kingsway College this morning.

Competitors were asked to cook turbotin jubilee, whole braised turbot with lobster mousseline, scallops and caviar, garnished with artichoke bottoms and asparagus tips and a champagne sauce, in two hours and 30 minutes.

Their culinary skills were judged by a panel of industry experts headed by scholarship founder Michel Roux, his brother Albert, son Alain and nephew Michel Jnr. The judges also included former Roux Scholars two-Michelin-starred chefs Andrew Fairlie and Sat Bains as well as David Nicholls, Gary Rhodes, Brian Turner and the BBC2 Saturday Kitchen presenter James Martin.

A 2011 Acorn winner, 24-year-old Smith is already an experienced competition chef having won a gold medal at the 2009 WorldSkills competition in Calgary and assisted both former Roux Scholars Andre Garrett and Simon Hulstone as commis chef at the 2007 and 2009 Bocuse d'Or.

In 2010 he was selected to represent the English National Culinary Team at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg, winning a gold medal in the Restaurant of Nations. That same year he also won the Craft Guild's Young Chef of the Year award.

As the 29th winner of the Roux Scholarship, Smith has won a three-month all expenses paid stage at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant of his choice. He has also won an expenses-paid trip to Champagne Gosset in Ay, and a trip to visit the Caffe Musetti roasting factory in Milan.

The other five finalists were:
Edward Attwell, Love's Restaurant, Birmingham
Quinton Bennett, The Arch, London
Arbinder Dugal, Le Pont De La Tour, London
Pramod Ghadge, Catlin Underwriting Agencies operated by Harbour & Jones, London
Robert Hutchins, Rudding Park Hotel, Harrogate

The organisers of the 2012 Roux Scholarship have named the six contenders for the April final of the prestigious culinary competition.

Robert Hutchins from Rudding Park Hotel in Harrogate, Edward Attwell from Loves Restaurant in Birmingham, and Adam Smith, from the Ritz, Pramod Ghadge from Catlin Underwriting Agencies operated by Harbour & Jones, Arbinder Dugal from Le Pont De La Tour, and Quinton Bennett from the Arch, all in London, will compete at Westminster Kingsway College on 2 April.

The six chefs secured their place in the final after competiting in the regional heats - held yesterday at University College Birmingham and the University of West London - where each of the contestants had two-and-a-half hours to cook a dish using spring chicken and veal heart sweetbreads accompanied by a sauce and featuring two garnishes, one of which had to be cauliflower-based and the other using a green vegetable of their choice. They also had to create a dessert from a bag of secret ingredients, which included banana, pink grapefruit, gelatine, almonds, butter, cream, milk and flour.

The Birmingham heat was judged by Brian Turner and former Roux Scholar Sat Bains. The London heat was judged by Michel Roux Jnr, chef-patron of Le Gavroche, Saturday Kitchen presenter James Martin, David Nicholls, corporate director of food and beverage for the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and former Roux Scholars Andrew Fairlie and Steve Love.

Thirty minutes prior to the start of the competition, the finalists will be given the recipes and ingredients for a main dish, either classic or modern, and asked to prepare and present it. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park that evening. The winner will receive an invitation to cook and train under the supervision of a leading chef at a prestigious three-Michelin-starred restaurant anywhere in the world for up to three months, to the value of £5,000, courtesy of the Savoy Educational Trust.

 

The line-up for the regional finals for this year's Roux Scholarship has been announced.

There will be a total of 18 young chefs competing for a place in the finals, 13 of whom are entering the competition for the first time.

The two regional finals will take place on 8 March at University College Birmingham and the University of West London.

The challenge for the first stage of the competition, now in its 29th year, was for chefs to submit a recipe for four people using spring chicken and veal heart sweetbreads accompanied by a sauce and featuring two garnishes, one of which must be cauliflower-based and the other using a green vegetable of their choice.

In the regional finals each of the contestants will have two-and-a-half hours to cook their dish along with a dessert from a bag of secret ingredients.

A total of six chefs will then go through to the national final, held in London on 2 April, with the winner offered a three-month stage at a three-Michelin starred restaurant anywhere in the world.

Judges will include TV chef James Martin; the inaugural Roux Scholar Andrew Fairlie; David Nicholls; Gary Rhodes and Brian Turner, who will be joined by brothers Albert and Michel Roux and their sons Michel Jnr and Alain.

The 18 regional finalists are:

Competing in Birmingham:
Robert Hutchins, Rudding Park Hotel Harrogate
Oliver Farrar, The Arch, London
Jing Wang, The Plough, Coton, Cambridge
Edward Attwell, Loves Restaurant, Birmingham
Christopher Rawlinson, The Red Cat Restaurant, Chorley
Vladimir Hromek, University Centre - Riverside Restaurant, Cambridge

Judges will be Alain Roux, Brian Turner CBE

Competing in London:
Adam Smith, The Ritz, London
Pramod Ghadge, Catlin Underwriting Agencies Ltd, Harbour & Jones, London
Matthew Whitfield, The Montagu Arms Hotel, Beaulieu, Hampshire
Ilias Kariotoglou, Stoke Park, The Dining Room Restaurant.
Arbinder Dugal, Le Pont De La Tour, London
Quinton Bennett, The Arch, London
Jonathan Boyd, Coco Restaurant, Belfast
Kyle Jenkins, The Square, London
Mark Charker, Ockenden Manor Hotel, Cuckfield, W Sussex
Adam Thomason, Wykeham Arms, Winchester
Andrew Smith, Thackery's Restaurant, Tunbridge Wells
Nuno Goncalves, Galvin At Windows, London

Judges will be Michel Roux Jnr, Andrew Fairlie, David Nicholls and James Martin

 

Time is running out to enter the 2012 Roux Scholarship, the prestigious cookery competition organised by the Roux family. 

Now in its 29th year, the Roux Scholarship is open to chefs working in full-time employment in the UK and aged between 22 and 30.

Entrants have until Friday, 3 February, to submit a recipe for four people using two 400g spring chicken, 300g of veal heart sweetbreads and featuring two garnishes, one of which must be cauliflower-based and the other using a green vegetable of their choice. The dish should also be accompanied by a sauce.

The regional finals will be held on Thursday, 8 March in both Birmingham and London. Judges include Michel and Albert Roux and their respective sons Alain and Michel Jnr, Brian Turner, Gary Rhodes, Andrew Fairlie, David Nicholls and James Martin from the BBC show, Saturday Kitchen.

The winner will receive a three-month stage at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant anywhere in the world, all expenses paid, plus a number of unique prizes all related to food and hospitality.

Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone has been appointed as the UK ambassador for Scotch Lamb.

Quality Meat Scotland has named the UK's Bocuse d'Or contestant and head chef at the Elephant restaurant in Torquay, Devon, one of four international chef ambassadors.

The four chefs were awarded their ambassadorship in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at an event held at the Butchers Hall in the City of London last week.

The remaining ambassadors are Christophe Marguin for France, who is the chef proprietor of Restaurant Christophe Marguin near Lyon. He is also the president of Toques Blanches Lyonnais and Toques Blanche du Monde and worked at London's Connaught hotel and at Scotland's Inverlochy Castle in the early 1990s before returning to France to run his family's restaurant.

Meanwhile the ambassador for the Netherlands is Cees Helder, who together with his wife Cees owned and ran the Parkheuvel in Rotterdam, the first Dutch restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars.

Pierluigi Portinari is the new Scotch Beef and Lamb ambassador for Italy, who along with his brother Nicola, runs the two-Michelin-starred Ristorante La Peca in Vicenza.

Quality Meat Scotland this year supplied Scotch lamb to the 24 finalists competing in the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, the most prestigious culinary competition in the world.

Time is running out to enter the 2011 Roux Scholarship, the winner of which will receive a three-month stage at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant anywhere in the world. The deadline for entries has been extended to Friday, 4 February.

Entrants, who must work in the UK and be between 22 and 30, have to submit a monkfish recipe for four people, accompanied by a rice dish and a green vegetable.

The semi-finals are due to be held on 10 March in Birmingham and London, with the final taking place at London's Westminster Kingsway College on 18 April.

Joining Michel Roux on the judging panel will be his son Alain, brother Albert and nephew Michel Jnr, as well as the first Roux Scholar Andrew Fairlie and judges Brian Turner, Gary Rhodes, David Nicholls and James Martin.

Previous winners include Simon Hulstone, Sat Bains, Andre Garrett and Hrishikesh Desai, who went to Thomas Keller's French Laundry for his winning stage and was the first Roux Scholar to venture outside of Europe.

Last year's winner of the Roux Scholarship, Kenneth Culhane of BaxterStorey, will be travelling to New York City to Jean-Georges Vongerchten's flagship three-star restaurant Jean-Georges in March.

To enter visit the 2011 Roux Scholarship website.