Merseyside Young Chef of the Year

The London Carriage Works are celebrating after their Demi Chef de Partie Owen West became the 2012 Merseyside Young Chef of the Year. This is the fourth year in a row that a young chef from The London Carriage Works has won the Merseyside heat of the North West Young Chef of the Year Competition sponsored by Essential Cuisine.
 
Owen faced tough competition on the day from fellow contestants Kevin Reader from Radisson SAS Liverpool, Kate Fairbrother from The Racquet Club, Sam Milne from Thistle Haydock and Rikki Vidamour also from The London Carriage Works.

During the cook off at St Helen’s College on 17th April, Owen impressed the judges with his starter; pan fried fillet of fresh local mackerel on a fennel and orange salad, with fennel puree and a citrus dressing. When asked about his menu choice Owen said “I like to cook food that is fresh and in season, I cook the type of food that I would enjoy eating.”

For his main course Owen cooked pan roast loin of Roe Buck venison, with spiced braised red cabbage, parsnip puree, spring baby vegetables and an orange and juniper jus. Owen completed his menu with a trio of apples, which included Brambley Apple crumble and custard tartlet, Granny Smith sorbet and crispin crisp.

Owen was “amazed” when he was announced Merseyside Young Chef of the Year. He said “I can’t wait for the final. I am going to start planning and thinking about what will be in season in June.”

The judges on the day were Chairman of Judges Brian Mellor, Managing Director of Essential Cuisine and ex Dorchester chef Nigel Crane and Ian Jaundoo from Liverpool Community College.

Owen will now go on to represent Merseyside at the North West Young Chef Competition Final on 12th June at Manchester College in Didsbury. For more information on the North West Young Chef of the Year competition visit www.essentialcuisine.com.

Mr Stephen Doherty and Mr Paul Askew with glasses half empty!! 

A good night had last thursday for Paul's 30 years at the Pass. 

The LFADF was a great weekend for meeting friends and tasting some great dishes and that was just for us grabbing time to have a look at all our neighbours. 

Here is a picture of Bernadette Bennett who has been our patisserie chef for many years and is now going solo with her own company 'Tiffin to You'.  Fortunatly for us - as her cake is divine - she joins us on special occasions and lets us taste her latest confections.

Joanne and Ellie have just completed a week of work experience with us at hope street hotel and The London Carriage Works.  Their final task was to write a blog all about their experiences, here it is!  

Joanne and Ellie’s Blog. 

hope street hotel.  Wow.  What an amazing week.  From two young girls from The Blue Coat School to fully fledged workers!  

This week we’ve experienced the history of the magnificent hope street, down to the soul of the hotel, the housekeeping department.  First day of work, we arrived 20 minutes early to ensure we could get stuck in straight away, but ended up spending the first 30 minutes of the day sitting in the book room, due to Mary’s (creative director) late arrival.  The first day consisted of a lot of exercise walking up and down hope street, retrieving very important information from local tourist attractions.  After lunch Mary let us loose on certain hotel rooms, we were like two kids in a sweet shop.  Although we got lost multiple times we found our way around, and took our first step into the room on the first floor *GASP*.  We had never seen anything so perfect, from the crisp white Egyptian cotton sheets, the mood setting lights, to the gorgeous hair and body products in the bathroom (which are complimentaryJ).  

Throughout the remainder of the week we typed up the minutes from a meeting, which was quite a challenge due to Sue Ainger’s (executive events manager) handwriting!  We watched and learned how to strip and clean a room too perfection, and had a grand tour of the staff room, the offices and the nationally famous kitchen of The London Carriage Works.  We were introduced to the brains behind the scenes, from receptionists and housekeepers, to Chef (Paul Askew), who not only were very friendly and treated us like VIP’s but also treated us like colleagues.  Even the scent of the hotel was divine and that immediate whiff as you walk through the glass doors makes you aware that you have just entered a very special place.  

We could not have wished for a better place to do our work experience, we have both learnt and enjoyed the time we have spent at hope street hotel, and will miss it and the fantastic staff.  We will be back to visit soon and to eat more croissants! Thank you!!

This weekend saw the fifth Wirral Food and Drink festival take place at Claremont Farm.  Part of Wirral Council’s Year of Food, this years festival boasted more than 100 producers and stalls and attracting around 30,000 visitors, the biggest and best so far.  

Exhibitors and stalls showcased the finest specialist foods from England and North Wales including crumbly cheese from Cheshire, delicious lamb from North Wales, Sarsaparilla from Lancashire, coffee from Birkenhead, homemade cakes from Burton, and locally brewed real ale.  Visitors were treated to chef demonstrations, a mini version of Wirral’s Farmer’s market, live music and cookery workshops.Our very own Paul Askew and the North West Young Chef of the Year Tom Lee demonstrated on Bank Holiday Monday. Paul cooked fillet of turbot with saffron and golden beetroot risotto, poached oysters and girolle.  Tom cooked Anglesey mussel and panchetta ravioli with leeks and micro salad.

Paul said “It was a great buzz to see all the foodies gathered together, well done Claremont Farm!” 

The Wirral Autistic Society is Hope Street Hotel’s nominated charity so we were delighted to help with their Ken Dodd Literary Lunch last Friday.  54 friends of the Wirral Autistic Society had a private lunch on the Fifth and a talk/joke session with the hilarious Ken Dodd.  With sides aching the group enjoyed a bespoke menu created by Paul Askew which even included a ‘jam butty’ pre dessert course in honor of Ken. The lunch along with a raffle and silent auction raised in excess of £2,500 which will all go towards the building of a respite centre at the Wirral Autistic Society in Raby Mere.   

Ken Dodd and Rick Myers (Fundraising Officer for the WAS) with the silent auction prize - a bronze bust of Ken Dodd created by Rick.

Paul Askew with Rick Myers

Ken Dodd with guests

Despite the volcanic ash cloud, our latest winemaker’s dinner was a huge success, although the odds were stacked against us... 

Firstly we had a group of 15 guests coming from Belgium who were grounded.  Then due to the no flight situation all of the American east coast lobster hadn’t made it over, so the French and Spanish had bought out all of our British stocks.  The one plus side was that Paul Boutinot, who had recently sent his regrets having been called away to his vineyards in South Africa, was able to host the dinner again.      

At the last minute the ash cloud lifted, the Belgians made it and I managed to get my hands on some delicious Cornish lobster.  Paul Boutinot did jet off to South Africa, but he left us in the delightful hands of his master sommelier Nigel Wilkinson.   

We had a picture of Nigel last time so here’s picture of the Fifth in all it’s glory! 

We are delighted to be hosting Liverpool’s Cafe Scientifiqué which is a forum for promoting public engagement with science. The first meeting of 2010 took place on Tuesday 9^th February and got off to a great start with a talk by Marco Bertamini from the Department of Psychology at Liverpool University. It was entitled: Naïve physics: understanding how things work from everyday visual experience. One of the phenomena Marco Bertamini talked about was the 'Venus Effect' – how we incorrectly perceive what's going on when we look at people looking into mirrors.

The second meeting took place on Tuesday 9^th March and was given by Gareth Stratton, Professor of Paediatric Exercise Science, Liverpool John Moores University, entitled: The road to an active and healthy childhood, from fitness to fatness and back again. It was another excellent talk. Gareth Stratton's department is doing cutting edge research into the obesity problem among young children. He presented the group with some frightening data as well as saying what is required to prevent obesity amongst the young.

The next meeting takes place on Tuesday 13^th April.  There will be another speaker from Liverpool University's Department of Psychology, Sonia Tucci. Her talk is entitled: Appetite regulation and obesity. This should give us another view of the obesity problem that is prevalent in our society.There will be three further speakers and that will take Café Scientifique up to July. Topics include athletic preparation for the London Olympics in 2012, exploding stars and issues about ageing.

For the meeting on Tuesday 8^th June, the group will be moving from their usual meeting place on the ground floor up to the Fifth floor. The talk is being given by Mike Bode, Director of the Astrophysics Research Institute and Professor of Astrophysics, Liverpool John Moores University, and is entitled: Stars that go bang in the night. The view from the fifth floor is spectacular and will provide an appropriate back-drop for this meeting. 

The meetings are free and take place every second Tuesday of the month (7.30pm start).

Details of all the meetings can be found at: http://sites.google.com/site/liverpoolcafescientifique/

Please contact Michael Jackman, mjcafsci@talktalk.net, if intending to attend as places may be limited.   

Champagne Lallier produces 300,000 bottles a year, distributed all around the world, well we had 10 of them at TLCW last night.  And if we could afford it some of us would have loved to buy the remaining 299,990 bottles! From now on I shall only be drinking Grande Cruz Zero Dosage, it will be on every; birthday, Christmas, new house and get well list, its worth re doing my wedding vows just to get it on that list too!! 

Sue Ainger Executive Events Manager