The recent Open Kitchen Live menu development competition saw three recipes cooked live by two guest chefs and the Open Kitchen Live chefs.
The day started with the restaurateur and chef visitors being served a wide range of breakfast and brunch options from Rational Chef Philip Sanderson whilst the competitors prepared their dishes.
The dish from Massimiliano Piatti representing Crockers Folly was herb crusted rack of lamb, saffron potatoes, Parmesan Puree served with a natural jus. Eleven chefs from Crockers Folly under the tutelage of Chef Damian Wawrzyniak had competed to represent their restaurant, so Massimiliano had already done very well with his dish to get to this stage. Massimiliano was using Grant Sous Vide Equipment, which was part of a wider test of the equipment, more later.
Chef Ashwani Kumar, Head Chef from the Mango Lounge in Windsor was busy preparing his Taj Mahal Palace Tiger Prawn Martini Twist.
The Open Kitchen Live chefs were creating a dish from Toby Sharman, Group Development & Support Chef at HQ Theatres & Hospitality, Leek, pea, baby spinach and Cheddar cheese Arancini with a roasted red pepper dip.
The enviable task of judging these three fell to Nick Green, Head of Restaurants and Hotels at Villeroy & Bock UK and Denis Sheehan from H&C News.
While all this was going on Chef Damian Wawrzyniak was busy with testing out the Grant Sous Vide Equipment fully. H&C News had attended a restaurant menu development tasting recently at Crockers Folly in London’s St John’s Wood. During the tour of the kitchens Chef Damian Wawrzyniak told us he wanted to try out Grant Sous Vide equipment. As we know the team at Grant we mentioned this and thanks to Equipline and Open Kitchen Live we were able to arrange to host Chef Damian and the team from Grant to test out the equipment live.
The dish Chef Damian had chosen for his test was Pork Belly, Toasted Pine Nuts, Truffle Popcorn, Kale and Sage Jus.
The three finalist dishes were then served so Nick and Denis were sent to taste and compare notes. All three were of the highest quality in both presentation and taste so it really was a difficult call, especially as all three dishes were also very different.
When framed certificates were being handed out to all three entrants Nick summed up the winner. Presentation that would grab the diners attention in any restaurant and a dish where every element complimented the other perfectly, there just wasn’t any part of this dish that we could fault in any way. Succulent warm water prawns marinated in lemon juice, ginger, garlic and anise, coated with rice flakes and deep-fried. Presented in a shot glass, layered with a trio of chutneys and topped with a dash of martini. A difficult combination to balance but Chef Ashwani had and was awarded as the winner. Chef Ashwani then walked away later in the day not only with his framed certificate but also with a Bertos countertop fryer.
The final part of the afternoon saw Chef Damian serve Pork Belly, Toasted Pine Nuts, Truffle Popcorn, Kale and Sage Jus. The guests were unanimous in their praise of the dish and the test of Grant Sous Vide, both passed with flying colours. Grant Sous Vide will now be available to see and test by restaurateur and chef visitors at every Open Kitchen Live.
The most recent developments in catering equipment are always on show throughout the day at Open Kitchen Live events demonstrating the business benefits in using state of the art equipment.
- Saving chef time
- Serving existing menu items differently
- Reducing energy costs
- Serving diners faster increasing covers
If you would like to attend register here