National chef of the year 2010

Have given this a go a few times now, but never with any true confidence in the dishes I have put forward

organised by The craft guild of chefs this competition is one of the largest in a chefs calendar.

Every time there is a brief which has not suited my frame of mind, my mojo as it were, was missing.

This year though, although the competition is divided into geographical categories (not sure how a french dish can be weighed up against a noodle dish from Asia, but time will tell), I had the mojo, the confidence and also importantly the dishes to put forward.

These categories are:

Modern British/Irish

Asian/Oriental

European (Continental, Central and Eastern, Scandinavian and Mediterranean)

◦Africa, The Americas and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand)

After some deliberation (basically cos my main was British and my dessert a bit French), I have chosen the modern British category

The brief for this years menu is

Canapés – 3 varieties of canapé - 4 pieces of each, 2 hot and 1 cold

Main Course – a chicken dish with appropriate starch and vegetable accompaniments

Dessert – a dessert using fresh lemons, served hot or cold

 

so for canapes my cold is based around what is accepted nowadays as a traditional ploughman's

The base being the celery, a cheddar mousse, pickled vegetables and onion and bread crust

My two hot canapes are 1:

Kedgeree, classical curried smoked haddock, egg yolk and white, sauteed mushrooms with fresh parsley and curried rice, this I have puffed for texture and for ease of release from the shell which it is served in.

And 2:

And an old childhood fave of mine, York ham, new potatoes and parsley sauce

For the main, I reverted back to an earlier post HERE and tweaked the dish to use the whole bird in one shape or form

Here we have, poached chicken breast, crisped skin sitting on hasty pudding, and to the side, carrot puree and a 'cottage pie' of the chicken leg, finished with a Madeira jus

Lastly the 'Frenchish' dessert

 

A lemon Cambridge burnt cream (English name for brulee) with blackberries (gel, puree and fresh macerated), mint pesto and lemon sorbet

I have everything crossed, judging begins this week and we will find out end of this, or beginning of next week, so here's hoping!