New blood for La Parade des Chefs
One of the highlights of Le Salon Culinaire at this year's Hotelympia - to be staged at London's Earls Court between 4 and 8 February - is certain to be the ever-popular La Parade des Chefs, which this year sees 20 teams battling it out for gold, silver and bronze medals over the five days of the show.
As in past years, the event requires its competing teams to put out 85 three-course plated menus for £25 a head in the La Parade restaurant area. Menus have to incorporate British beef, lamb, pork or veal - courtesy of sponsor British Meat - in the main course. Four glass-walled kitchens will operate daily, each manned by a different team. Half of the 2002 teams are competing in La Parade for the first time.
The decision to blood new sides in the hot kitchen rested with salon director Peter Griffiths. "We always have a lot of teams wanting to compete," he said. "I get concerned about always inviting the same ones to take part and wanted to encourage those that haven't made it through to La Parade before."
Two colleges - Scotland's Glenrothes and London's Westminster Kingsway - are among the rookie La Parade teams, with the other eight new sides being drawn from across the industry. Selected for the first time in their own right are teams from Baxter & Platts, Compass UK Leisure, and Avenance, who will fly the flag for the contract catering sector alongside the experienced Sodexho and Compass UK & Ireland teams.
The hotel sector, meanwhile, will have new teams from London's Royal Garden hotel, Newport's Celtic Manor Resort and the Queens Moat Houses group. Completing the roll call of new sides will be a team from the internationally renowned Harrods department store and a visiting US team representing the Epicurean World Master Chefs Society.
Although some of the teams may be new to La Parade, two at least boast high-profile chefs in their line-up, with Baxter & Platts bringing out its chef-consultant Michael Caines (head chef and co-director of two-Michelin-starred Gidleigh Park and the current holder of Caterer & Hotelkeeper's
The Savoy team is sponsored by the CMA, the central marketing arm for German agricultural produce, which hopes that La Parade will prove to be a shop window through which to introduce both chefs and the public to "authentic" German foods. "We approached the Savoy because Anton Edelmann is German. It's as simple as that," said Kurt Bettin, director of CMA UK.
The team will be putting out a menu of Scottish scallops wrapped in air-dried Black Forest ham; méli-mélo of organic pork on minted pea purée with black pudding and apple mash; and kirsch mousse on a walnut sabl‚ with cherry compote and pineapple and orange quark ice-cream.
Team spokesman for the Baxter & Platts brigade, Shaun Fitzgibbon (head chef of the company's contract at Banque Paribas in London) confirmed that Caines would manage the company's team. "It's absolutely fantastic to have Michael on board, and he's had an active part in drawing up the menu. Much of it is centred on what he is doing at Gidleigh on a daily basis."
Commenting on the popularity of La Parade, Griffiths said: "I think chefs enjoy working as a team. It's good motivation for a brigade to come together and, working as a team, you can support each other if someone has a hiccup - that's an important element. Plus, La Parade gives chefs the opportunity to stand up in front of their peers and produce food for high-profile visitors to sample. The fact that we always have people clamouring to compete in the hot kitchen is testament to the regard it's held in."
La Parade des Chefs will be situated on the ground floor of Earls Court 2.
La Parade des Chefs
Monday 4 February
Compass UK, Leisure
Celtic Manor Resort
Midlands Association of Chefs
Avenance Culinary Team
Tuesday 5 February Gleneagles Hotel
Baxter & Platts
The Savoy, London
Sheffield College
Wednesday 6 February Glenrothes College
Craft Guild of Chefs
Compass Group, UK & Ireland Team
Combined Services Culinary Arts Team
Thursday 7 February Ulster Culinary Team
Epicurean World Master Chefs Society, USA
Sodexho Culinary Team
Royal Garden Hotel
Friday 8 February Queens Moat Houses
Panel of Chefs Ireland
Westminster Kingsway College
Harrods
- For more information visit the Hotelympia 2002 Web site: www.hotelympia.com. Caterer will be at Stand 740.
