Walking away a winner

Japan bound

Before heading off to the Culinary Olympics in Berlin to compete with the Scottish team of chefs, William Gibb, training and development chef with Gardner Merchant at its Shell UK contract in Aberdeen, clinched first prize in the 1996 Kikkoman Masters competition.

At a cook-off at London's Four Seasons hotel last month, judges deemed his winning hot smoked soy-flavoured salmon, rice and lobster cake to be well-balanced, full of flavour and skillfully and carefully executed.

Gibb wins an all-expenses-paid gastronomic tour of Japan, courtesy of sponsor Kikkoman. He will be accompanied by the winner from the German equivalent of the Kikkoman Masters competition.

This is the third year of the competition in the UK, and judges agreed that the standards of the entries and the dishes presented in the final cook-off were higher than ever.

• If you did not enter the Kikkoman Masters competition this year, be sure to look out for details of next year's competition in Chef. For more details, contact Field Communications, tel: 01273 834716.

Spicy lamb tops

Chef Antoinette D'Cruz from London's Cafe Indiya won first prize in the British Lamb Ethnic Dish of the Year competition, run by British Meat.

Six finalists competed in a cook-off at Milton Keynes last month. Finalists were: Monzu Zaman Choudhury, Haweli, Barnes (2nd); Mohammed Mashuk, the Bombay Spice, Manchester (3rd); and Mohammed Alkas Ali, Samrat Asian Cuisine, Rossendale; Mohammed Butt, Shamiana, Edinburgh; and Abdul Bashir, Prince of India, Norwich.

D'Cruz wins £1,000 for her lamb dish, gosht chakkar, a lamb curry with herbs and spices.

Curry-on cooking

Croydon's best curry chef has a competition to cook in but nowhere to work. Dakshinamoorthy Sitharaman, of the Banana Leaf restaurant, won Croydon Council's regional Curry Chef of the Year competition, held earlier this summer. He goes forward to the national curry chef of the year event, to be held in Coventry later this month. Unfortunately, since Sitharaman won, the restaurant where he worked has closed down.

Budding chefs

If you have children who take after you in the kitchen, why not encourage them to enter the Guild of Food Writers/Du Pont Schools Cookery Competition?

This year, contestants are asked to create a healthy main course or pudding, using a maximum of eight ingredients. The dish must be prepared and cooked in 20 minutes on a £4 budget.

The competition is open to children aged 11 to 15 years. Closing date for entries is 18 October, with finals to be held at the BBC Good Food Show, Birmingham, in November. Contact Rosemary Moon, tel: 01243 779710; fax: 01243 536635.

Pub challenge

A London pub chain challenged its licensees to produce a main or snack dish suitable for its outlets with an emphasis on healthy eating. Forty-three of Nicholson's Freehouses took part.

Nina Pucci (left), licensee of the Magpie, Bishopsgate, won first prize with her chicken in beer and gin. Although it sounds an unusual combination of ingredients, the judges say it was chosen for its "healthy" chicken and its link to pubs with the use of beer and gin.

Michael Parris, assistant manager, Walkers of Fenchurch street, produced the winning snack dish, a spinach filo tart.

Contract caterer's masterchef

A Masterchef-style competition was held by contract caterer Russell & Brand for its 250 teams.

Jacqui Mee, unit manager, and Laura Todd, head chef, from the Derby Evening Telegraph team, won a trophy, a bottle of Champagne and a day out, with their three-course meal of chicken liver parfait, served with orange segments and mixed salad leaves; herb-crusted loin of English lamb with minted pea purée; and apple strudel with caramel sauce. The meal had to be within a budget of £15.

Speedy shucker

Armando Lema, Green's restaurant, St James' in London, was the fastest oyster shucker at the Tabasco British Oyster Opening Championship, held last month at the Way-in restaurant, Harrods. Second place went to Wayne Grant, Redbank Shellfish, and third place to John Sullivan, also from Green's.

Lema, who has won the competition five times, opened 30 oysters in three minutes 36 seconds. He now goes on to represent Britain at the international championship in Galway, Ireland.

Booker prize

Jerry Bausor, manager of the Sutcliffe catering unit at Lloyds Bank in London, will be off to northern Spain on a wine tour, focusing on the wines of the region. His dish of green Thai chicken salad, flavoured with chillies, cashew and coriander (see page 37), won him the Booker Select Recipe Competition 1996.

Second prize of dinner and an overnight stay at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons went to Mary Wilberforce of Posh Nosh, north Yorkshire, for her double chocolate and hazelnut tart, and third prize to Heidi Rose, chef at the Colten Care Woodpeckers Nursing Home in Hampshire, with a mix of chilled orange and chocolate on a crunchy base entitled Booker's Boodle.

Finals were held at the Savoy hotel, with chefs from the Savoy's kitchens preparing the dishes from the recipes selected.

Sundae best

Jennifer Hewitt, chief sundae maker, Maud's Ice Cream Parlour, proved that she is the best sundae maker at the Ice Cream Alliance's Sundae Maker of the Year contest, held recently at Planet Hollywood in London's Trocadero.

Hewitt won a silver salver, tickets to a show and a night for two at a London hotel.

Joint wedgwood winners

Three hundred and fifty chefs initially took part in the Wedgwood Chef & Potter Competition, culminating with 18 competing in the finals at the Stafford hotel, London, last month.

Joint winners were Steven Kitchen of the Alderley restaurant, Alderley Edge, Cheshire, and Idris Caldora of the Churchill Inter-Continental hotel, London. They each won £12,500-worth of Wedgwood china.

Paul Heathcote of Heathcote's restaurant, Longridge, Preston, Lancashire, won £10,000-worth of Wedgwood product for coming third.

Contestants were asked to create two dishes, and select appropriate Wedgwood designs to display them on. Kitchen chose the Cantata and Cornucopia designs to display respectively his scallop and salmon with a horseradish and cucumber mousse and marbled parfait of cheese, pickled walnuts and figs. Caldora chose Nantucket for his roasted lobster, leek, subric and smoked tomato, and Citrons for his hot mango soufflé with a lemon ice-cream. Heathcote displayed his sea bass, citrus fruits, scallops and red wine sauce on Nantucket, and his signature plate of seven desserts on Clio.

Top fish and poultry preparation

Dressing a lobster, preparing a variety of fish for baking, grilling or frying, and trussing chicken, duck and guinea fowl were disciplines in the National Federation of Fishmongers Craftsmanship competition held recently.

Richard Gafney, Vin Sullivan's production manager, won overall senior craftsman of the year, taking home the Ernest Cox Shield and the Hart and Slater Cup. Peter Preece, manager of Winns Fish, Huddersfield, was senior fish craftsman of the year, and Nick Bryant of Vin Sullivan Foods took the junior title.

Casino winner

The Riverboat Casino, Glasgow, was the venue for the Stakis Casinos Masterchef 1996 competition, held last month.

Winner Michael Sanz, chef de partie of the Regency casino, Bournemouth, was awarded a weekend break to the value of £500, and a set of chef's knives, for his efforts. His starter of king prawns keta salad - a summer salad with prawns, capsicum and salsa - and main course of corn-fed chicken stuffed with spring onion mousse, on poached orange jewels, garnished with crispy basil and tomato leaves and orange consommé, had to be prepared and cooked in 30 minutes, using local ingredients and within a £10 budget.

Runner-up Peter Manner, head chef of the Regency casino, Bournemouth, received £150 for his home-smoked salmon starter, and mignons of lamb main course.