We'll meat again

There are, to mix culinary jargon, some red herrings about red meat - not least the one that says restaurant customers have avoided beef since BSE became an issue. It is true, there was a sharp dip in sales to restaurants when the story first hit the headlines, but sales of prime cuts and joints of beef have now returned to pre-crisis levels.

However, sales in the catering market are still down when it comes to minced beef. There is a perception that since minced beef is amorphous, there might be some little nasties hidden away in it.

But for more than a year now, there has been a quality standard for minced beef sold into the catering sector. It's called the Minced Beef Mark. This ensures that the mince is from young cattle, is offal-free and has come from regular cuts of meat.

To back the promotion of this higher-grade minced beef, British Meat has spent the past three months encouraging chefs to look at mince not only as something safe to serve, but as more versatile than the base of cottage pie and chilli con carne.

This culminated in a recipe challenge, with prizes worth £2,000, which invited chefs from all sectors of the industry to be creative with minced beef.

More than 100 recipe entries were judged on paper, which narrowed the shortlist down to six finalists. These chefs then cooked their recipes at British Meat's headquarters in Milton Keynes.

A panel of judges, which included Jonathan Fraser, executive chef at the Bath Spa Hotel, and Max Gnoyke, head chef at Simply Heathcote's in Manchester, were unanimous in choosing the dish of Martin Mitchell, chef and joint proprietor of one of Scotland's best known "foodie" pubs, Johnsburn House at Balerno, near Edinburgh.