We’ve taken The Staff Canteen Live 2016 to Hotelympia at Excel London and we’ve brought some of the finest names in the industry with us.
It was final day of The Staff Canteen Live and we had some top chefs to close the show with a bang. We were joined on stage by Simon Rogan, Alyn Williams, Josh Eggleton and last but by no means least, Tom Aikens. The four chefs cooked venison, brill, sea trout and duck dishes. Drawing in a huge crowd, first on stage was Simon Rogan.
The chef and restaurateur said: "Today was great, The Staff Canteen are at the forefront of media for chefs so for them to do live events is great and I'm proud to be a part of that."
He added: "There were lots of young chefs in the audience and it gives them the opportunity to learn about techniques, ingredients and hopefully inspire them."
Alyn Williams from the Westbury cooked roasted sea trout, carrot and preserved kumquat salad, squid ink crackers and liquorice. He believes demos are 'invaluable' for young chefs, he said: "The Staff Canteen is fresh and up to date, I've known Mark (The Staff Canteen Director) a long time and it's great to see how the site has grown. Having an audience allows us to be challenged and it's inspiring - when I first started out I was inspired by everything, I still am!"
Adding to our list of Michelin-starred chefs was Josh Eggleton from the Pony and Trap. He cooked two dishes; grilled fillet of brill with parsley, celery, brown shrimp and seaweed butter and for the audience he did Yorkshire puddings full of steak tartare.
"It's a pleasure to be a part of The Staff Canteen Live and cook among my peers," said Josh. "It's great for chefs to see what other chefs are doing and it's really informal so it makes it easier for people in the audience to ask questions they wouldn't normally get the opportunity to ask." Closing The Staff Canteen Live was Tom Aikens, despite being delayed by traffic he was as professional as ever on stage as he cooked smoked duck breast and earl grey infusedfoie gras with pickled Jerusalem artichoke. He said: "It's great to do these things and I like cooking live in front of my peers and young chefs. It allows a real insight into the way chefs think and how they create a dish." He added: "Demos are fun and that's what cooking should be fun and enjoyable."
He said: "It's great to do these things and I like cooking live in front of my peers and young chefs. It allows a real insight into the way chefs think and how they create a dish." He added: "Demos are fun and that's what cooking should be fun and enjoyable."
The Staff Canteen Live – Skillery supported by the Craft Guild of Chefs, was held in conjunction with speciality produce supplier, Westlands and Robot Coupe, Steelite, TRUEFoods, Adande, Franke coffee, Norwegian seafood and Ritter Courivaud.
James Seymour from Westlands said: "The Staff Canteen Live is the place to be. The quality of the chefs which have been on the stand has been absolutely amazing and the standard of the dishes they created was incredible.
"We feel we have got a lot out of the show and being associated with The Staff Canteen website itself, it has so many followers and it's almost like a cult website for the industry."
Supplying all of the ceramic tableware was Steelite and the head of marketing, Heather Lovatt, said: "I've been very impressed. The key is the introductions because at the end of the day it's all about the leads we get - I would definitely recommend being a part of The Staff Canteen Live."
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