The audience were treated to an unbelievable line up of chefs on the second day of The Staff Canteen Live 2018 and first on stage was Shaun Rankin from Ormer in Mayfair.
Shaun Rankin and Rick Owens
He cooked pork belly, chorizo and apple chutney, pressed Asian pear, calamari and fennel salad in front of a packed crowd. He also offered audience members a prize of a signed book and a meal for two at Ormer which was won by Westminster Kingsway student Rick Owens.
On The Staff Canteen he said: “It’s always a great honour and a pleasure to be involved in this show, I’ve worked with The Staff Canteen for eight or nine years – right back when I opened Bohemia.
“It’s nice to be cooking and doing the fun stuff! But also it’s great to be engaged with the student chefs and encourage them.”
For the first time The Staff Canteen Live has been working with wine suppliers Matthew Clark and Nick Zalinski, National Wine Controller, has been pairing wines with each dish the chefs have cooked on stage.
He said: “Wine is so closely associated with food and with great cooking so The Staff Canteen Live was a great opportunity to try and find some interesting wines to add a dimension to the whole theatre of cooking. And it added that front of house element to the demo.”
Next on stage were Ashley Palmer-Watts and Jonny Glass from Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. As well as cooing an amazing scallop dish they also had a four course lunch for two people at the two-starred restaurant with wine chosen by the sommelier up for grabs. Matthew Lane, sales manager for Daily Fish Supplies was the lucky winner.
“When I was younger I was sat in the audience at demos watching my peers,” explained Ashley. “So I think it’s brilliant to actually come and be the person on the stage. The Staff Canteen is a brilliant medium for chefs to allow them accessibility into working kitchens, it’s inspirational and you can see what’s going on in these top restaurants without having to stage there or work there.”
fillet of Turbot with baby leeks
and morels
Chef legend John Williams, executive chef of The Ritz London gave the audience a real classic dish when he cooked fillet of Turbot with baby leeks and morels. This was paired with Bourgogne Clos de Loyse by Matthew Clark.
John said: “I’ve known Mark (Morris, TSC Founder) for a long time, he’s always supported the industry so it should support him. The Staff Canteen Live is a great opportunity and there are great chefs getting involved in it and why wouldn’t we?”
Closing the show was Trinity’s Adam Byatt who cooked, Dove Sole baked in dashi butter, white beetroot, cauliflower and caviar which was paired with Oakridge Local Vinyard Series Chardonnay.
On The Staff Canteen Live he said: “I think it’s really important to showcase what we do to the younger generation. I think as a more mature restaurateur, who has been around and cooking for a very long time, I feel duty bound to make sure the younger generation get a little piece of that.”
The Staff Canteen Live will be back today. If you can't be at Hotelympia follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and watch all the demos live on Facebook and our YouTube channel.
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