We travelled to Birmingham for this month's Networking Lunch and treated our chefs and sponsors to brilliant meal by Brad Carter and his team at Michelin-starred Carters of Moseley.
Chefs
The chefs who attended were Tom Shepherd, head chef at Adam's; Jamie Desogus, chef owner of Harborne Kitchen; Alex Claridge, chef owner of The Wilderness; Aktar Islam, chef owner of Opheem; Paul Foster, chef owner of Salt; Simon Haigh, F&B director of the Eden Collection; Mark Walsh from Opus Restaurant; Stewart Mackie, head chef at Harvey Nicholls; Ben Cowley, sous chef at Simpsons; Luke Butcher, head chef and pastry chef at Purnell's; Matt Cheal, chef director at Cheals Henley and Piotr Wojcik, sous chef at Selfridges.
As with all our Networking Lunches all our guests were treated to Pommery champagne on arrival and then they enjoyed a selection of snacks including chicken liver cereal, raw kohlrabi and mangalitza ham. Seafood from Norway showcased the Norwegian fjord trout in the fish course which chef Brad Carter paired with laverbread and bacon fat. Our headline sponsor Lactalis provided Cricket St.Thomas brie for the cheese course and Brad and his team created their take on a cheesecake which the paired with truffle and Maple Syrup.
Cricket St.Thomas: Brie,
Camembert,
Capricorn Goats Cheese
On hosting the lunch Brad said: "I love being associated with The Staff Canteen anyway, I think what they do for the industry is great and being able to cook for 15 chefs on their day off, any chef would like the opportunity to do that.."
He added: "The range of chefs who are here today is great and they get to meet each other which they wouldn't normally get to do. Also meeting the sponsors this way is great and no doubt many of them will become suppliers to some of the chefs here today."
What the chefs and sponsors had to say about The Staff Canteen live networking lunch
Patricia Myers, Business Manager Food Service for Lactalis, our headline sponsor, thought both the food and venue were fantastic and said: "Most importantly it was great to meet all the chefs first hand and understand what's important to them. What does shine through is their passion and I've learnt how important provenance is to them and how far they will go to procure the best ingredients. That information is important to us as a business because it gives us a steer on where the market is heading."
Fjord Trout, Laverbread and
Bacon Fat
The Norwegian fjord trout was very popular with all of our chefs and Aktar Islam, chef owner of Opheem, was particularly impressed. He said: "We get products thrown at us all the time but when you get one of your peers, in this instance Brad, creating something inspiring with the products the suppliers here today have provided, you automatically sit there and think how can I use this?
"I'm walking away today after the trout, which was incredible, and I'm already thinking of ways to fit it on my menu."
He added: "It's been a lovely afternoon where I've got to reconnect with a lot of friends in the industry. The Staff Canteen as an organisation is an amazing idea, and it raises awareness of the industry with the general public - it's not just the trade who pay attention to it. It is a fantastic resource for chefs not just to connect but the jobs and everything else it offers too."
Stewart Mackie, head chef at Harvey Nicholls said: "These lunches are such a good idea, they are inspirational and it opened my eyes to different ways of using different ingredients.
"For me I'm the unknown chef, there are chefs in this room today who are idols of mine who I look up to so it's been an amazing opportunity to come and sit down and speak to some of these guys, pick their brains and see how they react to the food coming out."
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