Chefs Corner

Chefs Corner – Speciality & Fine Food Fair

BY Steve Walpole

At the Speciality and Fine Food Fair I was tasked with hosting and compering Fine Food Live, the cookery theatre, for the whole three days. The showcase every day is a cook off – a ready steady cook – a chef up against me. They give me pots of ingredients from around the show and we have to make as any dishes as you can in 30 minutes. I like to champion the small producer, the wow products. Some people don’t get the accolades they deserve.

Here are some of my top picks of the producers.

Karkli

These are superb as a snack. It’s a lentil paste put through a machine like churros then fried and coated with spices. It is something his mum and family made. They started producing them in their house. Now they have three different flavours: fiery ghost naga chilli; coriander; and classic. It’s the ultimate posh bar snack or crisp.

Womersley Fruit and Herb Vinegars

These are flavoured fruit and herb vinegars. They are just absolutely beautiful and Great Taste 3 Star Award Winners. The flavours include any fruit you can think of: strawberry and mint; orange and mace; golden raspberry and Apache chilli … A lot of chefs are using them.

Willie’s Apple Cider Vinegar

I am also a fan of Willy’s Apple Cider Vinegar. This is great as a vinegar but almost better with hot water as a drink. They make a flavoured popcorn with it. I’m really into the combination of sweet and salty. I took some home and at first my family sniffed at it. But when I came back they had munched the whole lot.

The Foraging Fox

During our cook offs, we made crocodile bites: like Scotch eggs but with crocodile and quails’ eggs. We served them with beetroot ketchup from The Foraging Fox. This is an Essex lady who has a beetroot farm and makes different ketchups using beetroot. .

Tanya’s Cafe

Tanya Maher runs Tanyas Cafe in Knightsbridge. She was doing raw food – amazing. She did a raw cheese cake that was superb – really clever and innovative, keeping away from sugars and refined products. For the base she used dates as a sweetener and lots of nuts to give texture .

Steven Walpole is a leading chef and food consultant, working with a wide range of clients developing menus, recipes and other products. See www.stevewalpoleltd.com for more detail. ____________________________________________________________ Steve's CV includes stints at some of London’s best eating establishments including Browns Hotel, Home House, City Rhodes, Quaglinos, The Four Seasons, The Lanesborough, The Intercontinental, Le Champenois, Lloyds of London, The Boulestein and the Waterside Restaurant at Bray. He has been a finalist and medal winner in countless competitions including UK Parade de Chefs Olympia, Toque d’Or, Roux brother’s scholarship, Nestle Grand Prix Masterclass, Academy of Culinary Arts. Born in Essex, Steven has been passionate about cooking since he started a Saturday job in a local restaurant at the age of 15 – a whole host of college qualifications, diplomas and awards followed in rapid succession and he became a full time lecturer at the famed Westminster College in London. In 2000 Steven was the highest performing candidate in the Kitchen category at the Academy of Culinary Arts Awards and in 2003 came second at the grand final in one of the most prestigious competitions on the competition circuit – the Roux Scholarship Finals making him the youngest ever lecturer to do so. He is considered to be one of the finest young chefs in the country. Having co-presented a 10 part television series (Kids Fit Squad) with Jane Wake (fitness guru Celebrity Fit Club) for Discovery Health, Steven appeared at The Vitality Show and also at The Homes Show at Excel in London. Steven also lectures on childhood obesity, and healthy eating for children is a subject that he is passionate about. He ran a Junior Chefs Academy for children at Westminster College and held nationwide workshops teaching children how to cook. He is chef consultant to the charity HOPE (www.hopeuk.info) producing healthy recipes and inspiring children and adults to get into a healthy eating scheme and well balanced diet and worked recently with Weight Watchers UK. He is a member of the Academy of Culinary Arts. Steven has appeared at food festivals worldwide including Karachi, Pakistan and the Gourmet Food Festival in Johanesburg and Capetown, South Africa and he is part of www.celebritychefsuk.com. Looking good is equally as important and Steven regularly trains in a gym; his other interests include extreme sports and he recently participated in a parachute jump for charity – an experience he can’t wait to repeat!

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