Food Competition 2005
Grosvenor Arms - Heats
www.grosvenorarms-aldford.co.uk
The dish of the day from Joyce and Clare was the Stuffed baby chicken, an all-round mouthwatering meal, accompanied with red wine sauce.
Starter:
Black pudding and kidney skewer with a peppercorn sauce
Fundamentally a good dish but the marmalade and peppercorn sauce conflicted with the overall flavour.
Light Bite:
Pasta with Cheshire cheese sauce, ham and poached egg
A really good dish but didn't need the garlic bread, and the bowl shouldn't have been presented on an additional plate.
Main:
Whole roasted stuffed baby chicken served with vegetables
All round, extremely good. Sauce a little too intense, but easy to fix.
Pudding:
Apple rhubarb turnover
Conceptually great but balance between pastry and filling needs work.
Prepared by:
Joyce Kean, Clare Weaver
The Challenge
Every pub must enter a starter, light bite, main course and pudding. The dishes need to be prepared, cooked and put together in the morning before judging at lunchtime.
In the first round, three or four pubs each day go up against each other. The winner overall on each day goes through to the final, which is held two weeks later.
Pub managers and senior chefs are encouraged to come along for the judging and to lend support at the tastings and see what their crews have done, but they can't make any alterations or comment until after the judging - or heckle the other pub teams.
The Criteria
Each dish will be judged under the following criteria; the written description of the dish; the style of the dish; presentation; taste and balance; value for money for the customer; gross profit to the pub; kitchen efficiency; likelihood of consistent reproduction; ease of service to the table.
Prizes
The winning team will enjoy the glory, the admiration and undoubtedly the accusations of bias and double-dealing from all their peers. They will also receive a trophy and probably a case or two of something quaffable to share amongst the team.