apetito's Chef Of The Year Award - Round 1

15 Aug, 2011

The first round of apetito's Chef Of The Year award took place last week with four chef's from across the business taking part.

Each chef have recently achieved their NVQ2 in Professional Cooking.

There are 3 qualifying rounds with a winner from each round going through to the final, along with the highest placed runner up out of all 3 rounds.

Each chef in the first round of the competition - all from Low Risk Kitchen in the factory - had two hours to make Eggs Florentine and Coq au Vin with apetito's Head Chef, Phil Rimmer, briefing the chefs before they started cooking and providing a few hints to help them on their way.

The chefs started to create their dishes from just a list of ingredients - no recipes to follow - and at the end of the two hour cooking period the competitors dished up their creations and presented their food for judging.

The judges, who were employees from across the business and included Carrie Hall - HR Director, Jon Knight - Production Manager, Kevin Rosevere -  Financial Controller  and the aforementioned Phil Rimmer, had the great task of tasting the food but the difficult task of choosing a winner.

After much deliberation the winner was Robert Rogowski from Low Risk Kitchen, with Norbert Tabis coming in a close second with only a point between them.

Robert was awarded a Larousse Gastronomique cook book and goes through to the final.

Everyone felt it was a fantastic day and a real pleasure to be involved in the competition and to get the opportunity to demonstrate the skills they have acquired during their NVQ2 training which are put to good use within their respective areas in the business.

Round two takes place on 7th September.