Nuclear sub commander engaged in culinary combat...

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:00:00 GMT

What happens when a building society executive goes head to head with a nuclear submarine commander in the kitchen? No, it's not the start of a bad joke, it maybe the source of some really bad puns, but the outcome was over £6000 raised for charity.

The scene of the culinary duel, The Bay Cafe bar and restaurant at Waterhead

The Waterhead Hotel, one of the English Lakes Hotels hosted a challenge between two "chefs", both of whom, up until now have done very little cooking. They had to deliver a three course meal for 80 high profile guests. The guests being judge and jury on each menu. Fortunately for the invited partygoers supervision was provided by two professionals, notably Lee Jeynes - ELH's executive chef and Captain of the Welsh National culinary team and also Micheal Weston-Cole, head chef at the Waterhead.

Commander Mike Walliker (OBE), more used to the confined quarters of "The Astute" nuclear submarine currently undergoing comissioning at Barrow, was teamed up with Micheal from the Waterhead. John Leveson, deputy chief executive of the Cumberland building society was teamed up with Lee Jeynes. Each team in turn had the Waterheads normal brigade to support them.

From left to right. Lee Jeynes, Micheal Weston-Cole, Dominic Ageros, John Leveson, Nancy Muraguri, Salvatore DeLuca, Sam Lee, Commander Mike Walliker.

The proceedings started with a champage reception. Whoever booked the weather is to be congratulated, it was an almost balmy summer evening, allowing the guests to take full advantage of the hotels grounds overlooking the top of Lake Windermere.

Murray Easton (2nd on the left), MD of BAE Submarine systems, explains to Commander Mike Walliker that he is expecting to get a bloody good meal in exchange for having delivered a working nuclear submarine to him.

Each of the 80 diners got to choose which of the menus they preferred and watch their meals being prepared on TV monitors in The Bay Restaurant. Once they had finished eating each course they rated them on a scale of 1-5. At the end of the evening the team with the most points won. The results were very close, with only 30 votes difference.

Mike Walliker cooked a typically Cumbrian menu with Slacks Farm Cumberland Sausage Toad in the Hole as a starter, served on creamed apple potato, with red onion marmalade sauce. This was followed by Thornby Moor Goats Cheese and Basil Leaf Gnocchi, accompanied by sun-ripened tomato Provencal.

For the main course Mike prepared Pan-fried Cumbrian Breast of Chicken served with sautéed potatoes, green beans and a smoked pancetta sauce.

For dessert he made ‘A Taste of Cumbria.’ This was a range of individual local dishes including Sticky Toffee Pudding Parfait, Sarah Nelson’s Gingerbread and Poached Rhubarb Fool and Kendal Mint Cake ice cream.

John Leveson won the competition with his contemporary themed three course meal.

His perfectly cooked scallops drew praise from Steven Doherty, high praise indeed from a Michellin starred chef.

To start he served a Warm Seafood Terrine wrapped in Cartmel Valley Oak-Smoked Salmon with pan-seared scallops and sauce vierge.

This was followed by Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Crème fraiche and truffle oil.

For the main course he served Slow-Braised Belly of Pork with Apple and Sage; a roast pork fillet with an onion crumble, Anna potatoes, caramelised red cabbage, bacon crisp and cider jus.

For dessert John made Warm Chocolate and Whisky Cake with crunchy hazelnut ice cream and chocolate sauce.

As each course was served the guests scored each effort, during the evening a few limited updates were given to each team, this only served to increase the amount of friendly banter.

Guests from the Cumbria Life Magazine enjoyed the meal.

No pressure, John Leveson was cooking for some of the members of the Cumberland Building society board, including his ultimate boss, Michael Pratt on the far right.

The food served was really of a high standard. The scallops and belly pork are two favourites of mine, but I loved the Gnocchi cooked to an authentic recipe from the smiling Salvatore DeLuca, and whilst I don't normally do desserts, the poached rhubarb on Grasmere gingerbread was just perfect and a dessert in it's own right.

Simon Berry (2nd on the right), the Managing Director of English Lakes Hotels, who organised the cook off, said: “The event was a great success and raised a lot of money for charity. Both of the chefs and their teams did an excellent job. It was very close and everyone really enjoyed the food.”

Di Berry gives John Leveson an appropriate award for winning the event after the results were announced by Steven Doherty

John said “This was a tremendous experience for me and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. It is so totally different to my real job at the Cumberland and I now have nothing but admiration for chefs and kitchen staff everywhere who work extremely hard and under great pressure. I was obviously delighted to win the event, against stiff competition from Mike Walliker and his team, but this was entirely due to the expertise of Chef Lee Jeynes and his brigade, who chose the menu and taught me a great deal in the kitchen. This experience may well inspire me to do more cooking at home and move on from baked beans and cheese on toast.”

Without doubt the evening was great success and a whole heap of fun for all those that took part. We will be featuring Micheal Weston-Cole as our next chef on Artisan food, this update will be coming soon.

Martin

Martins thoughts...

Nuclear sub commander engaged in culinary combat...