Triple Gold at Salon Culinaire for Cucina School Chefs
A trio of Cucina’s top chefs each scooped a gold medal at Hotelympia this week.
Cucina’s Executive Head Chef Ian Morgan, Daniel Boniface, Cucina Group Chef for Cambridge and Andrew Wilcock, Cucina Head Chef at Esher High School in Surrey won golds at the prestigious Salon Culinaire at Hotelympia at Excel, London. All three chefs are members the Craft Guild of Chefs and of the Cucina team, which serves fresh food to more than 25,000 pupils at 30 contracts up and down the country.
Ian and Dan cooked roast loin of venison with bean cassoulet, fondant potato, with cabbage dumpling and preserved lemon jus with a bay leaf foam followed by a dessert of Esher High School rhubarb with ginger and white chocolate custard. The rhubarb is grown by pupils at Esher High School, where Andrew is based. This menu gained Best in Show and gold medals in the team event. Andrew won a gold in the Craft Guild of Chefs culinary team.
Ian also won a silver and Best in Show (no golds were awarded) in the “Chef” at Salon for his dish of roasted Cambridgeshire wood pigeon, wild mushroom risotto, jus du vieux lié sponsored by Nestlé Professional.
Steve Quinn, Managing Director of Cucina, said:
“I am over the moon for Ian, Andy and Dan and what they have achieved here. Their performances were outstanding against some great chefs from around the world and shows that at Cucina we can mix it with the best of them!!
Providing great food in schools is our day job so it’s nice to be recognised in this blue ribbon event for our standards too.
We won medals in every class we entered and hope to bring even more of our chefs next year and next week we are entering the Wessex Salon and hope for more success.”
Ian Morgan, Cucina’s Executive Head Chef helped open “Rhodes & Co”; the successful Gary Rhodes restaurant in Manchester and was previously Head Chef at the famous Hotel Felix in Cambridge. He trained under Marco Pierre White. He has also won numerous gold medals at previous Salon Culinaire competitions and was runner-up in the National Chef of the Year Competition in 2004.
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Notes to Editors
Cucina was founded by Steve Quinn, a food and support services professional with 26 years experience within the industry, working with international hotel groups such as Rank, Thistle, Hilton and Concorde (in France), as well as contract catering firms Sodexho (formerly Gardner Merchant) and the Compass Group. Steve works with a team of top chefs and professionals to ensure that his vision of great food is truly embraced and delivered.
Cucina provides restaurant quality food and have installed professional chefs to run its operations at the new contracts.
For Cucina’s top recipes:
www.marketingprojects.co.uk/news/cucina/news/recipes-from-cucina
For Case Studies of Cucina Catering inspiring dissatisfied students to give school meals a try again please visit: http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/casestudy-detail.asp?caseid=103
Please view the website for press releases or photos which are available on request at www.marketingprojects.co.uk in Cucina’s press office.
Press Office: Marketing Projects Tel: 01244 330000
Jane Harrad-Roberts Mobile: 07785 395705
Phil Brotherhood Mobile: 07884 493370
info@marketingprojects.co.uk www.marketingprojects.co.uk
Client Contact: Cucina Restaurants Ltd Tel: 0845 3891320
Steve Quinn Email: steve@cucina.co.uk
Managing Director Website: www.cucina.co.uk
