Starters - Chef news
London gastro pub The Highgate has revamped its restaurant and menu.
Owners, the Kushti Group, has switched the layout at its Kentish Town venue, moving the eatery upstairs to provide a more elegant dining environment and make space for a subterranean chill-out room, the Den. The restaurant shares the ground floor with the pub's bar and its décor includes antique Persian rugs and handcut Waterford chandeliers. Executive chef and Kushti co-owner, Jamie Polito has marked the move with a new-look, modern, British menu.
The Picture House, a 150-capacity gastro bar has launched in Bristol. Housed in a former cinema on Bristol's Whiteladies Road, the Picture House is a new eatery from restaurateur Nick Armitage who also runs Reef in Dunedin, New Zealand. The Kiwi influence is David Waplington receives his award from competition judge Jean-Christophe Novelli evident in the bar's wine list, which features more than 25 New Zealand varieties. Head chef Nathan Mewir has devised a modern European menu with a heavy bias on locally sourced ingredients.
Cornwall-based chef David Waplington took victory at the Norwegian Seafood Recipe Challenge to secure a week's trip to Oslo and Bergen. The chef, who works at the Greenbank Hotel, at Falmouth, Cornwall, impressed judges with his fillet of Norwegian Cod infused with lapsang souchong with Norwegian prawn ravioli, served on a bed of butterbeans, fennel and tarragon with ribbons of vegetables and pearl potatoes. Matthew Pearce, of the Greenway Hotel, Cheltenham, Gloucester, came second with Tony Fitt, of the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel in London, third.
Trainee chefs from Carlisle College scooped first prize at the Nestlé Toque d'Or 2004. Tutor Andy Stacey led student chefs Melanie Dixon, Elizabeth Brough, Rebecca Harrington, Peter Snelgar and James Hill to victory at the 16th annual awards. The team beat off competition from rivals Salisbury, Sheffield and Glenrothes colleges to secure a study trip to the US later this year.
