The Academy of Food & Wine has announced bursary prizes worth a total of £10,000 for the establishments and colleges of the winners and runners-up in its 2010 Gastronomy Team of the Year and Future Stars of Gastronomy competitions. Both are sponsored by Discover the Origin.The competitions, open to chef/waiter teams, encourage good teamwork through the creation and cooking of an impressive two-course menu with matching wines. The dishes must include either Parma Ham or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, both of which are part of the Discover the Origin PDO campaign. The accompanying wines must be Burgundy, Port or wine from the Douro Valley, also PDO products.
The Future Stars of Gastronomy competition is open to chef and front-of-house students from any college or university. Colleges can enter more than one team.
The winners’ college will now receive an Academy of Food & Wine training bursary of £3,000 together with the winning team’s personal prize of a 10-day trip, courtesy of Discover the Origin, to gain an insight and understanding into the history and provenance behind the products of the PDO campaign including wines from Burgundy, the hams from Parma, the cheese from Emilia-Romagna and the wines from the Douro Valley. The runner-up college will receive a £2,000 Academy training bursary.
The Gastronomy Team of the Year competition is for chef/front-of-house teams from commercial kitchens. Establishments can enter more than one team. Last year’s winners were head sommelier Alan Holmes and sous chef Nick Hewitt from Chewton Glen, New Milton, Hampshire.
This year the winning Gastronomy Team of the Year’s establishment will receive an Academy training bursary of £3,000, along with the team’s personal prize of a 10-day trip to France, Portugal and Italy. The runner-up’s establishment will receive a £2,000 Academy training bursary.
The deadline for entries to both competitions has now been extended to 9 April 2010. Entry forms can be downloaded from the Academy’s website on www.afws.co.uk.
For further press details email Linda Pettit on linda@tilburstowmedia.co.uk or call 01737 823721/07973 789853. Alternatively call the Academy of Food & Wine on 020 8661 4646 or email helen@acfws.org.
Editor’s notes
About the Future Stars of Gastronomy competition
Entries are sought from pairs comprising a chef and a front-of-house student, waiter or bar person. The students must be attending any college or university in the UK offering nationally recognised hospitality and catering qualifications. The college or university must have an in-house restaurant open to the public and staffed by their current students.
The entry form is available to download from the Academy’s website at www.afws.co.uk. Entrants must send their completed entry form back to the Academy of Food & Wine by 9 April 2010, after which a multiple-choice questionnaire must be completed.
From these a number of successful teams will be selected from five regions. The chef from each selected team will then be asked to submit a two-course menu, which can be a starter and a main or a main and dessert. All the ingredients to be used in the preparation of the menu must be listed and the method of preparation fully explained as well as an overall description of the finished dish.
The sommelier or front of house team member must state the ‘Discover the Origin’ wines chosen to match each course and supply a full explanation as to why they have been selected and how the wines and dishes complement each other.
Each regional winning team (five teams) will then be visited by the judges and will be asked to prepare and serve their two-course meal.
All five teams will be invited to attend the final awards ceremony on 19 July 2010 at Westminster Kingsway College, London, where the winner will be announced at a drinks reception for invited industry guests. The winning team will be presented with a framed certificate, trophy and details of their prize.
About the Gastronomy Team of the Year competition
Entrants must complete the entry form and return it to The Academy of Food & Wine by 9 April 2010. The entry form is available to download from the Academy’s website at www.afws.co.uk.
Upon receipt of the completed entry form, a multiple-choice questionnaire will be sent to the team for completion.
The judges will then mark the questionnaires and select a number of successful teams from each of the following regions: The South, London, Wales & The Midlands, The North, and Scotland.
The selected teams will then be asked to submit a two-course menu featuring two courses. This can be a starter and a main or a main and dessert. All the ingredients to be used in the preparation of the menu must be listed and the method of preparation fully explained as well as an overall description of the finished dish.
The sommelier or front of house team member must state the ‘Discover the Origin’ wines chosen to match each course and supply a full explanation as to why they have been selected and how the wines and dishes complement each other.
A panel of judges will then review all the entries and the best team from each region will be awarded a Regional Winner Certificate and trophy.
Each regional winner (five teams) will be invited to attend a final ‘cook and serve’ on 19 July 2010 at Westminster Kingsway College, London. Here they will prepare and serve the two-course meal they submitted to the judges and explain why the two matches were selected.
The winner will be announced at a drinks reception for invited guests after the final where the winning team will be presented with a framed certificate, trophy and details of their prize.
About the Academy
The Academy of Food & Wine is a not-for-profit social enterprise organisation, founded in 1988. It is the hospitality industry’s only professional training body dedicated to wine service and food service skills. The Academy’s purpose is to identify, promote and maintain the highest professional standards for the education and training of food and wine waiting staff and bar assistants in the UK hotel, restaurant, catering and bar industry.
The Academy’s objectives are: for every waiter/waitress, wine waiter and bar assistant in the industry to be a member of the Academy – their professional body; to gain greater recognition for these operatives throughout the industry by accreditation, badging and recognition; to help members develop, maintain and advance their knowledge, skills and ability; to provide an interface between educators, service staff and their employers; and to enhance member’s career prospects. Currently the Academy has over 1,000 members.
About Discover the Origin
Discover the Origin is a three-year campaign designed to raise awareness around five key European PDO products: Parma Ham; Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese; Burgundy wines; Port; and Douro Valley wines.
The aim of the campaign is to highlight the importance of these products amongst distributors and food and drink professionals to drive sales. This will be achieved by educating people on the benefits their quality image offers the trade commercially.
The campaign is supported by some key personalities in the world of food and drink: Peter Gordon, head chef of London’s Providores and Tapa Room; Katie Caldesi, TV chef and author; Xavier Rousset, master sommelier and co-owner of Texture; and Gearoid Devaney, past winner of the Academy of Food & Wine’s UK Sommelier of the Year.
The campaign supports the importance of provenance, good production methods and fair-trading.
The trade bodies behind the campaign are: The Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB), the Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP), the Parma Ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano Consortiums.
The PDO stamp of approval is attributed to these five food and drink products certifying that they are unique to a particular region and of outstanding quality.
Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB)– www.burgundy-wines.fr
Port and Douro Wines Institute (IVDP) – www.ivdp.pt
Consortium of Parma Ham – www.prosciuttodiparma.com
Consortium of Parmigiano-Reggiano – www.parmigiano-reggiano.it
For further press information on Discover the Origin please contact:
Westbury Communications
Tel: +44 (0) 207 751 9170
Email: dtopressoffice@westburycom.co.uk
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