New Partnership Creates Le Cordon Bleu Henley Food Festival (16th & 17th May 2009) March 12, 2009

The world’s foremost culinary arts school has announced a ground breaking partnership in support of the Henley Food Festival, the Thames Valley’s leading food event. Le Cordon Bleu, who have been training chefs for over 100 years have become the festival’s title sponsor and hence forward the two day event, taking place on the weekend of 16th and 17th May 2009 will be known as Le Cordon Bleu Henley Food Festival.

Le Cordon Bleu Henley Food Festival is a showcase event for some of this country’s finest chefs to demonstrate their skills before a live audience, coupled with the opportunity to sample some of the finest food and drink available in the Thames Valley and beyond. Attractions include a restaurant arena, Caldesi’s Italian Market and of course a host of highly talented chefs. Le Cordon Bleu will have their own marquee where demonstrations by chefs from the cookery school can be seen, a highlight of which will be a demonstration of the art of French pâtisserie.

Over the last century Le Cordon Bleu has evolved from a Parisian cooking school into an international network of culinary arts and hospitality academies. Offering courses to professional and talented amateur chefs from their campuses in London, Paris, Canada, Peru, Mexico, Japan, S. Korea, Thailand and Australia; Le Cordon Bleu believe in the French “Art de Vivre” (The Art of Living Well), a philosophy shared with the Henley Food Festival.

Talking about the partnership, Chef Loïc Malfait, Academic Director for Le Cordon Bleu said, “We have been looking for a festival partner who exhibits the same dedication to quality that we do. Henley Food Festival provides an opportunity to see some of the culinary world’s greatest names performing live; chefs who exhibit great skill, creating sublime food. This is something that we passionately believe in. We hope that a new generation becomes inspired at Henley and that we can play a part in nurturing that talent through our courses, ranging from culinary arts to hospitality management and gastronomic studies.”

Simon Cromack, Chairman of Henley Food Festival was full of praise for Le Cordon Bleu and their philosophy; “Henley Food Festival is all about the art of living well, we are therefore delighted that Le Cordon Bleu have come on board as the title sponsor this year. We hope it is the beginning of a long association.”

Mr. Cromack went on to say, “The combination of Le Cordon Bleu’s dedication to the training of the world’s best chefs with the Festival’s objectives of showcasing the very best food from the Thames Valley is, we believe, a perfect match. It is indicative of the quality of the Henley Food Festival’s proposition that Le Cordon Bleu, a centre of culinary excellence want to join forces and share the title of this event; it is a real indication of the superb weekend we will be putting on over the 16th & 17th May.”

Information about the Le Cordon Bleu Henley Food Festival 2009 can be found at www.henleyfoodfestival.co.uk  

Information about Le Cordon Bleu London can be found at www.lcblondon.com and about Le Cordon Bleu International at www.cordonbleu.edu  

Phill Howard

The first ever British Pie Awards! (21 April 2009) March 11, 2009

There’s been the BAFTAs, the Grammys, and of course the Oscars, but now it’s time to get ready for the country’s premier awards event:

The first ever British Pie Awards!

With the entries flooding in and the preparations well under way, producers the length and breadth of the country, from the Highlands of Scotland to the coast of Cornwall, are rolling up their sleeves and rolling out the pastry to compete for the esteemed title of Supreme Champion ‘Pie of Pies’ .

The prestigious line up of judges includes, Ed Bedington, editor of Meat Trades Journal, Angela Boggiano, Food Editor for Delicious magazine, Xanthe Clay, food writer from The Daily Telegraph, Sophie Conran, author of Sophie Conran’s Pies, Tamasin Day-Lewis, author of Queen of Tarts, Sheila Dillon, presenter of The Food Programme, Radio 4, TV chef Rachel Green, Sylvia Macdonald, editor of British Baker, Simon Majumdar, co-writer of food blog Dos Hermanos and TV Chef Phil Vickery

The pie is enjoying a well deserved resurgence of popularity as an icon of British cuisine. Savoury or sweet, the British eat millions of them every year with £490m pa being spent on chilled pies alone! These awards are a celebration of British pies in all their varieties.

Different regions have evolved their own particular specialities such as the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie and the Cornish Pasty and even football clubs now have their own speciality pies.

The British Pie Awards will take place on 21 April 2009 and the venue for the awards is the magnificent setting of St Mary’s Church in Melton Mowbray.

www.britishpieawards.co.uk

LittleMissFoodie Says: I love pies – chicken, fish, meat – it doesn’t matter. As long as there is a thick wedge of golden pastry sealing in the juices I’m happy. I can’t think of anything better than a whole award ceremony dedicated to pies. Now how do I go about getting an invite…

National Curry Week 2009 (22-28 Nov) March 10, 2009

national Curry week 2009

National Curry Week will run from 22nd to 28th November 2009 throughout Britain, with the dual aims of promoting the cuisine and culture and raising money for the less advantaged around the world.

2009 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the first Indian restaurant(Hindoostanee Coffee House) opened in Britain by Sake Dean Mahomet (details http://www.menumagazine.co.uk/book/deanmahomed.html) in London in 1809. From those very early beginnings, curry has grown to be referred to as ‘Britain’s national dish’ with hundreds of millions of pounds generated for the economy from retail sales and the over 9000 restaurants throughout the country.

Such was the success of the ‘Can You Handle the Heat Challenge’ in National Curry Week 2008 that not only will it be repeated this year but kitchens will now be speed challenged on pakora/samosa creation as well as the production of a signature dish which will be judged nationally.
CurriesOnline.co.uk (www.curriesonline.co.uk) – a leading online ordering and reservation service for the UK Indian Restaurant industry has already signed up to become lead sponsor for 2009 to lend financial and operational support to the event.
Shamim Hoque, Managing Director of CurriesOnline said “ We are delighted to be in a position to support National Curry Week and The Curry Tree Charitable Fund. As an online service provider – we feel that we can bring a lot to the table to help make this year’s event the best ever whilst introducing our commercial online solution to a wider audience.”
Over the past ten years, National Curry Week has raised funds for charities such as Action Against Hunger and Oxfam. New for 2009 is the creation of The Curry Tree Charitable Fund to target the 23 million people eating-out market and raise as much as possible for deserving causes around the world. Causes to benefit from the fund will be decided annually by trustees Peter Grove (Founder), Colleen Grove, Rajesh Suri, Cyrus Todiwala MBE, Shamim Hoque, Mridula Baljekar and Enam Ali MBE.

Commented founder Peter Grove, “This year we are trying to pull the national curry family together to have some fun and help as many disadvantaged as possible. Please visit www.thecurrytree.com and join the ‘Pledge a pound’ scheme.”