I've been looking forward to this as I asked to be on the judging panel (not cheffing as I'm not in sharrow) and they said they'd love to have me.
I arrived and found the organiser who introduced me to the other judge, the third judged hadn't shown up but we found a guy who would be able to help judge part of it before he had to leave to go somewhere.
The first restaurant was East & West who are my favourite Indian restaurant in Sheffield so I was looking forward to watching them cook and tasting the delicious food. The second restaurant was La Terrazza, an Italian restaurant. The other two restaurants All Siam and Cool Runnings didn't turn up unfortunately.
East and West started and it was really entertaining to watch and the guy shared many tips as he was cooking some of which I'd never heard of including rubbing an onion (cut side) against a hot pan as it will stop whatever you are cooking which was in his case a pancake from sticking.
We had a sweet minty coconut drink to start which really helped to whet my appetite and was very refreshing.
Next was the pancake (dosa ) it was not as good as I've had in the restaurant but then they are having to make do with different equipment here so that could have been why. The filling was delicious though as was the next course - Kerala king fish curry, very nicely spiced with the meaty fish's own flavours still managing to shine through.
Me and the guy who couldn't stay long both agreed the flavours were superb, very fresh and aromatic. The third judge didn't rate the food as much though so while we gave him a 9 each, the third guy gave him 8. I managed to get a copy of the tasty recipes to try at home too.
The next chefs came on and they were pretty young, my age but the head chef had been cooking for 10 years because it was his dads place and he used to help out a lot. They brought out a cake they made with ricotta and decorated with physalis which was delicious and everyone loved it.
Polenta with salmon was their main course and it looked stunning on the plate, the chef brought out a bottle of wine for the judges to wash down the meal with which I could only have a sip of as I am on antibiotics but it did taste nice and complimented the meal well.
I gave another 9, it would have been a 10 but the polenta I felt was undercooked.
The other judges loved them and gave them 10 each which made la terrazza the winners of the huge Sharrow chef of the year trophey!
I had a great time, its a shame more people didn't turn up but I'll be going again next year definitely.
1 comment:
decorated with syphilis ?
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