With the saucepans bubbling and the frying pans sizzling, some of the county’s finest chefs have been battling it out to win one of three prestigious titles in this year’s Carlsberg UK Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards.

The competition, devised by Northamptonshire Enterprise Partnership (NEP), is now in its fifth year and is again aimed at celebrating all that is great about local produce and drink, recognising excellence within the county’s dining venues and rewarding those who work so hard within the culinary sector.

The first of the tasty trio of cook-offs was that of ‘Spice Chef of the Year’ and the finalists were (in alphabetical order):

Ondine Hartgroves of Diner Privé Par Ondine, Northampton
Nadir Hussain of Sedgebrook Hall, Chapel Brampton
Mohammed Adbul Hye of Saffron, Northampton
Lakhvir Singh of Mem-Saab, Northampton

The four were invited to the impressive kitchens of Northampton College to prepare the two-course meal that they had submitted with their entry, including peppermint chicken, lime and ginger sea bass, rose water pilau rice and beetroot halwa. Among the judges charged with the task of choosing a winner were Ian James of category sponsor British Pepper & Spice and the former European ‘Curry Chef of the Year’ Raj Mandal from Bedford College, both of whom have judged in previous years. As Raj explained, the challenge was another tough task; “Each year that I come I imagine the standards couldn’t get any higher, but they do! The variety of dishes and the skills that each chef displayed was really top class and Northamptonshire should be very proud of its spicy talents!”

The second cook-off, also at Northampton College, was the bid for the title of ‘Aspire Chef of the Year’ and the five who took part were (in alphabetical order):

Gavin Austin of Oundle Mill, Oundle
Nick Baba of The Snooty Fox, Lowick
Viktorija Bernataviciute of The Wig & Pen, Northampton
Hao Dang of Dang’s, Northampton
Lee Gaskins of The Terrace Restaurant at Highgate House, Creaton

This time, the chefs were set a ‘Ready Steady Cook’ style challenge, each being provided with a selection of store cupboard products from category sponsor Booker as well as their key Northamptonshire ingredients of rabbit sourced from Boughton House, cider from Vale of Welton Cider at Welton near Daventry and Warner Edwards gin from Harrington.

The judges facing this task included Northampton College’s Head of Catering and Hospitality, Mike Coppock, Northampton’s Flying Chef, David Bishop and a Fellow Master Chef of Great Britain, Steven Saunders from category sponsor Aspire Hospitality, based at Silverstone. Each watched and scored the chefs in action before tucking into their created dishes of roast saddle of rabbit, dark chocolate soufflé and vanilla and sweet wine poached pears.

For Steven, choosing a winner proved an equally difficult decision. “What amazed me in particular was the creativity with which the different chefs approached their task. When the dishes were laid out for the judging it was really difficult to imagine that they’d all started with the same set of ingredients!” he revealed. “Yet each of them used their own specialist skills to their best advantage and left me and the other judges thoroughly impressed. If had room in my kitchen, I’d employ all of them!” he added.

And the third cook-off, also at Northampton College, saw eight of the county’s finest up and coming chefs from across the county battle it out in the semi-final of the ‘Young Chef of the Year’ – a category sponsored by Booker for those aged 18-25. Like their senior counterparts, they too were provided with a basket of standard kitchen ingredients by sponsors Booker with their key Northamptonshire ingredients being chicken legs from Pastures Farm Poultry at Yardley Hastings, pork sausages from Pargiters Butchers in Far Cotton and again, Warner Edwards gin, from which they had to provide a main course dish for two people.

The octet drew upon their wide variety of cooking talents by serving up a wonderful array of dishes for the judges, including gin-soaked chicken legs, chicken roulade with a spicy vegetable ravioli, and a sausage cassoulet.

Those contending with the tricky, but enjoyable task of choosing the finalists were Northampton College catering lecturer Richard Curtis, reigning ‘Young Chef of the Year’, Will Mountain of The Saracen’s Head at Little Brington and Peter Saunders from the category sponsors; “Booker is delighted to support this category because we’re very proud of the fine eateries that the county’s foodies can already enjoy and we’d like to think that these rising stars are those venues’ head chefs of the future.” Peter explained. “We were all really impressed by the skills they’re showing so early in their careers and I’m only sorry that I can’t be at the final because I know the judges are set for an wonderful morning!”

The four finalists, who now go forward to compete for the ‘Young Chef of the Year’ title in the final cook-off at Tresham College in Corby later this month, are (in alphabetical order):

Arthur Dzerins of The Hopping Hare, Northampton
Sophie Fountain of The White Swan Inn, Holcot
Bethany Fry of The Lanes Restaurant, Northampton College
Laura Gibbins of The World’s End, Ecton

All finalists now have until Thursday 17th October to discover their fate when the winners and runners-up in all 13 categories of this year’s Awards will be announced at the Awards Dinner (sponsored by Electrolux) taking place at the Royal and Derngate in Northampton. Tickets priced at £90 (plus VAT) or £850 (plus VAT) for a table of ten are available by calling Rachel Mallows on 01933 664437 or emailing rachel@rachelmallows.com For more details about the competition, please visit the Awards’ website www.northamptonshirefoodanddrink.co.uk