Craft Guild of Chefs Awards 2016
Working at a leading foodservice agency I’ve been lucky enough in my time to attend some of the most prestigious events in our industry’s calendar, but none are more hotly anticipated than the annual Craft Guild of Chefs Awards which are known as the ‘Chef Oscars’.
Last night (1st June) saw the event celebrate its 23rd year and with my invite firmly in hand, me and my fellow Jellybean, Susan, headed to the Lancaster London Hotel – a stunning venue to host the crème-de-le-cream of the chef world. After National Chairman, Lee Maycock welcomed everyone we were presented with four delicious courses by the Lancaster’s talented culinary team, who had the responsibility of feeding the 800 guests.
To kick off proceedings there was ‘A Taste of Nipa Thai’ which included chicken satay, prawn rice paper wrap and spiced papaya salad, the second course was ‘From the Island Grill’ – and my favourite dish of the evening – a creamy Waterloo cheese risotto served with Lancaster London smoked salmon. This was followed by a succulent Grilled Fillet and Cottage Pie of West Country Beef and finally for dessert – just when you thought you couldn’t eat another bite – heaven on a plate appeared in the form of an indulgent Milk Chocolate & Hazelnut Slice, Dark Chocolate Fondant & White Chocolate Ice Cream which I think even chocolatiers Mark Tilling and Will Torrent, who I’d spotted across the room, would have been impressed with!
After the first class feast, everyone settled to see who would be recognised as the greatest culinary talent in the industry and be presented with the prestigious Special Award, which saw Michelin-starred brothers, Chris and Jeff Galvin receive the top honour. My excitement of dining at Galvin at Windows later this summer has now reached a new high after listening to the phenomenal achievements of these two very talented chefs.
As part of the night, chefs and industry observers were asked to vote for the Innovation Award Category. Our table was divided on whether it should be German Gymnasium (everyone go, it’s a fantastic restaurant next to King’s Cross), Sexy Fish and Susan’s favourite, Soho Farmhouse – who proved victorious and is now on my wish list to visit – I’m hoping my fiancée will read this and take note!
Here is a rundown of all the winners:
Apprentice Chef Award
Eleanor De Maria, Eurest Services
Armed Services Award
Flt Sgt Richard Greenhalgh RAF, Royal Air Force
Banqueting and Event Chef Award
James Buckley , Levy Restaurants
Chef Lecturer Award
John Crowe, North West Regional College, Londonderry
Competition Chef Award     Â
Robert Kennedy, Sandhurst Military College
Contract Catering Chef Award
Stuart Nisbet, Elior UK
Development Chef Award
Diane Camp, Reynolds Catering Supplies
Ethnic Chef Award
Chad Rahman, Chez Mumtaj
Innovation Award
Nick Jones, Soho Farmhouse
New Restaurant of the Year
Chris White, the White Spoon, Cheltenham
Pastry Chef Award
Stephen Tarling, Daylesford Organic
People’s Choice Award
Gareth Billington, Sodexo
Pub Restaurant Chef Award
James MacKenzie, Pipe and Glass Inn
Public Sector Chef Award
Scott Pring, Bridgewater College
Restaurant Chef Award
Will Holland, Coast Restaurant
Young Chef Award
Arthur Quin, Punch Bowl Inn & Restaurant Crosthwaite
A big thank you to Dewberry’s Stuart Barnett for the invite who proved the perfect host ensuring our glasses were topped with the brilliantly named Riesling, Kung Fu Girl. I’m a bit bleary eyed this morning but to be part of such a special evening it was worth it – fingers crossed I get a golden ticket for next year.
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice pr agency. We help top brands with food service pr, food service marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.
Why Wagyu?
Working for one of foodservice’s leading agencies means that I’ve been lucky enough to sample a range of amazing new cuisines and food trends over the years. One opportunity that hadn’t crossed my path until now was Wagyu, which appeared on my local’s menu, The Bell in Godstone – well worth a visit if you’re ever in the area – as their new premium burger.
Well this raised my curiosity, I was aware of all the buzz around Wagyu being the beef equivalent of champagne and caviar, but why was Wagyu so darn expensive? With a table booked to sample this ultimate burger, I set upon doing some research and this is what I discovered.
1. Wagyu is a Japanese beef cattle breed, ‘Wa’ means Japanese and ‘gyu’ means cow.
2. There are just four breeds that are considered Wagyu in Japan, though export now means it can be found in America, Australia and Britain.
3. Wagyu is the world’s highest grade of beef and the most expensive.
4. Wagyu’s high fat marbling is what makes for its unique taste and a velvety texture, prime beef contains 6-8% versus Wagyu’s 20-25% marbled fat, which melts like butter when cooked.
5. It’s Wagyu’s superior genetics and painstaking care that lead to the meat’s higher marbling, they are not fed grass but given a special diet of corn, soybean, barley, wheat bran and aren’t slaughtered until 3 years old.
6. The mono-unsaturated to saturated fat ratio is higher in Wagyu than in any other beef making it healthier.
Sharing my findings with my fiancée that we were actually being healthy by eating this burger, we headed to the pub. The burgers proved a taste sensation! Topped with smoked cheddar, crispy onions, relish and gherkins with a side of sweet potato fries Wagyu’s ‘melt in the mouth texture’ and flavour was delicious and well worth the £16 price tag given the care that goes into this delicacy.
If you’ve sampled Wagyu I’d love to hear your thoughts on the world’s most expensive beef, as for me I’m already planning when I get back to my local to sample another!
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.
Ferrero launches Nutella® Breakfast Club
As the leading foodservice agency we love to help brands succeed in the out of home market by applying our sweet spot model and it doesn’t get much sweeter than working with Ferrero to firmly establishing Nutella® as part of the breakfast offering OOH.
This year to celebrate Breakfast Week (24th– 30th January 2016) Ferrero has launched the Nutella® Breakfast Club, created to support caterers looking to target the 21% of consumers who eat breakfast out-of-home (Allegra) and sweeten their profits using the UK’s number one spread brand*.
With independent research carried out by Jellybean revealing that 73% of 26-35 year olds expect to see Nutella® on menus and 81% would pay more for a branded spread (Toluna), the Italian family-owned confectionery company is encouraging caterers to visit www.NutellaBreakfastClub.co.uk and sign up to the club to get their FREE pack as part of the week-long celebration.
The limited edition packs+ include a 3Kg tub of Nutella® for back-of-house, a Nutella® breakfast booklet with recipes such as waffles and breakfast pizzas, plus high impact point-of-sale materials to promote Nutella®’s superbrand status to consumers.
With the breakfast ‘bar’ firmly raised, as consumers look for wow-factor dishes with a difference, Ferrero is giving caterers the tools they need to boost profits and set themselves apart from the competition. So what are you waiting for, join the Nutella® Breakfast Club today!
* Source: Nielsen – MAT w/e 10/10 ^ Toluna November 2014, consumer panel 300. + There are 20 packs available to claim
www.NutellaBreakfastClub.co.uk
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice pr agency. We help top brands with foodservice web design, Â pr, food service marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.
We've Bean: Raising Awareness for Coeliac Awareness Week
Since 2006 I’ve been talking about the importance of catering for gluten intolerances on behalf of Almondy, Sweden’s great tasting gluten-free cakes, which recently celebrated its 10,000,000th cake sale here in the UK. In this time I’ve seen gluten-free grow from a niche market to exploding into the foodservice and retail sectors, thanks partly to celebrity endorsements, but also due to the hard work of amazing organisations such as Coeliac UK, which is educating people on the symptoms of what can be a serious and deadly disease.
Coeliac disease affects 1 in 100 people in the UK, and the UK gluten-free market is forecast to grow by 46% by 2017*. On top of this, 62% of people living with coeliac disease only eat out once a month or less due to lack of menu choices (survey by Coeliac UK). Therefore there is a huge demand for gluten-free dishes and as a leading foodservice agency, Jellybean has been supporting several of its clients in tapping into the opportunity, showcasing how their products can put gluten-free options onto menus.
From social media campaigns, to consumer insight, infographics and recipe development, during this year’s Coeliac Awareness Week, Jellybean developed bespoke campaigns with Aviko, Tilda and Almondy that not only raised awareness for Coeliac UK and the week itself, but importantly delivered real results for the brands.
As well as inspiring chefs to consider more gluten-free options on menus, our activity generated 1,000 new followers for our clients’ Twitter accounts and 6,600,000 opportunities to see in just one week! Here’s a snap shot of what we’ve been up to for Coeliac Awareness Week 2015.
Tilda Seven Days of Gluten Free Giveaways
Tilda was looking to promote the gluten-free properties of its rice through the Tilda Foodservice Twitter account @TildaChef, giving bona fide UK chefs the chance to win a 5Kg bag of Tilda Easy Cook Basmati each day of the week. In addition our crack team of social media experts increased their Twitter activity to include a greater focus on gluten-free Tilda recipes, drove engagement with anagrams, as well as targeting those using the #CoeliacUKAwarenessWeek. During the week @TildaChef received over 400 new followers and generated a staggering 3 million opportunities to see!
Aviko Gluten-Free Heroes
With over 70 gluten-free products in its range and two dedicated gluten-free factories, Aviko was keen to highlight its potato sides to operators and help caterers become ‘Gluten-Free Heroes’ by swapping popular menu sides to more Coeliac friendly options. Jellybean carried out consumer research that highlighted the risks of serving hidden gluten to Coeliacs – and through deep drilling found that 60% of people don’t realise that not all chips are gluten-free – this gave us our hook!
Armed with hard-hitting stats to show the risk of serving hidden gluten, a high-impact infographic was developed to make the stats easy to share, and awareness on an important issue driven through PR and social media generating pick-up across the trade press. Recipes were also developed with the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Daniel Ayton – a Coeliac himself – to inspire caterers to take action on gluten and adapt their menus.
During Coeliac Awareness Week Twitter activity was ramped-up to highlight Aviko’s gluten free range. This included high-impact info-bites taken from the research and menu inspiration was offered via Coeliac friendly recipe cards. We also focused on highlighting the important work of Coeliac UK, supporting the charity with Aviko pledging to donate £2 for every follow and RT during the week, as well as the chance to win a personalised chef’s jacket and one of five Aviko and Coeliac UK goody bags. The week long activity generated an opportunity to see of 1.2M and raised £600 for an important cause.
Almondy #GFChocoHamper
Last year Jellybean worked with Almondy to help it launch four new cakes into foodservice and retail, including an indulgent new Cadbury cake topped with real Dairy Milk buttons. To continue building awareness of the cake with Almondy’s followers and promote Almondy’s 33 years of gluten-free credentials we used Twitter and a simple, yet effective follow and RT mechanic to win one of five Gluten-Free Cadbury Hampers through its #GFChocoHamper campaign. The giveaway generated a huge amount of engagement taking Almondy’s following to over 3,000 followers and reaching well over a 2 million people.
But our work around gluten-free and coeliac friendly menus doesn’t stop at Coeliac Awareness Week. With the introduction of the allergen legislation back in December, free-from and allergens are very much at the top of mind for caterers and we will do all we can to ensure our clients’ brands help chefs and caterers maximise the opportunity from this growing market. To find out more about Coeliac Awareness Week and Coeliac UK click here.
* F&D Innovation Network’s free-from conference, 2013
Jellybean Creative is a leading foodservice marketing agency and communications agency. We help top brands with foodservice pr, foodservice marketing, digital and design. If you feel we could help you with your marcomms, strategy, public relations, creative or digital then drop us a line today.
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