Regional finalists announced for Roux Scholarship 2011

Two regional heats will be held on Thursday 10th March at Birmingham College of Food and Thames Valley University, Ealing. Competing in Birmingham: Mark Birchall, LEnclume, Cartmel, Cumbria Richard Edwards, Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, Wiltshire Viresh Singh, The Connaught Hotel, London Carl Chappell, The Montagu Arms Hotel, Beaulieu, Hampshire Frederic Aumeunier, Devonshire Arms Hotel & Spa, Skipton, N Yorks Richard Cullen, The Spotgate Inn, Staffordshire Judges will be Alain Roux, James Martin & Steve Love (Roux Scholar 1997) Competing in London: Andrew Wong, Bumbles Restaurant, London Thomas Brockbank, Self employed working with Compass Group Pramod Ghadge, Restaurant Associates, London David White, Restaurant Associates, Barclays Wealth, London Nick Whatmough, Restaurant Associates, Barclays Wealth, London Matthew Whitfield, The Montagu Arms, Beaulieu, Hampshire William Best, Wiltons Restaurant, London Neven Vanderzee, Galvin At Windows, London Matthew MacDonald, Vinoteca, London Oliver Farrar, Haymarket Hotel, London Quinton Bennett, Haymarket Hotel, London Mark Berdin, UMU, London Judges will be Michel Roux Jnr, Gary Rhodes, OBE, Brian Turner, CBE, David Nicholls & Andrew Fairlie. Six winners across the two heats will go through to the national final, which takes place at Westminster Kingsway College, London. Contestants will have 2.5 hrs to cook their dish as originally submitted along with a dessert from a list of mystery ingredients given to them on the day. The judges will be looking for those recipes and methods, which demonstrate the best balance of creativity, taste style and practicality in the finished dish. The 2011 Roux Scholarship winner will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at The Mandarin Oriental, Hyde Park London the same evening. Michel Roux Jnr said: "We had a very high standard of entries, with a lot of Asian influenced recipes this year. Monkfish lends itself well to these flavours and Iʼm really looking forward to tasting the dishes." Alain Roux added: "This year the techniques in the recipes are different, lots of new cooking styles, such as using vacuum pouches along side traditional methods. There are interesting combinations that are exciting and not too powerful so the fish can stand out as well as some more classical recipes."