Run in conjunction with the Craft Guild of Chefs, the competition is open to teams of two chefs, who each had 45 minutes to prepare, cook and present a main course dish and dessert using Tilda’s speciality rice as the base ingredient in both recipes.
Awarded Silver Best-in-Class, Lexington’s winning duo comprised Tony Stuart and James Garred, who went head-to-head against the nine other team finalists to win a two-day trip to Po Valley (Italy) to experience the Arborio rice harvest.
They cooked Tilda basmati and wild jewelled saffron rice, spiced halibut, crab and sea vegetable for main, and Tamarind pineapple, caramelised Tilda Arborio rice ice cream, coconut, pistachio, rice granola for dessert.
Craft Guild of Chefs’s director of operations, Andrew Green, commented: “Congratulations to the Lexington Catering team. The teams worked extremely hard right to the end, in an extremely intense competition. It was clear to see they were motivated by their passion for food.”
Craig Dillon, head of foodservice at Tilda UK, added: “We’re always impressed with the level of talent and expertise on display during Salon Culinaire and hope that by adding the team element we will see even more skill and ability.
“Rice is such a versatile ingredient and Tilda Chef Team of the Year is a great opportunity for chefs to get creative and experiment with our speciality variants, which help make dishes more premium meaning chefs can command a higher price tag on menus.”