Winners all round at the Hotel & Catering Show and Wessex Salon Culinaire

The event, which was officially opened by Andrew Stembridge, managing director of five star Chewton Glen Hotel in New Milton, Hampshire, featured some of the UK's top chefs, plus competitions showcasing both front and back of house skills. Wessex Salon Culinaire, in association with the Craft Guild of Chefs and sponsored by Nestlé Professional's CHEF brand and Coastline Produce saw hundreds of chefs compete in a range of hot, cold and static classes using a variety of skills and creative recipes. Craft Guild vice president and co-ordinator of the Wessex Salon Culinaire Steve Scuffell said there were 750 entrants for the culinary competitions and 100 for front of house, the latter's best ever tally. Different skills classes had attracted large numbers too – for example knife skills – that give people the confidence to cook, he explained. For the first time ever the Wessex Salone Culinaire included the debut of Nestlé Professional's Taste of Toque, a spin off from its bigger premier college culinary competition Nestlé Toque d'Or. Its aim was to inspire colleges to enter the main competition – the prestigious Nestlé Toque d'Or. Several colleges that had never entered the big one before, or had entered a long time ago, were invited by Nestlé to participate. College representatives – student and lecturer teams – were asked to produce a main and a dessert for no more than £5 per head for six covers, and design a restaurant concept that would be verbally presented to the judges before cooking began. Worcester College of Technology steamed ahead and won the prize for its winning team Nick Bryan and Richard Wainman (pictured), who together with a guest each will be going to the Nestlé Toque d'Or awards at The Dorchester Hotel London in July as Nestlé's guests. The winners together with those who achieved second and third place – Julian Biddulph and Ramon Ramos from Westminster Kingsway College and Marlon Luke and Claire Willett from Bedford College will also be going to the competition's finals at the BBC Good Food Show at the NEC in June. In other competitions held over the two days, winners of Nestlé's CHEF@Salon competitions were Paul Ayres from the Marriott Forest of Arden Hotel with a silver 'best in class'; Dave Hill from autograph the food people with a bronze 'best in class; Barry Kearns of Chichester Cathedral Enterprises with bronze; and Marlon Luke from Bedford College with a certificate of merit. In the Caterer, Licensee & Hotelier Student Chef of the Year Dharam Ramlogan and Danny Hoang from Westminster Kingsway College won gold; Rebecca Reeves and Joseph Masters from Thanet College won silver; and David Gilbert from Chichester College won bronze. Winners of Brend Hotels Chef of the Year were Danny Downs and Ian Worley of Saunton Sands Hotel in Braunton, Devon. Jack Stoner from the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth won The Coastline Produce Sea Bass Challenge. The Masterclass Theatre sponsored by Nestlé Professional's brand CHEF, Bournemouth & Poole College and Robot Coupe, and supported by Dewberry Redpoint's Eat Out magazine, staged a host of demos by leading chefs and seats were in high demand. This popular feature's line up included: TV chef James Tanner; Cyrus Todiwala, one of Britain's most successful and widely admired Indian chefs; as well as BBC2's 'Masterchef: The Professionals' semi-finalist, Alice Churchill to name just a few. A four course gourmet dinner created by BBC celebrity chef James Martin, Luke Matthews, executive chef at Chewton Glen, and the executive chef at the Bournemouth Highcliff Marriott, Clyde Hollett, was attended by more than 130 guests and raised in excess of £3,000 for the industry's charity Hospitality Action. • The 2012 Hotel & Catering Show will take place from March 14-15 at the Bournemouth International Centre. For further information about the show and full competition results, visit www.hotel-expo.co.uk or call 01425 485040