Do you remember my tapas competition???
Well… you can guess from the title but I will tell you a bit more about it!
I send the recipe on the 29th Dec and on the 8th of January (I had already lost hope) I got an email saying: CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE BEEN SHORTLISTED!! I was thrilled!!
From there it all went really quickly. I got a few calls from Cesar Garcia, the head chef, to go through my dish and explained me what they day would involve. I had to miss school as I had to cook my dish not only for the judges but also for the whole charity event! I was a bit scared to start with but after speaking with Cesar he made me realise that I should just go there and have fun! And that is exactly what I did.
I arrived at the stunning looking restaurant in Canary Wharf around 10 am. From there the time really flew. I was introduced to the lovely and friendly team and I met Daniel, another finalist and chef from Ferrol in Spain who had flown for the competition. We were the only two finalist starting in the morning as he had to clean, gut and fillet lots of mackerel and I had to clean and stuffed around 60 baby squid. The other finalists were arriving in the afternoon. We were assigned a “helping” chef to supervise our service and help us throughout the day. By 5:30pm I had all my mise en place done. I even had time to enjoy a lovely lunch with the rest of the finalists.
Now the only thing I had to do was grill the squid and deep fried the tentacles just before service. And decide on how to plate it!! I was using round plates so I had to redesign my dish. Panic!! Yes I did panic a bit but soon (I didn’t have time to faff around) it was decided.
The event started and friends, family and guest started to arrive. Then is when Cesar asked: do we have more squid? Apparently they were extra guests. Of course we have! I said and run to the fridge to quickly clean and stuff 9 more squid (another panic moment…. not noticed I hope!)
The first dishes were presented and served and without realising my turn came. Having to present my dish to the judges was nerve racking but I could hear my fellow Leith’s friends and family cheering me up. I explained my dish to the quite intimidating judges: Jose Pizarro (famous Spanish chef), Esther Manzano (co-owner of 2 Michelin star Casa Marcial restaurant in Spain), Christine Hayes (Olive magazine editor) and Andrew Neather (food editor at the evening standard) and then went and joined my friends for the rest of the event.
Then I was called back by the judges to receive their opinion of my dish. Do I have to??? ohhhh dear….
I won’t lie. Their comments were honest and fair. The negatives were that the squid was a bit overcooked and that the morcilla might overpowered the subtle squid. OK! Positives were it was the best looking dish, it had great flavours and textures. I was so happy that I managed to present and served all the dishes that I wasn’t very upset about their negative comments. Since then I have been thinking about their comments and I will be much more careful cooking squid from now on! Although I don’t think I will be cooking squid any time soon!
Then the moment arrived and we were all called back for the prizes to be announced.
Daniel, with his beautiful horse mackerel escabeche, won the first prize (I tried it and it was stunning!):
The second prize went to Tom with his Iberico pork fillet with apples and Asturian cider sauce (didn’t have the chance to try it):
The the third prize went to me!!!!! OLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE 🙂
What can I say… I was over the moon!! It was such an amazing experience; meeting and working with such a fantastic team, supporting a great cause and I went back home for with my 3rd prize! Not bad for a Monday in January!!
My face says it all…
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