This year’s Great British Menu gave the winners the chance to cook at a prestigious banquet to be held in London’s iconic Gherkin in June. The event will be hosted by Heston Blumenthal and attended by top chefs from around the world and celebrity guests.
Nickel–Electro, the South West based firm that designs and manufactures the popular Clifton Food Range®, were pleased to supply five of the finalists with water baths to use during the competition.
The Clifton Food Range® evolved when Nickel–Electro realised the unparalleled specific temperature control offered by their scientific application water baths would be of enormous benefit to chefs. Clifton Food Range® water baths are perfect for slow and sous vide cooking, by which ingredients are sealed in vacuum packs before going into the Bath at precise constant temperatures, resulting in enhanced tastes and textures. Clifton Food Range® work closely with Swindon based Multivac UK who supply vacuum packing machines ideally suited to sous vide and storage applications.
The five finalists who used Clifton Food Range® water baths had incorporated sous vide cooking into their menus.
In the South East Region, Jason Atherton from Maze Restaurant in London used a water bath to cook his London cure salmon, which he accompanied with avocado puree and horseradish snow. Northern finalist Nigel Hawthorn from Northcote Manor near Blackburn is clearly a water bath fan as he used his to cook the cod for his fish course, the canon of beef for his main course and the rhubarb for his pudding. And Central finalist Glynn Purnell from Purnell’s in Birmingham cooked the veal for his adventurous veal and liquorice main course in his Clifton Food Range® water bath.
Meanwhile Northern Ireland finalist Danny Millar from Balloo House in Killinchy used his bath to cook the sweetbreads for his starter which he served with peas, broad beans and morels.
In last year’s competition Sat Bain’s starter of Ham, Egg and Peas, which used a Clifton Food Range® water bath for the slow cooked free–range duck eggs, was voted the clear winner by both the judges and the viewers. Sat went on to cook his winning starter at the British Embassy in Paris to wide acclaim.
Melvin Dickson, Managing Director of Nickel–Electro says: “After Sat’s phenomenal success in 2007 we were delighted to see how many of this year’s brilliant finalists used Clifton Food Range® water baths, and we were proud to supply them with our product.”