Craft Guild of Chefs Awards 2010

10th August 2010, 11:13am

Themed as ‘pure skill, pure talent and pure magic’, these were all on parade at the 2010 Craft Guild of Chefs Awards ceremony at the London Lancaster Hotel on midsummer’s night.

The legendary Pierre Koffmann, one of Britain's greatest chefs, was proclaimed winner of the Special Award at the 2010 Craft Guild of Chefs Awards – an accolade that recognises a great ambassador for culinary arts, which he has certainly proved. Past winners have included the Roux Brothers, Marco Pierre White and Heston Blumenthal.

Craft Guild vice president David Mulcahy said this year the celebration was about a chef whose passion was traditional country cuisine and a commitment to excellence.

As a young boy, Koffmann's inspiration was his grandmother Camille, a Gascony farmer, who taught him all about traditional French country cooking in her kitchen, and this forged his deep rooted passion for simple ingredients that produced food that harked back to those childhood days.

Koffmann, whose career in the UK began 40 years ago, worked alongside the Roux brothers before opening his London restaurant La Tante Claire in 1977 to cook the food he liked to eat – which was a groundbreaking move at that time, says Mulcahy. La Tante Claire had a long and successful run and along the way he collected three Michelin stars and rosettes galore, and he helped develop some of the UK's best chefs – Tom Aikens, Marco Pierre White, Jason Atherton and David Everitt- Matthias to name just a few.

When he finally called time on his restaurant in 2004 he became a consultant and also took on the role of head chef at the Bleeding Heart in the City of London for a year. But in 2009 he was lured back to a La Tante Claire style venue on the roof of Selfridges, which had introduced a pop up restaurant to coincide with a new London restaurant festival.

It has been said that Koffmann lets his food do the talking, says Mulcahy, adding that news of the Koffmann's Restaurant opening in The Berkeley in Knightsbridge in July saw national headlines of "The Return of the King".

For 17 years, the Craft Guild Awards has brought together leaders in the foodservice and hospitality arena to honour the industry's best chefs and caterers, and more than 600 culinary professionals attended this year's awards dinner to acclaim the nominees and the winners.

Eighteen restaurant chefs were among the nominees with six winning the coveted top award in their category [see pages 49-55]. Sat Bains, who won the Restaurant Chef of the Year Award, was unable to attend the awards ceremony, but Simon Hulstone, chef owner of the Michelin starred Elephant Restaurant in Torquay, received it on his behalf.

Meanwhile the transformation from Grade ll listed Victorian church hall to glamorous city restaurant gave Galvin La Chapelle, owned by brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin, the New Restaurant of the Year Award.

Jeff Galvin, who heads the kitchen, had given the restaurant an imaginative menu that added a modern twist to classic French cooking, which was highly praised by the judging panel.

Craft Guild chairman Andrew Green said the standard and number of entries was unbelievably high this year. "It sounds like a cliché but this year really was something else in terms of the fantastic calibre of chefs out there."

The winners

Apprentice Chef Award
Conor Stein The Royal Garden Hotel

Banqueting Chef Award
Steve Golding Sodexo Prestige

Competition Chef Award
Richard Bowden Compass Group

Contract Catering Chef Award
Derek Reilly Sodexo

Cost Sector Chef Award
Robert Kennedy Royal Military Academy (Compass)

Development Chef Award
Phil Rimmer Apetito

Education Chef Award
Norman Robertson Ayr College

Ethnic Chef Award
Jitin Joshi Vatika Restaurant

New Restaurant of the Year
Galvin La Chapelle

Pastry Chef Award
Sarah Hartnett The Park Lane Hotel

Pub Restaurant Chef Award
Alistair Barlow The Fleece

Restaurant Chef Award
Sat Bains Restaurant Sat Bains

Young Chef Award
Adam Smith The Ritz

Special Award
Pierre Koffmann

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• 21 Apr 2011 - The Craft Guild of Chefs announces the nominees for its 2011 awards