Thursday 7 July 2011

HOT BATH: Getting inspired by the Taste of the West

Watching anyone at the top of their game, doing the thing that they love is always inspiring. Whether it's a sportsman, singer, dancer, craftsman......or chef.
Hywel Jones with one of the dishes he prepared
And that was one of the really great things about the weekend's Taste of the West festival in Milsom Place in Bath – the theatre kitchen in the Octagon which gave people the chance to watch some of the area's top chefs in action.
Now I feel about chefs the way that other people feel about pop stars or premiership footballers – I am more or less completely starstruck, and totally in awe of what they do.
So for me, the opportunity to see them preparing remarkable dishes up close was very exciting.
In this area we are very lucky with the great range of local produce available, and the amazing talent that exists to turn it into delicious meals.
Having watched the Great British Menu I was familiar with Hywel Jones, Executive Chef, at Lucknam Park in Colerne. I found myself transfixed watching the quiet ease with which he handled the ingredients, expertly assembling the dishes while still maintaining a rapport with the audience and bantering with his assistant. 
Rachel Demuth, owner of Demuths vegetarian restaurant in the heart of Bath, and head chef at the restaurant, Richard Buckley, created some stunning and vibrant dishes which proved that vegetarian food does not have to be boring. I am lucky enough to have worked with Rachel before at her vegetarian cookery school, and I know how passionate she is about vegetarian cookery and about sharing her skills and this shone through.
But it was Sam Moody from The Bath Priory that really blew me away.
At just 26 years old he already heads up a kitchen, working in a team of 17, and is regarded as one of the top chefs under 30 in the country.
Over the past few years I have been cooking more and more, and I now consider myself a pretty decent cook. But still not even close to this young talent.
It was genuinely inspiring to see someone so young, who had clearly found his calling in life, working and talking about the thing that he is most passionate about.
The Bath Priory is now top of the list on my places to go to eat – as soon as I've saved enough pennies!
Outside the Octagon, throughout Milsom Place were dozens of stalls selling everything from brownies to duck sausages, to wine – but all had one thing in common. They were locally produced.
The more I eat, the more discerning I have become about where my food is sourced from and I genuinely believe that local food, produced with love, with always taste better than anything plucked from the shelf of a supermarket.
It's great to see so many people locally producing such a wide range of products, and it made me realise that you can get almost anything you want from the area, as long as you look hard enough.
One of the things I love about these types of events is just being around people who obviously love and care about food as much as I do.
It's genuinely inspirational.


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