Venue Chefs Join Top Celebrities to Celebrate Food
November 2009
Chefs from Keele University were invited to cook alongside celebrity chefs at the 2009
Stone Food and Drink Festival.
The award-winning chefs - Allan Jones, Taste of Staffordshire's Master Chef of the Year 2009 and Luke Staton, Taste of Staffordshire's Young Chef of the Year 2009 - whose culinary delights can normally only be sampled at the 19th century Keele Hall - joined hoards of top chefs from around the county to prepare mouth-watering gourmet meals during the three day festival. Celebrity chef, Mary Berry, who opened the festival gave her own demonstration of tasty treats, opening the floor to the Keele Hall chefs to create their award-winning recipes.
The menu prepared by the duo used local ingredients and included; Staffordshire organic wild garlic cheese, prosciutto and rosemary; butternut squash soup with prawn and poppy seed straws; twice-cooked belly pork served with creamed lemon thyme leeks and lyonnaise potatoes and vanilla panacotta with autumn berry crumble.
Celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo was also on hand to give his own Italian flair of cooking on the final day of the festival, which attracted thousands of visitors over the three days.
Speaking of the festival Allan Jones said: "We were delighted to take part in the festival, especially because we were in such good company with widely respected chefs. We had a great time and were able to give people tips on how to create quality menus to experience restaurant dining in their own home."
Following the festival, the Keele Hall chefs were formally recognised at the Taste of Staffordshire Awards dinner held at the Staffordshire County Showground, where they were officially presented with their awards.
