The 2010 Skills for Chefs conference began yesterday, hosted once again at The University of Sheffield, with some the country’s leading chefs joining in to share their expertise with professionals and students from the catering industry.

The keynote address came from Catherine Gazzoli, CEO of Slow Food UK, the organisation dedicated to making food good, clean and fair, by empowering local communities and individuals who want to embrace and discover sustainable and good quality food – fresh cooked and enjoyed slowly; an antidote to modern fast food.

There are now more than 1000 Slow Food groups in more than 150 countries – including one in Sheffield – bringing together local people who care about agriculture, food, health and the environment.

The first chef to hit the demo kitchen was Atul Kochhar chef patron of the acclaimed Indian restaurant Benares in London’s Mayfair.  In less than 40 minutes, he had put together a feast of three Indian dishes, sharing some of his expertise along the way.

A Michelin starred chef, Atul knows how to create mouth watering Indian dishes, so what are the secrets of great Indian food?

Spices, he advised, should be used in just the same way as one would season with salt and pepper and they should be added as part of the seasoning balance.

“Don’t be scared of spices,” he said “nothing is forbidden, but ease up on the chilli – you shouldn’t be trying to prove something by adding quantities of chilli.”

He explained that spices flavour a dish when their essential oils are released into the cooking process, so for this to happen, it is imperative that any oil is hot before they are added.

Referring back to the speech of Catherine Gazzoli, Atul also advocated the importance of fresh cooking and spoke with some awe about a recent visit to the far east, where locals cook completely from scratch – if they need turmeric, they reach for the root, not a jar.

All in all, it was a terrific opening, which gave many of us pause for thought about our modern food lifestyle and how important it is for us to rediscover the origins of our food.

The day continued to showcase the talent of leading chefs, including Claude Bosi of Hibiscus restaurant, Andrew Bennett and Sarah Hartnett of Park Lane Hotel and Glynn Purnell of Purnell’s, Birmingham.

It was a great opportunity to network with people from the catering industry and to gain an insight into current restaurant trends from some of our leading industry professionals.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 at 11:58 am and is filed under Local Events, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.