Gastronomy Team and Future Star winners to receive £10,000 bursary

Published: 25 March, 2010

Winners of the Gastronomy Team of the Year and Future Stars of the Year competitions will now both receive £10,000 bursaries for the establishments where they are based.

Both awards, run by the Academy of Food & Wine in association with Discover the Origin, test the abilities of front and back of house teams to work together to create menus, dishes and match wines.

The Gastronomy Team of the Year competition is for chef/front-of-house teams from commercial kitchens. Establishments can enter more than one team. Last year's winners were head sommelier Alan Holmes and sous chef Nick Hewitt from Chewton Glen, New Milton, Hampshire.

This year the winning Gastronomy Team of the Year's establishment will receive an Academy training bursary of £3,000, along with the team's personal prize of a 10-day trip to France, Portugal and Italy. The runner-up's establishment will receive a £2,000 Academy training bursary.

The dishes created in the awards process must include either Parma Ham or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, both of which are part of the Discover the Origin PDO promotional campaign. Harpers Wine & Spirit is the awards media partner.dishes and match wines.

The deadline for entries to both competitions have now been extended to 9 April 2010. Entry forms can be downloaded from the Academy's website on www.afws.co.uk or call the Academy of Food & Wine on 020 8661 4646 or email helen@acfws.org .

Upon receipt of the completed entry form applicants to the Gastronomy Team of the Year will receive a multiple-choice questionnaire for completion.

The judges will then mark the questionnaires and select a number of successful teams from each of the following regions: The South, London, Wales & The Midlands, The North, and Scotland.

The selected teams will then be asked to submit a two-course menu featuring two courses. This can be a starter and a main or a main and dessert. All the ingredients to be used in the preparation of the menu must be listed and the method of preparation fully explained as well as an overall description of the finished dish.

The sommelier or front of house team member must state the 'Discover the Origin' wines chosen to match each course and supply a full explanation as to why they have been selected and how the wines and dishes complement each other.

A panel of judges will then review all the entries and the best team from each region will be awarded a Regional Winner Certificate and trophy.

Each regional winner (five teams) will be invited to attend a final 'cook and serve' on 19 July 2010 at Westminster Kingsway College, London. Here they will prepare and serve the two-course meal they submitted to the judges and explain why the two matches were selected.

The winner will be announced at a drinks reception for invited guests after the final where the winning team will be presented with a framed certificate, trophy and details of their prize.

The Future Stars of Gastronomy competition is open to chef and front-of-house students from any college or university. Colleges can enter more than one team.

The winners' college will now receive an Academy of Food & Wine training bursary of £3,000 together with the winning team's personal prize of a 10-day trip, courtesy of Discover the Origin, to gain an insight and understanding into the history and provenance behind the products of the PDO campaign including wines from Burgundy, the hams from Parma, the cheese from Emiglia Romagna and the wines the Douro Valley. The college the runners-up attend will receive a £2,000 Academy training bursary.

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