Two Chef’s at East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust have fought off competition to be crowned Regional NHS Chef of the Year at the first ever NHS Chef competition which was launched with the first heats in Newcastle this week.
Sinto Jose and Sanish Thomas, both Chefs working at Royal Blackburn Teaching Hospital, were selected from their department to take part in the first set of heats in a competition to be crowned NHS Chef of the Year, 2021.
The pair travelled to Newcastle to take part and cooked up a storm with their healthy allergen-free dishes. Their starter of quinoa and roasted vegetables with an olive oil and orange dressing also picked up an award for the best plant-based meal of the day.
During the event, each team had 90 minutes to prepare, cook and present a three-course meal in line with hospital food budgets that would be suitable for delivery to a patient via a trolley. The meal also had to reflect Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services, the Department of Health and Social Care's Obesity Strategy and must be nutritionally balanced in accordance with the British Dietetic Association (BDA) guidance.
Jijo Mathew, Food Safety and Quality Assurance Manager at the Trust, travelled to Newcastle with Sinto and Sanish after mentoring and coaching them before the competition began.
He said: “Our focus at ELHT for the last five years has been to produce everything fresh and currently 93% of everything we produce is done in house. This is the first time the competition is being hosted and the team has made the whole department really, really proud. Watching Sinto and Sanish in the competition was a great experience and they managed everything perfectly, even with only half an hour for each course. When we found out they had won their reaction was priceless, their families were even crying when we phoned to tell them the good news!”
The winning dishes also included revolutionary gluten-free fish and chips with its own unique recipe, with one of the judges even asking for the recipe after the competition to make for his wife at home. The main dish which “blew the minds of everyone there” was followed by a desert of refined sugar panna cotta with pineapple and salsa to include natural sweetness rather than added sugar.
Talking after his win, Sanish said: “I’m glad we won because my family were joking beforehand saying I needed to win to prove to them I could cook. As soon as I rang them I said, I proved you wrong because we won! It was a great experience and the atmosphere with all the chefs from across the region was great.”
The pair will now head to London in September for a three-day mentoring event ahead of the National final with celebrity chefs to network, attend practical sessions to help develop their entries for the finals and to work with their mentors. They will then compete in the final competition to hopefully be crowned National NHS Chef of the Year, 2021.
Following their win, the pair expressed their gratitude to the ELHT catering team for all their help in the preparations for the competition.
Sinto said: “We couldn’t have done it without Jijo and the team. They helped us with working out the budgets, planning the recipes and making sure everything was to the guidelines. I’m really looking forward to the finals now and let’s see if we can go all the way and win!”
