|
Miguel
Castano, head chef at La Tasca Spanish restaurant and bar in
Broadgate, London has won the national Tapa Chef of the Year Award 2008.
The
competition, open to all chefs across the 87 strong Spanish
restaurant group, was held this week in Birmingham. Nine finalists
from each regional area took part in the cook-off preparing their
dishes for the five judges; La Tasca's newly appointed Managing
Director, Peter Murdoch, Bay Restaurant Group's Developmental Chef,
Simon Blunt, Food Operations, Frances Sanchez and Andy Barker and
Simon Jerrome from Matthew Clark Wines.
The winning
dish, "Ensalada de Rape Gaudi"
(pan fried monkfish on a warm aubergine, tomato, red pepper and
rocket salad) will join La Tasca's Winter menu which launches week
commencing 10 November 2008.
Second and
third places were awarded to Andrew Krajewski of Victoria, London and
Roberto Diaz of Liverpool. Andrew's dish, "Pulpito rellenos
con paella y chorizo" is a delicious combination of fried
baby squid tubes stuffed with paella and chorizo and served with
garlic mayonnaise and lambs lettuce. Roberto's dish, "Montado
de Gambas", toasted bread, topped with prawns and Serano ham
in a creamy wine and garlic sauce.
La Tasca
operates 87 restaurants throughout the UK offering customers a wide
variety of over 30 tapas dishes, paellas and an extensive range of
Spanish wines and beers. The restaurants' authentic Spanish look,
ambience and colourful surroundings aim to ensure that every visit is
a truly Spanish experience.
Peter
Murdoch, Managing Director of La Tasca said of the award, "Congratulations
to Miguel for winning the first ever La Tasca Tapa Chef of the Year
Award. There were some truly innovative dishes created for the
competition which also demonstrated what a breadth of talented chefs
there are within the group. Miguel's monkfish salad is simple yet
delicious and is perfect for our menu. I'm sure our customers will
enjoy trying it out."
Miguel
Castano, head chef at La Tasca Broadgate and La Tasca's Tapa chef of
the Year 2008, said, "It's a honour to receive the award. I'm
passionate about creating and cooking great food so it'll be
fantastic to see my own dish on the menu across all of our restaurants."
top
|
