Dorset-based Lesley Waters Cookery School to host finals of the Teflon® Diamond Standard Awards

Prestigious national webstreamed event for budding young chefs to be held locally

 Wedgwood Way, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK, March 2013 – Lesley Water’s Abbots Hill Cookery School in Halstock is to host the forthcoming Teflon® Diamond Standard Awards. DuPont, innovators of Teflon® nonstick coatings, who have set up this award scheme, which recognises excellence in young catering students, have made a strategic choice to bring the finals of the event out of London. The fact that the organisers have chosen Halstock in Dorset to host the inaugural year of the awards is a great testament to the county, its beauty, accessibility and the quality of the venue.

The finals on 27 March will be webstreamed live to a global audience at www.teflon-dsa.com, so everyone will be able to follow eagerly the progress of the teams on the day. The pioneering webstream will feature coverage of the regional awards presentation, as well as live streaming of the cook-off itself and the national award presentation. There will also be interviews with Lesley Waters, contestants, teachers and the judges.

At the finals the regional winners from all over the country will celebrate their achievement at an awards dinner to be held at Summer Lodge Country House Hotel in Evershot, attended by the judges and the competition’s regional sponsors. To reach the finals, all the regional winning teams have demonstrated superior skills in innovation, creativity and execution, and have already beaten off stiff competition from other teams in their area. Their task in the regional competition was to design and create a healthy and aesthetic meal for a fine dining menu. Nationally the competition attracted entries from 261 students from nearly 70 schools all over the country.

The regional winning teams will win a selection of prizes including a cash bursary for each team member, a Tiffany crystal trophy and a set of nonstick cookware; the winning school will also receive a Tiffany crystal trophy and a cash prize, while there will also be a Tiffany crystal trophy for the teacher who has mentored the teams through to the finals.

The event will see the national cook-off determine the overall event winner, for which Lesley Waters is the chair of the judging panel. She has championed the whole process, and she says: “I am thrilled that we are able to host this new national award scheme here in Dorset. It is so refreshing for a national award of this nature to be brought out of London in this way, and it’s good news for Dorset. I am also delighted that the Teflon® Diamond Standard Awards have attracted teams to enter from all over the country, and that the standard is so amazingly high. This is exciting news for the future of professional cookery in this country.”

The team that wins the national cook-off will receive a Tiffany crystal trophy for each team member, a work experience day at Abbots Hill Cookery School with Lesley Waters; the national winning school will win a Tiffany crystal trophy, a cash prize and £2,000 of new kitchenware, bakeware and cookware, donated by the generous sponsors Tesco, Europasonic, Crealys, NoStik, ProWare and LeChef by Dennys Uniforms.

In their first year the awards have already achieved a high recognition, with important industry endorsements. The national judging panel, in addition to Lesley Waters, also includes professional chefs and industry experts, including: Adam Smith, professional sous chef at the Ritz Hotel, London; Chris Moore, chief executive of the Clink charity, which works to rehabilitate offenders through the hospitality industry; Anne Pierce, chief executive of the Springboard charity, which organises the FutureChef awards aimed at younger students studying at GCSE level; Mark Lewis, group editor of the sector’s premier trade magazine, Caterer & Hotelkeeper; and Wilbert Broeksmit marketing manager for Teflon® Consumer Finishes EMEA.

The Teflon® Diamond Standard Awards and Springboard’s FutureChef are partner awards, providing a clear path for achievement and recognition for the brightest young chefs in the country.