Simon Addison Inspires Chefs & Students at Homewood Park

Chefs from across Bath and The Cotswolds gathered at the stunningly beautiful, Homewood Park on Monday June 27, for an afternoon of Segway fun, Gourmet Grilling and food-fuelled capers.

The event began with a canapé and Bottle Green cocktail reception, with the opportunity for the visiting chefs and suppliers to network. All the food created by Homewood Park’s talented head chef Simon Addison, with the help of students from Bath College, Gloucestershire College and HIT Training.

Simon’s mouth-watering canapés included black pudding scotch eggs, Homewood sesame prawn toast, truffle gougeres, salmon Tartare on tapioca crisp and mini shepherd’s pie.

A welcome speech then followed with General Manager, Ian Griebenow giving a fantastic insight into Homewood Park and the three catering education providers telling guests how The Chefs’ Forum benefits their students and how important it is for them to network with peers and potential employers whilst still studying.

Bridget Halford, Head of Hospitality at Bath College said:

“The Chefs’ Forum is a fantastic platform for our students to network with local employers and secure work experience. One of my students, Connor Gale (19) now has been offered a full time job at Lucknam Park as a result of The Chefs’ Forum holding a similar event there last September – This just shows how successful it is as an initiative.”

Marking exactly one year to the day that Simon joined Homewood Park, what better way to celebrate than to invite his peers to sample his cooking and menu?!

Simon said: “The students were all fantastic. The passion and talent that they showed was brilliant.  It was great to invite the colleges to Homewood Park today as we would like to encourage more young people to join our team.  We have put plans in place to work more closely with the colleges here today”

Following the reception Simon demonstrated some dishes from his menu including confit salmon with black sesame, radish and ponzu, he then showcased his delicious take on rack of lamb with cucumber, falafel and pink peppercorn yoghurt.

Georgina Keene of local cordial producer, Bottle Green, then gave a lovely insight into the world of delicious soft drink options and the Bottle Green Range of tasty, non-alcoholic alternatives.

Guests were then treated to a BBQ demonstration of Walter Rose meat in the impeccably-kept Homewood Park garden by Paul Yates on the Monolith Kamado Grill as well as a gourmet pizza-making demonstration on the Alfa Pizza Oven by Cornelius Veakins on the CCS Live stage.

Next, the guests took park in a spot of Segway racing where chefs experienced the joy of Segway! Bemusement turned to delight as the chefs navigated their way along the course – A great opportunity to further network and get to know each other whilst having fun and a chance to relax from the busy kitchen in beautiful surroundings.

The event finished with a Homewood Park afternoon tea. The sweet treats were accompanied by teas from Comins Tea House with Comins’ tea owner, Michelle Comins selecting Darjeeling, White and Green tea to accompany the sweet treats.  Dorset-based Comins Tea has recently opened its second tea shop in Bath’s famous Monmouth Street.

For coffee-lovers there was also coffee provided by Easy Jose complete with impressive latte art to inspire front of house students at the colleges.

Founder of The Chefs’ Forum Catherine Farinha said: “This has been a brilliant event and its chefs like Simon and his team who make it all possible.

“It is so important to us to have the support of local chefs, and of course, all the wonderful Sponsors who provide the ingredients and the equipment for the demonstrations.

“It is great to see so many faces time after time, reinforcing the need for our quarterly events to keep education and industry communicating on a regular basis.

“We want to be able to keep giving the young talent the opportunity to go into kitchens and work Front of house so that we can secure the successful future of the hospitality industry.”

Photography by Andrew Plant: www.andrewplantphotography.com