The Chefs’ Forum had Cause for Celebration at Avery’s Wine Cellars!

Monday (3) July saw the summer Chefs’ Forum gathering celebrated in style at the fabulous Avery’s wine cellars.  Perhaps, one of Bristol’s best kept secrets, the perfectly preserved subterraneous cavernous brick cellar, complete with huge wooden barrels, lends itself as the perfect event space and a real draw for Bristol’s hospitality ‘who’s who’.

Mimi Avery, fifth generation wine merchant (the clue’s in the surname) kindly offered to host this quarter’s epic industry event, inviting two top chefs to pair their signature dishes and canapés to carefully selected wines from Avery’s own cava and vast range of fine wines, available to buy in Avery’s well-stocked shop and for delivery to trade across Bristol and beyond.

Chefs’ Forum Founder, Catherine Farinha and Mimi Avery opened the event, telling chefs about the history of the Avery’s brand and cellars.  Mimi and her team expertly-matched wines to the food that was to wow the chefs who attended.  She said:

“It’s great to be working with The Chefs’ Forum to encourage chefs and students to think carefully about pairing their food with less well-known wines to create an element of intrigue to menus, taking full advantage of their well-developed, expert palates. Today was all about showcasing wines that are a bit different that chefs haven’t previously thought about, like an Argentinian Torrontes that is similar to a French Gerwurztraminer, with which they may be more familiar.  Intelligent food and wine-matching also increases spend per guest and ultimately profit.”

Avery’s offer a complete range of wine courses at the cellars, where industry professionals can hone their wine knowledge and gain qualifications.

Front of house learner, Phoebe James of The Duke of Cumberland, Nr Radstock relished the opportunity to perfect her wine knowledge and serve the delicious morsels to the some fifty industry experts who attended.  This gave HIT Training the opportunity to showcase the quality of their teaching assessors and learners – A great option for employers to train staff on the job with very little off-site learning, enhancing the skills of their work force.

Alan Jones, Executive chef at Clevedon Hall produced some mouth-watering canapés, with the help of Mike Sharp, an Assessor from HIT Training, one of the Chefs’ Forum’s national sponsors and market-leaders in work based learning.

Alan demonstrated a fabulous fish dish of Fennel poached wild sea trout with jersey royal potatoes,English peas, broad beans, asparagus, samphire and crab veloute, paired with a Puydeval Blanc 2014, Domaine Puydeval from Avery’s Cellars.

Alan said:

“Having worked very closely with a local college over the past year, sadly with mixed experiences, I have decided to undertake the next level of my apprentice’s training with HIT Training as I was very impressed with Angelo Moore and the team yesterday. Work-based learning seems a great option for me as I can help bring my learners onto the next level, whilst keeping them in the business full time and enjoying regular contact with assessors and the training provider”

Executive Chef, Elisabeth Giulienne of The Lazy Dog (Bristol) created some Spanish delicacies in beautiful canapés showcasing Degusta Spanish ingredients.  She also demonstrated the fantastic Taurus MyCook in her dish of potato pancakes with onion and crispy bacon.

Elisabeth said:

“It was great to see so many industry people attending today and enjoying my food.  I loved working with Alan and invited my 16 year old son, Nagual to join me in the kitchen with the HIT Training team – He did a great job!  Huge thanks to Arthur David, Walter Rose and Degusta for supplying such fabulous ingredients.  It was great to showcase the Taurus to fellow chefs too – I first used it in Spanish Masterchef as a contestant”.

The Chefs’ Forum holds four events per year in the Bristol area and would welcome local chefs and industry suppliers to get involved.  A great day was had by all at Avery’s yesterday, binding together the Bristol hospitality industry, whilst providing a great opportunity to network and share knowledge.

Photography by: www.fayditphotography.com