Now in its third year, Barchester’s Cook Off in aid of its Charitable Foundation is a much-anticipated diary fixture. Building on the success of last year’s Regional Directors’ Cook Off, this year it was the turn of six of Barchester’s Managing Directors to take on members of the Senior Management Team to see who would prevail under the scrutiny of the discerning judges.
The teams lined up as follows; The Pressure Cookers made up of MDs and Hospital Director Stella Bolger, Alison Donaldson, Jo Fitzgerald, Michelle Macadangdang, Duncan Edwards and Angela Bradford vs The Rolling Scones comprising Directors Julia Atherton, Paul Mason, Mark Bennett, Tony Woollett, Tom Holloway and Alison Glover. So far this year the teams and their divisions have raised £53,000 for Barchester’s Charitable Foundation and the money is still coming in. The Foundation supports older people and other adults living with a disability or mental health conditions by helping them to connect or re-connect with others in their local communities. These funds will support small charities and individuals all across the UK in the form of grants.
Temperatures were rising as the teams got busy cooking up beautifully presented dishes for the judges to taste. Their challenge was to prepare a full menu with a choice of starters, mains and desserts plus an afternoon tea item all of which were blind tasted by a panel of exacting judges headed by Barchester’s CEO, Dr Pete Calveley. All of the food was delicious and cooked to perfection but in the end it was The Pressure Cookers who beat the competition to the Cook Off crown with their sensational menu which had a choice of three different starters, the judges named their Lobster Bisque with chive crème fraiche and croutons an absolute triumph. For main, there was a choice of Cod Loin with beetroot, asparagus and champ mash or homemade Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry. For dessert, the options were White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake or Rhubarb Crumble Custard Tart and their
Afternoon Tea item was a Sausage Plait with red onion chutney which the judges agreed was to die for.
Chairperson of Barchester’s Charitable Foundation, Chief Commercial Officer and one of the Cook Off judges, Simon McCall, commented: “This year has been the most hard-fought competition ever, our teams really stepped up and tackled this challenge head on. The food they produced was restaurant quality, it is hard to believe this is nothing like their day jobs. It all came down to half a point in the end but congratulations to our MDs who have proven they are a culinary force to be reckoned with! I am utterly amazed that we have already managed to beat last year’s huge total, I know that homes up and down the country have been raising funds with all kinds of different activities which is wonderful to hear. I want to thank the Hospitality and Marketing team and everyone involved in helping to make this initiative happen, it is a brilliant team effort. This is a fantastic amount of money and it will help support so many good causes.”
