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News
Rising Stars Trophy for The Harrow at Little Bedwyn
A 16-year-old chef and her sommelier colleague triumphed at yesterday’s Grand Final of the Champagne Jacquart Rising Stars Trophy 2010.
The team from Harrow at Little Bedwyn, which has one Michelin star, Heather McKnight, 24, and Jaillin Argent, 16, produced a glittering display of teamwork with exceptional cooking and wine-matching ability.
The only-female team to make the Grand Final, McKnight and Argent were considered to the very epitome of rising stars by the judges, as McKnight breezed through her interview during which she was grilled on her wine knowledge and attitude towards working with a kitchen team.
During the Grand Final, which was held at Westminster Kingsway College in London, Argent produced three dishes in one hour and 15 minutes using ingredients that she had personally foraged, including tapping sap of a birch tree to use as a cleansing shot as part of her lamb main course.
| Click on the arrow above to view the interview |
Meanwhile, McKnight had 40 minutes to blind taste and subsequently select three wines from the selection of 30 provided by The Wine Treasury. When her team was announced as the winners, she said: “I never win anything, I can’t believe it!â€
The winning menu and wine choices were:
- Smoked Somerset Eel with Alsatian Domaine Rieflés’s 2008 Pinot Gris
- New season milk-fed Ceredigion lamb with Hawkes Bay’s Bilancia 2006 Pinot Noir, and finally,
- Raspberry Soufflé with Champagne Jacquart’s NV Mosaïque Rosé
President of the competition, Gerard Basset MW MS, who won the World’s Best Sommelier competition last week in Chile, and fellow Grand Final chef John Torode, were both victims of the recent UK flight ban, as neither were could return to the UK in time to judge.
Laurent Reinteau, managing director of Champagne Jacquart, travelled to London especially to present the trophy to the winning team, who as part of the prize have won a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Paris and Champagne, courtesy of Champagne Jacquart.
The runners-up of the competition were Andrew Wildsmith and Brent Hulena of Hipping Hall in Lancashire.
Full details of the competition can be found in a special drinks business supplement in July.
Jane Parkinson, 23.04.2010