Our first Inspire Catering culinary competition to create the menu for our Inaugural Fundraising Shine Ball, has now come to a close. We would like to thank all staff who took part and submitted a menu. We are now pleased to announce the winners, whose dishes will feature as each course on the night of our Dinner on Saturday 4th March.
Last week’s cook-off showcased a high calibre of fantastic food, with a great deal of thought and preparation being put into each dish. Our judging panel put the dishes to the test over 2 days, taking into account the taste, presentation, composition and how each dish would sit next to other courses on the menu.
With such an impressive range of dishes on offer, the decision-making proved a hard task for our judging panel. After some deliberation, our winning menu was chosen, and therefore winners of each dish selected. We’d like to extend our congratulations to:
- Dougie Macdonald of Kilgraston School, Bridge of Earn, winner of the starter and fish course
- Graham Burgess of Maersk Oil, Aberdeen for his contribution to the fish starter, winner of the main course and vegetarian starter option
- Cameron Kelly of Odfjell Drilling, Aberdeen, winner of the fish course hot canapé
- Lindsay Prior of Wood Group, Aberdeen, winner of the vegetarian main course
- Mark Sturrock of Erskine Stewart Melville Schools, Edinburgh, winner for the vegetarian fish alternative course
- Tony Bukhsh of Kelvinside Academy, Glasgow, winner of the vegetarian canapé
- Brian Reid of TAQA, Aberdeen, winner of the dessert course
In a few cases, there wasn’t always a clear winner of each course and to achieve our objective of having the best dish/course for the Shine Ball menu, we felt the strongest choice was a blend of 2 or 3 menu choices that were submitted. Additionally, since the standards were so impressive, we have selected elements of some entrant’s dishes (that don’t feature as a course specifically) to be canapés for the champagne reception and petit fours for after dinner.
Once again, we would like to thank everyone who participated in this competition and the amazing effort that was put in by all. We look forward to welcoming the 7 winning entrants on our culinary safari to Spain later in the year.
The final menu is fantastic and we are really looking forward to seeing it come together on the night. We will be sharing the final menu and further details of the Shine Ball soon!