Well, pretending to... possibly... almost... if I'm lucky...British readers may remember the BBC TV series Great British Menu back in June.
Fourteen top UK chefs, representing four regions of England plus Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, battled it out to win the judges' praise and ultimately the public vote, to decide who would cook each of four dishes for the Queen's birthday banquet.
This year's winning dishes were:
- Starter - Smoked salmon with Irish soda bread, woodland sorrel and cress - Richard Corrigan.
- Fish course (surf & turf) - Pan-fried turbot with cockles and oxtail - Bryn Williams.
- Main course - Loin of venison with rosti, celeriac, cabbage, carrot and game gravy - Nick Nairn.
- Dessert - Custard tart with Garibaldi biscuits - Marcus Wareing.
Well, they've started filming for next year's event... and Stuart Gillies, Head Chef at Boxwood Café where I'm currently on work experience, is one of the participants. Those of you with a bit of media savvy will know that series like this are made by shooting loads of stock clips in advance, some of which are subsequently edited into the programmes, along with more contemporary material, at the production stage.
So there I am, lurking about in the background weighing up flour and sugar, in some of the stock film. Not exactly a starring role - more like a spear-carrier in Julius Caesar, to be honest.
But if Stuart does well and I have a bit of luck and a following wind, my mug shot could be all over BBC television next summer. It could be the start of something huge.
The next Doctor Who? The next James Bond? Starring alongside Keira Knightley as a replacement for Orlando Bloom?
Probably not.
I guess I'd better not give up the day job just yet!
So there I am, lurking about in the background weighing up flour and sugar, in some of the stock film. Not exactly a starring role - more like a spear-carrier in Julius Caesar, to be honest.
But if Stuart does well and I have a bit of luck and a following wind, my mug shot could be all over BBC television next summer. It could be the start of something huge.The next Doctor Who? The next James Bond? Starring alongside Keira Knightley as a replacement for Orlando Bloom?
Probably not.
I guess I'd better not give up the day job just yet!
2007 and moved to Spain, where I trained in Barcelona at Carles Abellan's Comerç 24 (which won its first Michelin star) and Martín Beresategui's Lasarte (which won its second Michelin star) and was chef de partie and later Pastry Chef to Paco Morales at the amazing hotel restaurant Ferrero in the Valèncian mountains. This Spring I returned to London as part of the team of celebrated Portuguese chef Nuno Mendes, opening East End restaurant Viajante. I'm still working with food, but taking a break from fine dining. Passionately pursuing my life-long ambition to become a top-class chef and, one day, a world-famous restaurateur.
4 comments:
Good luck on getting onto tv! Hope to see you in the background eagerly carrot chopping or whatever.
In seriousness though, just being pictured with a "featured" chef on tv could be a fairly big break.
Haha cheers mate!
I don't want to be too serious about it, I just like a bit of humour in every article.
Thanks for the thought though
Best of luck Aidan with getting on TV. Just thought you may be interested in this link to some film footage we recently ran on our website www.caterersearch.com. It's all about the Ramsay Scholarship final that was filmed at the BBC Good Food event last weekend - and we have posted the link on CatererSearch. It's a great competition for budding chefs and this gives a taste of what it really is like to take part.
Cheers James, yes I had seen the video, I get the CatererSearch email newsletters. I saw some guys from my College in the video, one of whom got to the final round.
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