Chef duo reach regional final of national cooking

We’re proud to share that two of our chefs, Simon Armstrong and Russell Gowen, have had their culinary flair recognised in a national competition.

The duo – who both work at our Northampton site – recently competed in the NACC Chef of the Year Regional final. This prestigious competition, ran by the National Association of Care Catering, is open to chefs working within the care industry.

The final was fiercely contested by eight chefs from across the region, and both Simon and Russell produced excellent dishes. Their food gained much praise from the delegates at the NACC seminar held on the same day.

The chefs had 90 minutes to produce a main course and dessert. Simon produced a contemporary take on liver and onions with curried lambs livers, spiced potatoes and an onion bhaji and mint yoghurt dressing, followed by a coconut milk rice pudding and poached pear. Russell, on the other hand, created a modern take on ham and eggs - pancetta with a potato air bag, ceviche pickled vegetables, pea puree and a sous vide duck egg, followed by a deconstructed chocolate delice on a hazelnut and praline base with bran flakes, chocolate soil and chocolate sauce.

Mark Wright, Patient Services Catering Manager for St Andrew’s, explained: “Both Russell and Simon created fine dishes of a high standard, and although they were not selected by the judges to progress to the national final, they are both fine chefs and should be very proud of the food they produced.”

At St Andrew’s Healthcare our award-winning catering team work hard to create exciting, nutritious and delicious meals for the people in our care. The team provide nearly 900 patients and our staff with nourishing meals every day, including our 40 dysphagia patients who require texture modified foods. All meals are cooked freshly within our eight local kitchens.