Butcombe Pubs & Inns is celebrating after two of its chefs triumphed at this year’s prestigious International Salon Culinaire competition. Aimie Harley, Senior Sous Chef at The George Inn, Norton St Philip near Bath scooped the top prize – Gold, in the ‘Pub Chef of the Year’ category while Tom Moore, Head Chef at the Horse & Groom, Charlton came a close second with a Silver.
Aimie won her well-deserved Gold with a ‘Sharing Fish Pie’ made with layers of natural smoked haddock, Chalk Stream trout, wild garlic and leeks bound in a lemon salt butter shortcrust. Aimie served the pie with crispy Hasselback potatoes, an assortment of sea herbs, kale and baby leeks and finished it with a white wine, trout roe caviar and chive cream, split with leek oil.
Aimie Harley, Senior Sous Chef, The George Inn and Pub Chef of the Year says: “I’m elated and overjoyed to have won Gold, having never competed in any cooking competition before. I was eager to see how I would stack up against other chefs and deal with the pressure of cooking in a live theatre so I feel very honoured to be crowned Pub Chef of the Year.”
International Salon Culinaire, held at London’s ExCel, is staged to promote and encourage talent within the UK hospitality community and to raise the bar in culinary skills year after year. The event provides a platform for seasoned chefs to showcase their talent and nurtures the chefs of the future as they start out in their career.
Alice Bowyer, Director of Food, Liberation Group says: “Congratulations to both Aimie and Tom. We are delighted to have these talented individuals taking two of the three top positions in this prestigious competition. Aimie showed real creativity and flair with her incredible fish pie which we’ll be adding to the menu in our pubs!
“We are so proud to have such incredible talent in our kitchens. They constantly work hard to innovate and elevate, producing dishes that are loved by our guests every day. It’s an honour to be working with such talented chefs and to be supporting their career development at Butcombe Pubs & Inns.”
Chefs from around the UK and beyond showcased their skills and creativity to a prestigious judging panel of over 70 industry professionals. International Salon Culinaire is considered one of the world’s top competitions and, dating back to 1902, has launched the careers of many of the world’s finest chefs.
Earlier this month The George Inn was crowned Best Pub in Somerset at this year’s National Pub & Bar Awards.
Find out more about The George Inn HERE and about the Horse and Groom HERE
