The Roux Scholarship

[Andy Lynes]

The Roux Scholarship was established in 1983 by Michel and Albert Roux in order to encourage young chef talent in the UK and provide a framework for chefs to achieve their full potential. The competition is opened to British trained chefs aged between 22 and 30 and offers the winner £2,500 cash, plus three month's training at a 3-star Michelin establishment, a week's work experience on a luxury cruise liner, and a trip to Italy. It is arguablely the most prestidgeous competition of it's type in the UK. Past winners include André Garrett, now head chef of Orrery restaurant and Sat Bains of Hotel de Clos, Nottingham, both holders of Michelin stars.

The current holder of the title is Simon Hulstone, head chef of Cotswold House Hotel in Chipping Campden. Simon is no stranger to the world of professsional culinary competitions, and counts amongst his titles Midlands Chef of The Year 2002. He is currently the UK's first and only chef to win a gold medal at the Youth Skill Olympics (1995) and is a former National Chef of the Year finalist.

Before Simon leaves for his stage at Martin Berasategui, he has agreed to answer eGullet.com members questions about his experience in the competition in this informal, rolling Q and A and we hope that he will keep us informed of his progress once he arrives in Spain.

[Andy Lynes]

Simon - what first attracted you to the arena of professional competition, isn't the life of a chef hard enough without the additional burden of preparing for and taking part in events like the Scholarship?

[ginger chef]

competitions are something i have grown up with, my father who is also a chef has competed for as long as i have known, when i was a little un he competed against a main rival of achef called freddie jones who was at the time at selsdon park hotel in croydon and his son was working for my father at the imperial in torquay, so with all things cheffy i was carted off to croydon to work for freddie. this is were i got my first taste of competitions at the age of 16 competeing at hotelolympia ( i got a bronze) the thing that i got out of the competition more than anything was meeting other chefs and the real feeling of being in a club, i was competing against paul gaylers chefs and chefs from the ritz and savoy and at the time these were the big boys before ramsay moved in. all competitions were practised in our own time and only those who were at a certain grade were allowed to even represent the hotel as chefs reputations were on the line. i have since gone on to enter literally hundreds of competitions with a pretty good sucess rate.

[Andy Lynes]

So are allowances made by your employers in terms of time to create and perfect competition dishes, or is it all done on your own time?

[CheGuevara]

when preparing for a competition - do you cater to a specific taste, or adjust dishes in any way?

-che

[ginger chef]

it is quite a touchy subject at some establishments and at times i have even had to buy my own ingredients and i have a full set of my own kitchen equipment that is portable to minimise disruption when i go and compete. i have been fortunate at cotswold house and my employers are 100% behind the scholarship as they see the pr and good business it brings in. at present we are finalising dates for my sous chefs to come over to san sebastian to visit me on my stage and get something out of it for themselves . i have never competed in work time and all prizes have been taken as holiday.the major problem i get is jealousy from other members of staff not kitchen but front of house and management. the chefs love it as they can aspire to what i am doing and most of my brigade compete also and i train and take them through the process . my guys winning medals makes me alot prouder than me actully winning the medals. some chefs have major sponsors who pay for everything, ingredients,plates,travel etc. the way we practise is by testing on the paying public. we dont do any dishes that are beyond our capabilities and are not suitable for restaurant service. some chefs cook food they dont do on a daily basis and they struggle on the stage.dishes we do would have been cooked forty times and been paid for and comments returned. once we are happy with the dish we go through the competition set up and how to wow the judges and feel confident on the stage

[Andy Lynes]

Was the Scholarship different in terms of what you were expected to do in order to win from other competitions you have entered? Given the prestige of the title and the prize on offer, was it a more pressurised experience?

[ginger chef]

i treat all competitions equally as i want to win them. the scholarship is a different set up as much as you are told what to cook half an hour before you start and it tends to be a classic dish with garnish for six covers on a silver flat. i have hardly any knowledge of classical cuisine and to be given a recipe i can hardly pronounce is always a challenge. i entered the scholarship two years ago and got to the final when steve drake won it and i have never competed so badly in all my life . but i came away with a lot of prizes (for losing) and it didn't really feel that bad. when i entered this year i was again going for just a final place as its a great night out and there a lot of contacts to be made. i never thought i would win and even more i was the only winner, this year there was no second place awarded. pressure for the competition was never really in my mind, i just didnt want to come away with every judge thinking i was useless so i went for taste totally even if i couldnt really understand the dish.

[ginger chef]

che

like i said the dishes i do are usualy on the a la carte or we offer them as a special and explain to the customer what they are for and ask if we can have comments, this usually works well as the customer feels paart of the process. sometimes when we have a regular in we will send the dish out free and go and have a sit down with them and see what perspective they have. alot of the time it is for friends who come to dine and as chefs do throw in an extra course. another thing i tend to do is look at the judges and previous judges and see what style and background they are from. you are more likely to win with a pork belly dish with gayler judging than if you have some celebrity from big brother. one thing i teach all my chefs is make sure you are first to serve this not only gives the judges a bench mark to work on it also ensures they have a clean palate and most importantly it scares the hell out of the other competitors.

[Fat Guy]

Simon, what do you like to cook for yourself?

[ginger chef]

at home not much cooking goes on really, wrong hours to start cooking when i get in and days off tend to be away from home,. i absolutely love scallops and pork belly and i usually order foie gras of some description when i am out. at home i admit i am a bit of a slob but i have some great restaurants to eat at in cheltenham, le champignon sauvage is 5 minute walk away and lunch is a steal. had lunch at foliage last week and dinner at vatra and hakkasan, going to the fat duck on friday with a few of my team. eating out as you all know is most chefs release.

[Fat Guy]

Is there anyplace online where we can look at some of your menus, or do you have any you can post here?

[ginger chef]

the hotel website is www.cotswoldhouse.com which has menus it should be updated with photos of kitchen and food early next week and you can read about the scholarship on www.rouxscholarship

[macrosan]

Hi Simon

How close is a dish you cook in competition to the dishes you prepare at work ? Obviously there is great intensity of effort in competition, but I'm interested in whether you can put the same care and attention to detail in your day-to-day work as you would in a competition. And in fact, am I right that the intensity of competition is greater than in a hotel restaurant ?

[Marlene]

How do you deal with the lack of prep time available for competitions? Do you always have the right ingredients or is there a lot of on the spot decision making?

[ginger chef]

macrosan,

to be honest the food in the restaurant always goes out better than in competitions due to the fact you are in a familiar working enviroment with familiar equipment more staff and more time to present and change your dishes, in competitiions the food is always presented as well but slight changes happen such as not always having enough time to rest the meat not being able to add a certain ingredient that might finish it off and the main problem of if you screw something up you cant yell at a commis to fetch some more you do without. i would agree that the intensity in certain competitions is more than at work but this depends on practice and if all is going well , i am very relaxed in competitions and also at work ,its a calming influence that goes through the whole kitchen. being relaxed also acts as a bit of an advantage in competitions espaecially when other competitors are watching you and you can see them getting very frustrated and you are just plodding along.but alot of chefs dont agree with competitions and dont alow or enter their chefs as they are worried of the effect it would have on their reputation. some of the best competitiion chefs are contract caterers and dont necessarily cook that type of food at all. i actively encourage all my staff to enter

[ginger chef]

marlene,

it depends on what sort of competition you enter, some are set classes such as fish, game,pasta etc these competitions you are given a schedule before you enter and this will give you full details of the class , such as time ,ingredients allowed and portions to be served, other competitions could be mystery box where you turn up on the day with your equipment and half an hour before the start you are given a list of ingredients to write and prepare your menu from. this is the one i prefer as it has no preparation and everyone is in the same boat and we can see who can cook . alot of chefs are very limited on there pastry experience and this is one section i particularly enjoy and normally is the way of turning the judges to your overall skill level. when i train my commis chefs they may practice the dish in competition circumstances 7 or 8 times before they have got it right but then it could all go wrong on the day in seconds

[Andy Lynes]

Simon, I was interested in your comment above that you have "hardly any knowledge of classical cuisine" and yet this didn't prevent you from winning the Scholarship or the gold at the skill olympics. What was your training based upon if not the classical repertiore and what food have you gone on to cook in your professional career.

[SamanthaF]

Hi Simon,

What is your long term plan?

Ta.

[ginger chef]

The roux scholarship was a major challenge and was a competition i was sweating over entering , like i said i was happy to reach the final ( in the semis you could cook a dish of your own interpretation) due to the vast array of prizes and the great show they put on. so when it came to the final i just wanted to feel comfortable with what i was cooking as there was no way i could learn the whole reportoire in two weeks.

My classical knowledge is slightly blinkered. what i have cooked as a young chef might have been given a modern name on the menu and then someone has said "oh thats so and so from escoffier" which in a way it was, just written differently. At the swallow in bristol where i worked when i won the youth skills we had a lobster sauce on the menu and this was the only description i had of it. then in the year i was in the final of the roux in 2001 we had to make a sauce nantua which totally lost me until i read the recipe and realised it was basically the lobster sauce.

so in a way i had an indirect classical knowledge. but i have done stages at the connaught and claridges and i have seen the use of proper classical menus and they totally lost me. it is a shame but it is also quite hard for me to go back and re learn the whole reportoire.

In the youth skills we had mystery boxes on a daily basis over three days on day one we had to prepare our stocks for day two. day two consisted of :

a fish terrine for twelve people with one portion plated with three garnishes (i did a terrine of salmon mousse with monkfish fillet through the centre wrapped in spinach served with langoustine tails and fennel ceviche and a mayo made from the langoustine shells)

a salad of asparagus for four people( i made a warm asparagus mousse with smoked chicken, salad laves and a pine nut salad)

a bavarois for six people ( i made a vanilla bavarois topped with a strawberry jelly and served with a lemon sorbet and strawberry coulis and spun sugar)

a choux pastry dessert for six people ( i made apple beinets with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream

Day three was a mystery box four course menu which had to include a consomme. I made :

a tian of marinated and smoked salmon topped with creme friche and a suace of saffron and dill

consomme of beef and madiera with summervegetables

roast supreme of duckling on chive pomme puree , a sausage made from the leg meat and a cumin braised cabbage and honey jus

baked ouef a la neige with strawberry coulis centre and fresh berries

day four was a set menu done in your own style :

starter was a seafoof ravioli. i made two raviolis one being spinach pasta filled with langoustine and fennel bound in a salmon mousse the other being saffron pasta filled with lobster mousseline, these were placed on carroy spaghetti and served with beurre blanc and a buttered soy sauce.

main was lamb rack, dauphonoise potatoes and turned vegetables. I made a herb crust and placed that on the lamb ,then i made an apple and mint dauphonoise in a rosti tray and placed the lamb on top with a selection of turned vegetables.

dessert was a fruit tart. I made individual tarts filled with grand marnier creme pat and then topped with sliced fruit, place a ball of lemon sorbet on top and a sugar spring.

Each day was four hours long with no prior mis en place except for day one and you could only use the ingredients given to you. The whole trip was a real ball breaker, and i was in lyon the home of gastronomy and getting verbal all day from the french students who were visiting. at one point i had security guards around my station it was that bad.

[ginger chef]

hi samantha,

long term plans, like most aspiring chefs is for their own establishment but with current climate , i am very happy were i am , i have a good hard working dedicated team and i feel very comfortable when i am away from the kitchen that everything is being adhered to. i have a lot of things going on outside of work which most chefs might say would be away from what i am doing but at the end of the day i need to earn money and i dont want to wilt away at the stoves when i am 50 . i have the next 3 to 4 years to see if i have what it takes to be a well respaected chef not a superstar but someone who is someone in the industry not just for winning competitions , that is my hobby (and pays for holidays) but someone who can cut it on the stoves. i know i can i just need the rest of the country to see beyond the ccompetitions

[Andy Lynes]

What about Michelin stars, they seem to go with winning the Scholarship.

[ginger chef]

had a visit yesterday, if it happens it happens . not going to bust my balls. the restaurant does well and the brasserie is full lunch and dinner. thats more important . michelin dont pay the wages

[Andy Lynes]

I see from the Roux Scholarship site that you had two hours to prepare and present your version of a classic Escoffier recipe for “Best End of Veal with Soubise and Mornay Sauce” and the judges included Michel and Albert Roux, Victor Ceserani, Rowley Leigh, David Nicholls, Gary Rhodes, Rick Stein, Brian Turner, Alain Roux and Michel Roux Junior.

Three questions if I may :

What was your take on the dish?

Were all the judging panel as listed above present on the day?

If so did they get in the way?

[ginger chef]

the dish was better than expected i was personally expecting a fish dish(some sort of souffle which is always a nightmare in ovens you dont know)

meat was a bonus. we got given a 3kg best end of veal, 1 litre of basic stock,

10 new potatoes, 6 baby carrots, 2 baby gems, 500g girolles, 2 shallots, 100g rice, flour, cheese, a truffle, salt , pepper, butter, onion, clove, thyme, watercress, .

the dish was to be served as read sliced on the bone with soubise sauce and truffle interleaving each slice and then covered and glazed with soubise and mornay , vegetables of our descretion.

2 hours to cook a 3 kg piece of veal. we were not realy allowed to ask questions regarding the dish but i did ask victor cesaranni if the veal had to be cooked through and he nodded. so i gathered from this it was to be pot roasted. firstly i chimed the saddle and chopped all the trimmings and browned them off as quick as possible added the stock and then sealed the meat off with as much colour as possible. deglased the pan and poured the juices in with the stock , placed in the veal and whacked it in the oven. made my soubise which i had never made before and then made the cheese sauce which i havent made since staff food days. then on to my vegetables. i boiled the potatoes in their skins and then cut them in half scored them and sauted them in chopped thyme and salt, i just sugared the carrots as they were young i let their flavour do the talking, i sauted the lettuce and watercress with shallot and the remaining truffle and a few girolles and sauted the other girolles and mixed with a little thyme. by this point my veal was medium so i removed it from the stock and reduced my stock down in three different pans . i removed the meat from the bone and put the bone back in the oven to cook it through, i sliced and grilled the remaining veal and then assembled it as they had asked . it looked like road kill and as i was first to serve i had no one else to copy so out it went. nathan outlaw who was working next to me served next and his was totally different he served his rice as a garnish and served his veal pink, so did a few others i saw go past.

after we werent given a brief on what they were lookig for and only the guy from claridges said he had done it before. but i was obviously the closest dont know how.

all the judges were there and also some of the previous scholars,andre, sat, steve drake and andrew fairlie. to be honest the only chefs to walk round were michel roux and michel junior and the others stayed out of the way.

we competed in the kitchens of foliage and were given commis to wash our pans from chris staines team which was a nice touch.