Well, the AA Hospitality Awards at the Park Lane Hilton earlier
this week were a hoot. After a champagne reception and general
schmoozing among the big-hitters in our industry (Yes Chef! spotted
Jason Atherton, Benoit Blinn from Le Manoir and Helene Darroze on
entering the room) we all moved through to the dining room for the
main event.
This year the AA had gone all out with the catering - enlisting the
help of three of London's most well-respected chefs, with Eric Chavot
(recently departed from The Capital) doing the salmon starter, Chris Galvin (who's in
the throws of opening a major new restaurant) providing the main
beef course and Gary Rhodes
crafting a lemon chiboust cream dessert.
Each course was incredibly impressive given the chefs were catering
for much bigger numbers than they're all used to - 800-odd industry
professionals, each with very high standards. We certainly wouldn't
fancy having a go at that. But they took it in their stride and
later in the evening, after the frantic service was over, Yes Chef!
caught up with a very relaxed-looking Chris Galvin, who was
enjoying a glass of champagne up on the 28th floor in his Galvin at
Windows restaurant.
We also bumped into Eric Chavot, who was looking tanned and chilled
out after his holiday in hometown Archachon. He didn't let us into
what his plans are now he's a free agent, but we'll be keeping a
very close eye on him from now on...
And what of the main draw - the awards? It was a particularly
triumphant night for table 29 (which some were dubbing 'the naughty
table'), which saw three of its chefs stand up to receive awards -
Glynn Purnell winning Restaurant of the Year (England) for his Purnell's
restaurant in Birmingham, Sat Baines being the only 5-star
rosette achiever for his Nottingham restaurant
with rooms, and Claude Bosi achieving four rosettes for Hibiscus in
London.
Raymond Blanc (who
recently graced the cover of Yes Chef!) was recognised for his
years in the industry with the Lifetime Achievement Award - giving
a passionate and self-deprecating speech, while last issue's cover
star Marcus
Wareing picked up the Chef's Chef award. It was also a happy
night for Richard Corrigan, who won Best Restaurant (London) for
his venture in
Mayfair, while the lovely Helene
Darroze got up on stage to pick up the Connaught's award for
won Hotel of the Year for London.
All the excitement made for some tired chefs by the end of the
night, and, according to Yes Chef! writer Emma Sturgess,
some of them were finding it difficult to keep their eyes open.
Of course, Yes Chef! partied the night away with the best of
them...