Chef
Great Briton
Simon Hulstone is a Michelin-star chef from Devon who beat off hundreds of chefs in a competition run by British Airways to find Great British talent. He will now work with BA and the competition’s food judge, Heston Blumenthal, to create a new Olympics-themed menu
Onboard Hospitality: Tell us how you won your Great Briton title SH: Heston Blumenthal was among the judges and perhaps his words explain it better than I could. He said: “Simon proved to have the most technical ability, as well as a thoughtful and well-balanced menu that ties into the Olympic Games and its spirit. He really impressed us with considering the feasibility of serving it onboard aircraft too. I’m really looking forward to working with him over the next year.”
What are you particularly looking for when you’re planning your Olympics menu? As I am still developing this menu, I’m unable to share it with you until its unveiled in the New Year, but my aim is to make a crowd-pleasing menu that will demonstrate the best of Britain and proudly showcase our culinary heritage.
What do you think will be the winning feature? As a nod to Heston and his love of old recipes my menu reflects classic British dishes with a modern twist, delivered to the airline’s high standards.
Do you fly a lot yourself and if so what do you think about airline food? Travel is an important part of my job, especially as I represent Great Britain at culinary events around the world. My job to date has meant a lot of travel within Europe and I worked in New Zealand early in my career. I have to admit that I am quite a nervous
flyer and British Airways is in fact getting me on its ‘fear of flying’ course to overcome this! Nonetheless, this means that the entertainment and service through to the food are welcome distractions to me when flying. When I have flown with British Airways I’ve been impressed with the variety and quality of what the airline has to offer. What happens now you have won?
I’m really looking forward to working closely with Heston so I can understand a bit more about the technical side of what happens to food and taste at 35,000ft. This is going to be an exciting challenge for me. My dishes will be served on BA flights from March 2012 and at a high profile pre-London 2012 ball next year.
Are you into sport yourself? Will you be attending the Olympics? Running a busy brasserie and restaurant means that I don’t practice sport as much as I’d like to, but I do enjoy a competitive game of squash to help relieve the pressures of the kitchen. I’m very excited about the London 2012
Games and I am delighted to have the opportunity to attend as an ambassador for the airline. My favourite Olympic sports are boxing (you can see who’s winning!) and cycling.
What’s your signature menu/dish at the Elephant in Torquay? We try to base our menu on what’s in season and as this changes regularly, it’s difficult to have a signature dish. However, if I had to give one it would be halibut, dill pollen, lardo, verjus butter sauce - a delicious combination of our locally-sourced ingredients.
www.elephantrestaurant.co.uk
www.onboardhospitality.com 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68