Archive for November, 2008

Sam Greaves (19) from Bishopston, Bristol has been crowned PUDZ Amateur Pudding Chef 2008 (which was announced on The Foodie List back in August)

PUDZ has been searching all year for the best amateur pudding chefs in the UK. Heats took place across the country and the top chefs from each area were chosen to compete for the overall title, judged by arguably one of the UK’s best dessert chefs, Mich Turner.

The five fantastic regional finalists came from all walks of life and baked, chopped, piped & drizzled their way through the heats, beating off stiff competition from their region to the final in London. Each prepared their dessert one final time for Mich Turner and a judging panel of food journalists.

Sam, a student at Plymouth University, prepared Autumn Fruit Eve’s pudding in the Bristol heat and beat off tough competition to win the chance to bake his dessert in the final for the esteemed judging panel. They described his dessert as ‘interesting, seasonal and different, packed full to the brim with flavour’.

Mich Turner is the author of best-selling title, Spectacular Cakes and founder of Little Venice Cake Company, not to mention the celebrity cake maker of choice. She supplies cakes to all of the top London hotels, Gordon Ramsey’s restaurants and also personally baked birthday cakes for the Queen, Madonna and David Beckham. Mich regularly appears on a variety of cookery shows such as Ready Steady Cook, Market Kitchen and Saturday Kitchen.

Mich has a new book on sale in January called ‘Couture Wedding Cakes‘ and is set to appear in a special on ‘Alternative Christmas Cakes’ for Market Kitchen this Christmas.

Mich Turner said: “I was amazed by the overall standard of the competition – it was extremely high and demonstrated how many talented dessert chefs there are in this country. I hope it encourages other people to get baking. Sam’s dessert was prepared to such a high standard that although it was a tough competition to judge, the overall decision was a unanimous one with the panel.”

As well as taking the title of PUDZ Amateur Pudding Chef 2008, Sam Greaves wins a fantastic weekend away for two at The Pudding Club, a sought after place on Mich Turner’s Christmas cookery course, a signed copy of ‘Spectacular Cakes’ and a year’s supply of PUDZ.

PUDZ spokesperson, Kelly Eastwood comments: “The competition has shown that there are a great number of very talented pudding chefs across the whole country. It has been a very tough competition and Sam has done amazingly well.

“We were looking for a ‘masterchef’ of the pudding world and I think that we have truly found one..”

The UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has set up a new hotline to allow individuals and businesses to report fraudulent activity in food sales and marketing in a much quicker and easier way than previously.

The FSA defines food fraud as being committed when “food is deliberately placed on the market, for financial gain, with the intention of deceiving the consumer”. This covers offering products for sale that unfit for human consumption or are past their sell-by-date. Misrepresentation of food is also covered such as giving false source information.

While the FSA says the problem is not widspread Which? the consumer watchdog estimates the fraudulent food market in the UK is worth £7 billion.

The hotline, +44 (0)20 7276 8527, is unstaffed. Any callers who wish to report a case of known or suspected food fraud are put through to an answerphone where they can leave details. The answerphone will be checked “regularly”, according to the FSA.

The agency promises that all calls are treated “in the strictest confidence” but it encourages callers to the number to leave their contact details in order to facilitate verification and further investigation of reports.