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TASTY: winner Martyn Dodson, far right, with Jackie Clayton, left, and Sheila Birkett.
TASTY: winner Martyn Dodson, far right, with Jackie Clayton, left, and Sheila Birkett.
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Prize dished out for chef of the year

by Eve Dugdale
9/ 7/2008

TAMESIDE has a new master chef!

Nine finalists battled it out at Tameside College with a host of ingredients and spices ready to wow the judges with their creations in our Chef of the Year competition. And contestant Martyn Dobson came out supreme with his dish of corn-fed chicken breast with a Cumberland and stilton stuffing wrapped in pancetta and served on a bed of sorrel, wild garlic and beet spinach with a cranberry and port wine jelly and thyme roasted vegetables.

With a budget of just £5.50 per meal, dishes included everything from chicken garlic and cucumber with grapes to spiced fish with Caribbean rice and Mexican-inspired vegetarian tacos.

Hotel director and award-winning chef, Nigel Skinkis, from Clough Manor in Denshaw, was a guest judge.

Finalists, most of whom had never even been in a professional kitchen before, had one hour and 40 minutes to cook dishes.

Martyn, of Cambridge Terrace, Millbrook grows a lot of his own herbs and vegetables and spends time working with a local Scout group teaching them cookery and how to make meals. He currently works as a chef at a law firm.

"I’m really pleased, I’ve never cooked in a competition before," he said.

Primary school teacher Sheila Birkett, of Richmond Crescent, Mossley came second with her oven-roasted salmon with homemade pesto, crushed new potatoes, seasonal asparagus with a hollandaise sauce and baby vine tomatoes cooked in balsamic vinegar.

Mum-of-four Jackie Clayton, a kitchen assistant at Ashton’s West End primary school, from Bennett Street, Ashton came in third with her stuffed chicken breast with ham and nutty cheese served on sweet chilli noodles with peppers, mushrooms and onions.

Chef lecturer Peter Cooke said: "The food was far surpassing what we expected, especially because they weren’t professional chefs. I think the first two were a foregone conclusion. With the winning dish the chicken was spot on, the veg for the size of the plate was a bit big. After that the results were very close."

Martyn received £100 from the Advertiser as well as a winner’s apron, and will spend time in the kitchen at Clough Manor where he will join the hotel’s professional cooking team in their Rosette Standard restaurant.

The college is also giving Martyn the chance to cook his winning dish for his family and their customers in the college restaurant in September.


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Most recent 1 of 1 user comments

   I am very surprised to hear that it was a qualified chef who won the competition, as i thought that it was meant to be an amateur competition. Surely professional chefs have their own industry's contests and in my opinion it should have been kept an amateur competition. Will the winner benefit from the prize of half a day in a professional kitchen?? a bit like a busmans holiday!!
Graham Bell
15/07/2008 at 21:22
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