Chef wins award

Chris Pinner, Commis Chef at Ashridge, attained a Gold Medal at Hotelymia, one of Europe’s largest live cooking competitions, held at London’s EXCEL.

Chris competed in the Villeroy & Boch Culinary Challenge. He had 30 minutes to prepare, cook and present a duck dish of his choice – a warm salad of home smoked duck, fig purée, mulled wine-poached pears with a walnut dressing, finished with pea shoots and duck scratching.

Judged against a set of strict criteria, the dish is awarded either a score of Nothing, Merit, Bronze, Silver or Gold. It is an extraordinary achievement for Chris to achieve Gold as only a small percentage of competitors achieve such a high standard.

This latest accolade follows a long line of awards Ashridge has achieved for its food and dining and conference facilities.