ACADEMY OF FOOD & WINE BOOSTS COMPETITIONS WITH £10k BURSARIES

The Academy of Food & Wine has announced bursary prizes worth a total of £10,000 for the establishments and colleges of the winners and runners-up in its 2010 Gastronomy Team of the Year and Future Stars of Gastronomy competitions.

Both are sponsored by Discover the Origin and they're open to chef/waiter teams.

The dishes on the two-course menu must include either Parma Ham or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and the accompanying wines must be Burgundy, Port or wine from the Douro Valley.

The Future Stars of Gastronomy competition is open to chef and front-of-house students from any college or university. Colleges can enter more than one team.

The winners' college will now receive an Academy of Food & Wine training bursary of £3,000 together with the winning team's personal prize of a 10-day trip, courtesy of Discover the Origin, to gain an insight and understanding into the history and provenance behind the products of the PDO campaign including wines from Burgundy, the hams from Parma, the cheese from Emiglia Romagna and the wines from the Douro Valley.

The runner-up college will receive a £2,000 Academy training bursary.

The Gastronomy Team of the Year competition is for chef/front-of-house teams from commercial kitchens. Establishments can enter more than one team. Last year's winners were head sommelier Alan Holmes and sous chef Nick Hewitt from Chewton Glen, New Milton, Hampshire.

This year the winning Gastronomy Team of the Year's establishment will receive an Academy training bursary of £3,000, along with the team's personal prize of a 10-day trip to France, Portugal and Italy. The runner-up's establishment will receive a £2,000 Academy training bursary.

The deadline for entries to both competitions has now been extended to 9 April 2010. Entry forms can be downloaded from the Academy's website on www.afws.co.uk

Words: Clare Riley

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