Chefs sharpen their knives for Great Northern Cook Off competition

North West businesses and region chefs are going up against each other this week to compete for the Great Northern Cook Off crown - in a competition created and organised by Inspiring Connections.

The Great Northern Cook Off, which has been dubbed "the corporate hospitality industry's Oscars" is described as the ultimate business teambuilding and corporate entertaining competition.

The event, now in its fourth year, is designed to combine the talents of the region's top chefs and encourage the cookery skills and entrepreneurial flair of teams from the private and public sectors in the North West.

The Great Northern Cook Off Meet the Chef Mentors event took place in the high-spec kitchens at The Cheshire Cookery School, Altrincham, where teams were challenged to work out which quirky fact belonged to which chef before learning who would be mentoring them for the 2010 competition.

Warrick Dodds, from the Hastings, Lytham, will be mentoring the Lancashire Pot Shots - a team from Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board - and will compete for the Chef Mentor Award against TV Chefs Simon Rimmer, Andrew Nutter and Aiden Byrne.

Teams of four amateur chefs with day jobs ranging from lawyers to Superleague rugby players will compete against each other in a three round knockout competition with each team given a guiding mentor before being judged by two Michelin star chef Michael Caines MBE.

Jacqueline Hughes Lundy, Inspiring Connections director, said: We are delighted that the competition continues to attract great chef mentors, the continued support of Michelin Starred chef, Michael Caines and that businesses understand the value of it for team building and business development.

And Fiona Morris, also a director at Inspiring Connections added: "In organising the Great Northern Cook Off we also wanted to support the industry and have adopted Hospitality Action as our partner charity for the second year running."

Words: Georgiana Ndlovu

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