Cracking Crab on the Green Bus for Chefs' Forum
Chefs were feeling rather crabby at the latest meeting of The Chefs’ Forum.
The event, which brought together some of Devon’s top chefs as well as suppliers and students, was held at Favis of Salcombe on Monday November 23 with the assistance of local restaurant-on-wheels On The Green Bus.
Favis of Salcombe is a three generation family run business, priding itself on selling the freshest and finest quality hand-picked and whole crab and lobster.
Granddaughter of founder, Laura Favis welcomed the chefs to the Favis factory. Laura said:
“It’s great to see so many top Devon chefs here today and I am delighted that we are able to showcase our products to local chefs with the aim of encouraging more of you to put Favis crab and lobster on your menus! We supply great chefs such as TV Chef Mitch Tonks, James Chase (House of Crab) and Jane Baxter (Baxters Moveable Feasts) and we hope that your visit today will demonstrate just how fresh and delicious our products are here at Favis”.
The afternoon of fishy fun kicked off with a canapé and drinks reception with food prepared by Tom Bunn from Favis of Salcombe and Joseph Robinson, the chef behind Pop-ups at Mange Tout in Kingsbridge, with the help of students from HIT Training and South Devon College.
Tom said: “The students worked very hard and produced some great canapés. I hope that this experience has inspired them to work with crabs and lobsters more in the future.”
Joseph said: “It was a pleasure to work with these young people and they all showed a great deal of promise.”
Following the reception Tom gave an introduction to Favis of Salcombe, explaining the journey of the products from sea to plate. Joseph then gave a demonstration, whipping up some delicious dishes using ingredients from Favis of Salcombe.
The South Devon College students and HIT Training learners then went head to head in a ‘best dressed crab’ competition. The winner was level 2 student Abiie Hookins from South Devon College who was rewarded with a copy of Andrew Pern’s multi-award winning book, Loose Birds and Game, kindly donated by Face Publications.
It was then time to sample some more Favis of Salcombe dishes, this time wrapped in fabulous flat bread cooked in the in Forno Finnini wood fire oven.
The event culminated with a tour of the Favis of Salcombe picking factory led by Tom Bunn.
Founder of The Chefs’ Forum Catherine Farinha said: “It was great to see so many people turn out for the last Chefs’ Forum event of 2015. It was fascinating to get a behind the scenes look at what goes on at Favis of Salcombe, and I hope that the chefs are now feeling inspired to make even more use of these fantastic ingredients.
“I would like to thank all of our sponsors for their generosity. Without them it would not be possible to hold such brilliant events.”
The Chefs’ Forum is looking forward to four more spectacular Devon chef events in 2016 at venues including River Cottage, Abode in Exeter and South Devon College!
The Chefs’ Forum holds 32 chef events a year across 8 regions. Its main objective is to bridge the gap between education and industry, bringing together top chefs, hospitality students and market-leading suppliers to trade.
