Specialised Chefs Talk Beef Butchery from ‘Farm to Forx’ with Walter Rose and Matt Budden

On Monday (22) October, Matt Budden, Executive Chef, Hilton Hotel Bournemouth hosted The Chefs’ Forum at the hotel’s Schpoons & Forx restaurant to celebrate the provenance of the Walter Rose & Son meat used in his menu.  Beef Farmer Tim Johnson of Stokes Marsh Farm taught the chefs about the provenance of his herd and Jack Cook from Walter Rose gave a fantastic beef butchery demonstration.

Specialised ChefsMatt joined Hilton Bournemouth three years ago and brought with him his passion and personal crusade for using only locally sourced meat on his menu. This Chefs’ Forum was held to showcase responsibly-sourced, high-welfare beef to fifty professional chefs and twenty Specialised Chefs’ Academy students who attended The Chefs’ Forum quarter 4 event from Bournemouth & Poole College.

The day commenced with a canapé and fizz reception which showcased Matt’s menu and allowed the visiting students to network with potential employers, chefs to meet-up and compare notes and suppliers to showcase the latest chef equipment, top quality produce and services to the hospitality industry.  Fergus Martin of Major International took to the demo stage to showcase a duo of tasty Fergus from Major demodishes cooked with Major stock pastes: Spicy Korean meat balls and a sumptuous mushroom pasta.

Walter Rose demoJack Cook then performed a beef butchery demonstration of tomahawk steaks, which were then cooked on both the Synergy Grill and Matt’s integrated tandoor oven in his open kitchen.

The chefs were then treated to a feast as Matt wheeled-out a trolley laden with treats: the tomahawk steaks were cooked to perfection and accompanied by beef cheek beignets, Dorset wasabi, pearl barley cassoulet and bone marrow butter.   The chefs tucked-in and relished the opportunity to sample the finest quality beef on offer from Stokes Marsh Farm.

Tomahawks on the tandoorMatt Budden said

“It is great to host The Chefs’ Forum here today. I hope the students and chefs now have a better idea about the fabulous quality of beef offered here at Schpoons & Forx. A couple of the students work with me here at the hotel and it is fantastic to see such a great number of them here today talking to employers and opening doors of opportunity”.

Matt and TomahawksThe Chefs’ Forum is a really useful quarterly for the chefs as they need not take time out of their busy kitchens for meetings; rather, The Chefs’ Forum brings everything into one place under one roof saving everyone time whilst sharing knowledge and expertise – A very valuable and useful event for all involved.

Holly Dunstan, Apprenticeship coordinator for Catering and Hospitality at Bournemouth & Poole College added:

“We are very grateful for the opportunity to bring our students to Chefs’ Forum events as it is great to exposure for them and a chance for them to network with employers. We hope that meeting the professionals here today inspires them to embark on future careers in the hospitality industry. Our Specialised Chefs course has been running for 28 years in partnership with the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and certainly contributes towards bridging the shortfall of young chefs in industry”.

Specialised Chef studentLevel 1 Specialised Chef Academy student William Bates joined Chefs’ Forum Founder Catherine Farinha on the microphone to tell the chefs and students how much he was enjoying his day at Schpoons & Forx.

William concluded:

“Today has been really useful in enabling me to talk to local employers and realising that it bodes well for us to just introduce ourselves and network with industry professionals.  I really enjoyed the beef butchery, cookery demos and meeting all of the suppliers, it’s all really interesting”.

Photography by: www.andrewplantphotography.com