Chef Kenny Atkinson brings local taste to Great British Menu

May 21 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

A NORTH East chef competing in the final of a national TV show was drumming up support in the region yesterday.

Kenny Atkinson, the North East’s only Michelin-starred chef, has reached the last eight of the BBC2 series Great British Menu.

The show sees chefs from across the country compete for the chance to cook a four-course homecoming banquet for British troops returning from Afghanistan.

Kenny, who works at Seaham Hall’s White Room Restaurant in County Durham, reached the last eight with a menu which includes his Craster Fish Pie.

The final takes place over three days from next Monday, May 25 to Thursday, May 28. Members of the public will vote to decide which of the chefs wins.

Yesterday, Kenny took a group of national journalists around the region showing them where he sources the ingredients for the pie and to drum up support at grass-roots level.

They visited Craster smoke house from where Kenny gets kippers, Holy Island from where Steve Oldale of Northumberland Mussels in Berwick supplies him with the seafood, and finally Heritage Potatoes, at Tip Toe farm in Cornhill.