Heat on for top chef Lee Campbell

Apr 30 2010 by Katharine Capocci, The Journal

Katharine Capocci talks starters and puds with the newly-crowned North East Chef of the Year 2010.

LEE Campbell is officially hot stuff after being crowned North East Chef of the Year 2010 this week.

For Lee, 34, who is head chef at the Starters and Puds restaurant in Shakespeare Street, Newcastle, it’s the realisation of a dream.

It was also the fourth time this tenacious chef had entered the prestigious competition.

The adopted Geordie, who originally hails from Stonehaven, near Aberdeen, also has his first official assignment as North East Chef of the Year.

Lee will be demonstrating in the mobile kitchen at The Journal’s Taste of the County food and drink festival at the Northumberland County Show in Corbridge on May 31.

He will join other top North East chefs for a stint cooking in the state-of-the-art mobile kitchen at the event.

It promises to be a busy few months ahead for the in-demand chef as he will also be cooking at the EAT! NewcastleGateshead food festival in June when he will demo dishes, using fish freshly landed on the Quayside.

Lee sees the title win as a huge accolade – and he follows in illustrious footsteps. Previous winners have included Jamie Walsh in his Fisherman’s Lodge days and Cafe 21’s Parichat Somsri-Kirby.

Lee says: “It’s amazing – a fantastic accolade. I didn’t think I would win but it all came together on the day. It’s the realisation of a dream.

“It’s the fourth time I’ve entered. Perseverance is the key! I was chatting to chef David Kennedy afterwards (a previous winner of the coveted award) and he said I was in my zone, calm and methodical.”

Lee went head to head with seven other chefs in a fiercely fought cook-off this week in the competition organised by the North East Culinary Trades Association (NECTA) awards at Newcastle Racecourse.

The chefs had to present a three-course meal for four people in two and three-quarter hours using a mystery box of ingredients.

They were then judged on a number of factors including skills, use of produce and presentation.

Lee wowed the judges with this starter of seared salmon with spring veg, and mussel and Craster kipper cream. For mains he cooked herb-crusted rack of lamb with sautéed kidney, while dessert was rhubarb and orange soup with Redesdale cheese ice cream and polenta and almond cake with caramelised pecans.

The judges included industry experts from some of the country’s top hotels including Andrew Bennett, executive chef from London’s Hyde Park Hotel, North East restaurateur Terry Laybourne of the 21 Hospitality Group and Ian McAndrew of the Blackaddie Hotel in Dumfriesshire.

Lee, who has lived in the North East for 10 years, lives in Gateshead with wife Steph and their three children Connor, eight, Toby, five, and Lexi, two.

There are plans too to re-create the winning menu for a special one-off evening at Starters and Puds.

“I will be discussing with the boss when I get back in today but we would like to recreate the winning menu for customers.”

Lee has been at Starters and Puds since it opened two years ago. Prior to that he worked at Loch Fyne in Gosforth and has variously worked at Oldfields, the Vermont hotel and Blackfriars restaurant, in Newcastle, as well as Gleneagles in Perthshire.

The Starters and Puds experience is a novel way of dining and can be compared to a tapas or mezze style of eating, where a variety of smaller starter and pud dishes are ordered rather than one big mains dish.

It’s a dining experience that is growing in popularity, says Lee, about the restaurant.

“We specialise in modern British food with a European influence.

“I love the concept of Starters and Puds. It’s the way forward, having a couple of starters instead of one main dish. It’s like British tapas. It’s catching on with people and we are getting busier and busier.”

Life is set to get a lot busier for the newly-crowned Lee who plans to use his title to promote the region and the restaurant at various food and drink festivals and fairs where possible.

Lee is already a champion of regional produce. “It’s got to be local. We have so many good producers in the region. It’s criminal not to use what’s on the doorstep, “ he says.

“I already use meat from Kielder Organic Meats, Freeman Butchers in Gateshead, Mistletoe Bakery in Jesmond and fish suppliers Frank Round in North Shields, to name a few.”

The Chef of the Year cook-off is the highlight of two days of NECTA cookery competitions at Newcastle Racecourse.

NECTA organiser and chairman of the judges, Douglas Jordan, of the acclaimed Jordans restaurant in Ryton, Gateshead, said: “They cooked up a storm and the standard was excellent. The judges were industry experts from the country’s top hotels and they were very impressed by what they saw.

“It was great to see the talent on display. It’s a showcase for the chefs of the North East and all helps to raise our profile.”

Lee Campbell will be one of half a dozen chefs cooking at The Journal’s Taste of the County food and drink festival at the Northumberland County Show on May 31.