[10
AUG 00] CITY
CENTRE COMPANY NEWS
TV Chef Coming Home To Cook Up A Treat
TV
chef Tony Tobin will be doing some "home" cooking when he stars
in the Coventry Food Festival next month.
The
star of television shows including Ready, Steady, Cook will be
demonstrating his culinary skills on Saturday 30 September and judging the
Coventry Chef Of The Year competition.
It
will also be an opportunity for the 35-year-old to visit some old stomping
grounds.
He was
brought up in the Warwickshire village of Priors Marston, had his first
taste of kitchen life at the Butcher's Arms in Priors Hardwick and went to
Trinity School in Leamington.
He
trained at Stratford College before moving to the Grosvenor Hotel in
Chester and then on to London.
The
third Coventry Food Festival, organised by the City Centre Company,
coincides with a three-day French market in the city centre.
Tony
said:
"I
am really looking forward to coming back to Warwickshire. I get back
whenever I can and I have done tutorials at Stratford College because I
had such a superb training there.
"When
I was at school we used to come over to Coventry to go roller skating -
and the Food Festival will be just as frenetic.
"I
do these events all over the country but it will certainly mean more to
me being so close to home and hopefully there will be a few familiar
faces in the crowd.
"I
am sure the Chef Of The Year competition will be extremely well
contested and I think it is a great idea. The whole festival and market
will be something for everyone to enjoy - I am for anything which
publicises cooking."
Tony
is currently executive chef at the Dining Room in Surrey and a director of
a fast growing chain of Italian restaurants - Tortellini's - based in and
around South London.
He
added:
"We
have just finished recording the first shows of the new series of Ready,
Steady, Cook, which Ainsley Harriot is hosting and which go out just
before the Coventry event."
Celebrity
chef Paul Rankin was the judge for the past two years and proved very
popular but Gillian Lawless, event and promotions manager for the City
Centre Company, said Tony would bring a fresh flavour to the event.
She
said:
"Tony
is very much a rising star in the television culinary world and was very
keen to return home to Warwickshire.
“The
market has proved very popular in the past and we are busy lining up a
host of attractions for the day."
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