Yesterday two farmers (who distribute their lamb through Island Fresh Lamb) and a chip shop owner from the Isle of Wight appeared on National TV as they went head to head testing their culinary skills against top chef Aldo Zilli and Gino D’Acampo.
BBC2 programme, Step Up to the Plate, is hosted by Anton Du Beke and consists of contest between passionate amateur chefs and two top chefs.
The ‘ams design the menu and choose the ingredients. Each team then creates their version and food critic Loyd Grossman decides who has created the best starter, main and dessert course.
Angus, Jenny and Louise chose as many Island produced items as possible, taking with them fresh crab and king prawns from Bembridge, lamb from Angus’ sheep farm, with spectacular cucumber and rocket also grown on the Island.
It was a fantastic plug for Isle of Wight produce, showing the great range of fresh products available on the Island from fish to meat, as well as all the lovely vegetables. This must have been worth a fortune in advertising terms – we’re sure that IW Tourism and Island food producers will be pretty chuffed.
Louise gave Island restaurants a great plug too, pointing out that ‘Catch of the Day’ really is the ‘catch of the day’ here.
If you missed the programme you can still view it on BBC iPlayer, so we won’t give away who walked away with the prize.
Thanks to friend of VB, Garth for giving us the heads up on this one.
