My experience entering the Ecotrophelia Competition 2013

When I first started Harper Adams University, myself and eight other food students formed the team 'More Than Meat Pies' to enter the Ecotrophelia competition 2013.

Ecotrophelia is a competition recognised by the EU Commission. Students from Universities are asked to create an Eco-Innovative product to present it to some of the 'top dogs' in the Food Industry. The product has to be environmentally friendly, sustainable, profitable and commercially viable.

Our team recognised the potential in offal, an underused by product, so decided to create a cottage pie style ready meal. We used kidney, heart and liver which we formed into a mince and mixed with onion, carrot, herbs and a delicious gravy with a mashed potato topping. We kept the skins on the carrots and potato to minimise waste and get those extra brownie points!! We aptly named the pie 'A Heart Meal'.




In early June we entered the first stage of Ecotrophelia in the UK heats at Campden BRI.


Here's a picture of our lovely stand and three of my team mates just before they went to present to 'the dragons'.

We only went and won it!! It was a brilliant feeling especially as we were against some great competition.

Here's us with our Cheque.


Next stop Anuga Cologne, Germany. Mid October the team and I travelled to the largest food trade fair to present our pie against 18 other competing countries. Below is a picture of the team with our pies in transit.

The fair itself was humongous and offered the weird, wonderful and future trending products such as pizza on a stick, but I'll write more about that in another post.


The judging panel was made up Michael Knowles (Chairman European Technology Platform 'Food for Life' and Vice-President Global Scientific and Regulatory Affairs to The Coca-Cola Company), Peter Van Bladern (Global Head Regulatory and Scientific Affairs of Nestle SA) just to name a few!!

Here's some of the products the other Countries were offering:

Ukraine - Panna Cotta Cream Dessert with Fruit Juice Ball Sauce
Switzerland - The Delicatesse (premium fast food)
Spain - Peelcuits (baked snack made from tomato peel)
The Netherlands - Choco Quino (chocolate quinoa beverage)
Italy - SOcrock (snack made with sorghum)
France - Ico&La (vegetable patties using lentils)

Whilst three of the team were presenting, the rest of us served a small portion to the judges. Time just flew in those 15minutes, before we knew it it was all over. All that time, work and effort but boy were we relieved. The next day we returned to Anuga for the result. Third was Italy, second was the Netherlands and well deserved first was France, who hope to launch their lovely veggie dish on the market. We weren't in the top three but were assured we were placed highly and received some great feedback.

It was a wonderful experience and honour to represent the UK and our University. We may not have won but we learnt so much in the process such as project management, how to deal with inherent problems, team work and how an idea develops through research, formulation, industrial phases into a fully fledged product. I'm so proud of our achievement and to have worked with such a lovely and strong team.




If you have the opportunity or are interested in entering, I couldn't recommend it enough. Its a brilliant experience and pretty fab on your CV too!!

http://www.ecotrophelia.eu/

Here's a few links to publications we featured in...

http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/news/202013/students-hope-winning-top-award-is-easy-as-pie
https://connect.innovateuk.org/web/biosciencesktn/articles/-/blogs/harper-adams-team-win-inaugural-ecotrophelia-uk-student-innovation-awards%3bjsessionid=2A7B30497345F311BE0970D2CCB33A55.2dd13a02eab 
http://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/NPD/Harper-Adams-green-meat-pie-scoops-award
http://www.fstjournal.org/news/finals-ecotrophelia-uk-student-innovation-awards
http://www.thegrocer.co.uk/fmcg/fresh/harper-adams-students-compete-for-eco-food-award/344201.article   

Daylesford Organic Restaurant

Lucky for me my mum is a comper (enters loads of competitions) and occasionally wins something..usually something weird like a Pie Minister Frisbee but this time she won a meal at the Daylesford Organic Restaurant in Esher, Surrey.

Here's what Daylesford have to say...

"Join us any time of day for award-winning organic food, straight from our farm to your fork. Every day on our Gloucestershire farm we bake our own bread, make our own cheese, grow our own fruits and vegetables and rear our own animals.

Daylesford Esher’s organic menus reflect the seasons, and are full of the best organic produce from our farm. Our chefs also make special seasonal dishes that might only be around for a few days, whilst the produce is at its best."

As we entered the restaurant on Esher high street I firstly must mention the decor. The walls covered in wooden white slats which reminded me of the outside of a beehive. On the left was where you can buy all the produce like cheese, fresh bread, soups etc. the restaurant was buzzing with business people and ladies who lunch. It was a great atmosphere! It was all open plan so you could watch the chefs work their magic.

Jerome the restaurant manager seated us and introduced our waitress. The competition win included three courses, a bottle of their organic wine and coffees, what a treat!! When ordering food I always like to try something I wouldn't make or don't have the skill to. To start I had the grilled sardines with fresh tomato and caper salsa and green salad, I could taste the olive oil which was wonderfully peppery. Mum ordered the spiced Cornish crab on toast.

Perhaps mum and I took a long time over our starter but as soon as our plates were cleared our steak arrived. I sometimes like a little break between.

It was the special of the day, Sirloin with chips, homemade tomato ketchup and a small salad. I prefer my steak medium rare unlike my dad who enjoys his steak cremated!! It was cooked perfectly and very well presented.

For dessert mum ordered the treacle and ginger tart. It was well balanced, not too sweet and kicked a punch of heat from the ginger. I ordered the chocolate nemesis. The waitress warned me it was rich so asked for the butterscotch ice ream, unfortunately it only came with a small amount of vanilla cream. I felt bad that I couldn't finish it, usually I'm never defeated by a pud. I did suggest to the waitress that perhaps it should be served alongside a chilli ice cream or some other ingredient to counter balance the richness. Apparently they're experimenting with orange and mint which sounds nice but maybe they're should be an option 'not for the faint hearted' and serve it with chilli pecans?!

Wine wise we has they're 2010 bottle of Chateau Leoube Rouge de Leoube. I'm no wine connoisseur but this was damn fine, so fruity, actually so good that we bought a bottle from they're farm shop after

Whilst having our coffee our waitress and Jerome the manager came and sat at our table to talk about our experience and for a general chin wag. I really enjoyed getting to know them and how they came to work for Daylesford. In fact everyone was friendly even the busy chefs were polite and said hello as I walked past (the loos are amazing and the products such as the soap and hand lotion smelt gorgeous).

Overall I loved this restaurant, the food was tasty maybe because it was all grown on their organic farm in Gloucester?? The staff were attentive, the decor, the atmosphere..it was all brilliant and was great to hear that restaurants were opening closer to home in Islington soon. Yes I would recommend this place, although the prices were a little over my student budget I would return here In the future.

Hoxton's Grapefruit and Coconut Gin

I thought of myself as a bit of a gin purist but since trying Hoxton's Grapefruit and Coconut gin mixed with pineapple juice I am a convert. It tastes like a piña colada but probably not as fattening?!

Currently Waitrose are reducing bottles at a great price.

So even if your not a great gin lover (as I am) it makes a great base for many cocktails.

Grab one and treat yourself!!

Quirky Alternative Chocolate - Rozsavolgyi

I often get on a bus up to Selfridges to have a mooch around and look at all the unusual alcohols and confectionery they have. As an early birthday gift for my mum (I'm also terrible and surprises) I bought her what I think is the prettiest and most unusual chocolate bar I've ever seen. Rozsavolgyi have created a range of beautiful chocolates with unique flavour combinations, for instance I bought my mum the dark chocolate with olives and toasted bread. Strange? YES. Does it work? STRANGELY YES!!

Here's what Selfridges have to say...

"Roasted olives, toasted bread and olive oil collide in this deliciously good Rozsavolgyi dark chocolate bar. At the 2013 AoC awards, this textural sweat treat won the bronze award in the seasoned bar category."

Other flavours available include milk chocolate with Himalaya salt, white chocolate and matcha tea and dark chocolate with hot paprika. The packaging and the actual chocolate was also stunning.

Prices range from £5.99 to £7.99 but let me tell you they're worth it and make a wonderful and unusual gift.

Eat 17 Bacon Jam

When I saw Eat17 advertising bacon jam and onion jam in the Waitrose magazine I knew it would be right up my street because it sounds damn weird.
In fact its not a jam at all, its an onion chutney.

Eat17's Bacon Jam is sweet but not in a weird way and is the type of condiment that goes with or in anything, for example I can't eat grilled cheese on toast without it and a dollop goes great in spaghetti bolognese let me tell you..the possibilities are endless.
 

I suppose you've got to buy it to believe it.