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It was day one for The Staff Canteen Live 2017 at the Great Hospitality Show and who better to take to the stage first than Michelin-starred Glynn Purnell.

Glynn was joined by his head pastry and sous chef, Luke Butcher and the pair created one of the signature dishes from his restaurant Purnell’s, Monkfish Masala.

Dom Chapman, Rabbit Lasagne — Dom Chapman

Rabbit Lasagne

Glynn and Luke were helped on stage by students from Birmingham College and this year we live streamed each demo on Facebook as well as our YouTube channel - we reached 40,000 people on Facebook Live alone!

On The Staff Canteen Live Glynn said: “We’re honoured to be asked to come and do it and we’ve had a great morning. What’s really nice about demonstrations is the audience have the opportunity to ask questions.”

Luke added: “There were a lot of young chefs in the audience asking questions which is good and hopefully we’ve inspired a few of them.”

>>> Related: Luke Butcher, Pastry Chef and Sous, Purnell's

As well as Glynn and Luke, The Staff Canteen Live stage also hosted Dom Chapman from The Beehive, former Roux Scholarship winner Andre Garrett from Clivedon House and Mark Abbott from Midsummer House.

Dom cooked a rabbit lasagne, making his pasta from scratch and Andre did a turbot dish, with an oyster veloute and a deep fried oyster.

Dom, who has made several appearances on Great British Menu said: “The Staff Canteen Live is always brilliant, really great fun and great to be a part of. Demos like this expose you to the industry, you can see what chefs are doing and ask questions.

“It’s tricky to pick which dish to showcase but the rabbit lasagne is a signature dish, however rolling pasta on stage and getting the timings right is always a risk.”

Andre Garrett on stage at The Staff Canteen Live — Andre Garrett on stage at

The Staff Canteen Live

Closing the show was Mark Abbott, head chef at Daniel Clifford’s two Michelin-starred Midsummer House. He cooked his potato dish, Ordinary to Extraordinary at last year’s Great British Menu banquet and he chose to cook it live for us today.

On The Staff Canteen Live said: “It’s brilliant! The Staff Canteen is always popping up on twitter but it’s not one you scroll through quickly. They always feature those who are up and coming in the industry and that’s what The Staff Canteen is – it’s new and it’s fresh.”

He added: “The Staff Canteen are really on the ball when it comes to what is now, which is fantastic.”
Will Boers from Westlands, The Staff Canteen Live headline sponsor, says the live event gives them ‘a great brand exposure across the chef industry’.

He said: “We don’t work directly with chefs so it’s nice to get the opportunity to meet them face to face and get feedback. It’s not just the chefs doing the demonstrations it’s the chef walking past our stand and it’s great to get the chance to educate them on how to use and get the best out of our products.”

The Staff Canteen Live is also sponsored by Callebaut, Chef Works, Hoshizaki, Wild Atlantic Prawns and rexmartins.

The Staff Canteen Live is back at the Great Hospitality Show tomorrow with Beverley Dunkley from the UK Callebaut Academy Centre, Nick Edgar from The Samling Hotel, Aktar Islam from the Lasan Group and Adam Reid from Adam Reid at the French.

You can watch all of the demos on Facebook Live, Instagram Live and on our YouTube channel.

>>> Read more about The Staff Canteen Live here

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