Brains for business

By its own admission, Hull is a deprived area. The city's economy is dominated by low wages and high unemployment, according to Hull City Council. But Malmo Park - the city's first food innovation and technology centre - is determined to encourage budding entrepreneurs to inject some life into the area.

To celebrate its recent opening, Malmo Park launched Chef Idol - a competition, which challenged catering students at Hull College to design their own ready meals. This might sound like a great way to get young people interested in food manufacture, but initially the students took some persuading because they felt that 'proper chefs' should be creating dishes from scratch.

However, their ears soon pricked up when they heard that the best development chefs in the industry can earn upwards of £50,000 per year. Allyson Peachey, catering learning advisor at the college, said: "At first when we mentioned ready meals, our catering students were a little cynical. However, they've really embraced the idea of this competition."

Tryton Foods' general manager Andrew Hayes, and Northern Foods' new product development (NPD) manager Bev Dale sat alongside me on the judging panel. We were all presented with a vast array of dishes and given the task of finding the most marketable concept.

Some students had gone for a traditional approach, such as Scott Waldridge and Jonathan Akester with their cheese-topped cottage pie. The judges were really impressed that the group had picked up on the trend towards local produce.

"We have chosen to call our dish Country Cottage Pie because the vegetables in our product are what you would see being grown in a traditional country cottage garden, and can be sourced locally," said Waldridge.

Others had developed more unusual meals, such as Martin Fidder, Emma Parking and Joanne Marshall with their pork and beef stir-fry. A two-meat stir-fry would be a first for the ready meal market, they claimed.

"This product contains raw meat, so it gives the customer the satisfaction [of cooking], and removes the guilt factor of a pre-cooked microwave meal," added Fidder.

It was clear from tasting the meals that some of the entrants were whizzes in the kitchen, but Chef Idol wasn't just about culinary skills - the commercial aspects of NPD also had to be addressed. Students were judged across a range of criteria, including: concept and originality; clear costings and profit margin; meeting customer needs; presentation of product; and taste.

The judges were bowled over by the business acumen of winner Jamie Park (pictured above). His meal, which consisted of venison sausages on a trivet of honey and thyme roasted carrots with a parsnip mash and Yorkshire ale gravy, was aimed at the grey market. "My main focus with this dish is towards the elderly generation. It is a British classic - a dish they will all love and remember, with a modern upmarket twist," said Park.

He had thoroughly researched customer needs, even going as far as surveying college tutors to find out how to improve his offering.

The judges were pleased that Park had acknowledged the importance of provenance and praised his projected costings. "He made good use of seasonality and had a thorough understanding of costings," said Hayes. Dale agreed, adding: "Jamie gave an excellent presentation and had really thought through his product positioning."

Park was rewarded with a set of professional kitchen knives, a Chef Idol trophy, and a week's work experience with celebrity chef Raymond Blanc, which will no doubt fuel his enthusiasm for food.

"Malmo Park is all about helping entrepreneurs to start up in the food industry, so this competition was a great way for the food industry experts of today to help the chefs of tomorrow," said centre project manager Rachel Field.

The centre's aim is to help smaller companies, which are emerging from a kitchen environment, by providing production units that can be rented on a short-term basis.

"The main advantage for firms is the fit-for-purpose buildings, but there's also the network of support that they can tap into, such as the Food Technology Advisory Service and Yorkshire Forward," said Field. "We can look at what grants are available for them and support them through their business growth. This is all about stepping up." FM