Sheffield Hospitals duo cooks up a storm to reach national NHS Chef of the Year final

Martin Spray and Chloe Millis-Poole, who both work in the catering team’s central production unit, are one of just eight teams from across England who will take part in the contest's final this October.

Teams were challenged to produce a low-carbon, three-course meal within a budget of £6-£8. One course was allergen free, and another was plant-based. The main course had a minimum requirement of 26g protein per portion and was to be served hot. The dessert had to have 50% fruit content. Teams also had to provide a breakdown of the cost of all ingredients and the nutritional value of the dishes. All dishes had to be nut-free.

The NHS Chef of the Year competition, now in its fifth year, aims to showcase the talent, skills and creativity of NHS chefs in preparing nutritious, quality food for patients and staff.

Emma Wilson, Head of Catering at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “This is a wonderful achievement, and a credit to the hard work of all the chefs in our in-house food production unit, who produce in excess of 35,000 meals a week from scratch for our patients and staff across our five hospital sites.

"Our team are passionate and hard-working, and pride themselves on being innovative using local ingredients where possible. They also consider patients’ different needs at every stage of food planning and preparation. Martin and Chloe excelled in fine-tuning what we do every day for hundreds of patients to create three amazing dishes in front of the judges. We are very proud of them both but also of our wider catering team.”

Most patient meals provided at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation are prepared from scratch, rather than being bought in, thanks to the cook chill production facility at the Northern General Hospital.

The finals week will run from October 20-24. Chefs will face a series of challenges every day, as teams are eliminated ahead of the final ‘cook-off’ on October 24.