The winner of the inaugural Cardiff Harbour Festival Fish Dish competition has been unveiled.
Kate Carlyle from Newport won over the judges with her sea bream with chilli, garlic and tomato.
In the run-up to this weekend’s Cardiff Harbour Festival (August 27 – 29), the competition to find a prize catch fish dish was launched by Cardiff Harbour Authority in partnership with Jamie’s Italian in the city centre.
The restaurant was looking for dishes with an Italian flavour, in line with their existing menu, and with Jamie Oliver leading a crusade against the oceans’ endangered species they wanted recipes that do not involve Salmon, Prawns, Cod, Haddock and Tuna.
Kate’s winning recipe will now be included on the specials menu at Jamie’s Italian for a limited time and will also be demonstrated by fishmongers from the National Federation of Fishmongers at the Harbour Festival on Saturday, August 27 – Kate’s birthday – at 12.30pm.
Kate’s prize also includes dinner for two at Jamie’s Italian where she will be able to try out the chef’s take on her own recipe, and an overnight stay at Future Inns, Cardiff Bay.
The sea bream meal came up against strong competition from other shortlisted entries of linguini with yellow courgette and smoked mackerel by Leah Ashe and penne with ginger, crab and asparagus by Judy Alloway, before a panel of experts plumped for Kate’s dish. Judy’s meal was judged to be second and she will receive a gift voucher for Jamie’s Italian while Leah will receive a Jamie Oliver cook book.
Executive Member for Sport, Leisure and Culture, Cllr Nigel Howells, said: “Many congratulations to Kate. I’m sure she will feel extremely honoured to have her recipe grace the menu at Jamie’s Italian. This is been a really exciting competition of a very high standard that builds up nicely to the Cardiff Harbour Festival this weekend when thousands of people will be drawn to the waterfront for a Bank Holiday Weekend packed full of fun and family entertainment.
“Kate’s dish will be demonstrated at the festival on Saturday so this will be a great chance for other budding chefs to find out what gave her recipe all the right ingredients for success.
“This competition has been a great example of the Council working in partnership with private businesses and event organisers to add value to the city’s event programme. It is vital that we work with commercial partners to deliver first-class events in the city that are value for money.
“Offering a prize of this calibre enhances the reputation of the Cardiff Harbour Festival. I personally would like to thank Jamie’s Italian and The Federation of Fishmongers for supporting the inaugural ‘Find a Fish Dish’ competition.”
Mary Needham, General Manager of Jamie’s Italian Cardiff said: “Jamie is trying to promote an awareness of “the fish we should be eating” and a more educated approach to how we think about fish. The idea is that by using a wider variety of fish, sea levels will remain balanced and we will not see a massive depletion of the most popular or well known fish, as we are seeing at the moment.”
Cardiff Harbour Festival will once again serve up its annual portion of Fish and Ships to amuse and entertain. Features to watch out for are the British Fish Craft Championships on Sunday as the country’s top fishmongers try to out-fillet each other, the Welsh National Oyster Opening Championships on Monday, Tall Ships, sea shanty singers, a continental market, fairground rides and music and much, much more.
For more information visit www.cardiffharbour.com
