Masterchef 2015 champion Simon Wood let his fine food do the talking with his recent book launch.
The executive chef at Oldham Athletic turned up the heat with his fantastic five course menu at the Oldham Event Centre – a culmination of refined food and a masterclass in fine dining.Simon launched his first book this month, At Home with Simon Wood, after a year in which he has carried out hundreds of interviews following his triumph in front of millions of viewers on the toughest cooking show on TV, the BBC’s Masterchef.
And while judges Greg Wallace and John Torode were tough judges on the programme, Simon says the real test comes from impressing the tastebuds of paying guests at the Boardroom Restaurant which launches later this month at SportsDirect.com stadium.He admits that while he is confident with his level of expertise in the kitchen, he said some pre-event nerves set in with a live Q&A forming part of the event.
Away from the heat and demands of the kitchen, the Oldham Events Centre formed a partnership with the PR team at Blackpool-based full-service agency Happy Creative to help serve up the goods in the run-up to the event.“Cooking for around 80 people is a challenge but I have no nerves around food any more, Masterchef dealt with those fears,” says Oldham-born Simon, “The challenging bit was when service was over and the questions started coming in! You just never know what people are going to ask. I’m OK with food-related questions but you get some really strange ones also. “You accept the celebrity status that comes with an accolade such as Masterchef but when people stop you on the street and ask you to speak on the phone to their mum it all goes a bit strange!”