With 33 entrants on Tuesday night, the pub was buzzing as crowds gathered in the restaurant to watch over the pass as the competition began. The judges, neatly tucked away out of earshot and view of the kitchen took to their seats, a mixture of both excitement and definite apprehension on their faces.

And so we got started… chefs galore turned up to the kitchen at their allotted slot times, eagerly awaiting their 15 minutes in the kitchen. Some more relaxed than others, we made our way through three hours of celebration for the genius creation that is simply egg, meat and breadcrumbs. There were probes flying about, stop clocks and alarms, there was heat, there was sweat, there was almost tears! 

We had ritual songs being sung, we had customized t-shirts, there were shouts and there were cheers. But what emerged out of fryers and ovens, no one could turn down. Overwhelmed waitresses launched themselves egg after egg into the restaurant to give out these works of art to the crowds and get opinions flowing, a separate competition developing for which one of them could try and get the furthest through the masses without having to return to the kitchen with an empty board.

Huge thanks have to go out to our judges Chris Pople, MiMi Aye, Mat Follas, and self confessed King of Scotch Eggs David Constable (who we hope still wishes to maintain that title after being force fed almost seven in one sitting) for their expert opinions. They were also joined by special guest judge Eric Lanlard of CakeBoy fame and whose hobbies are soon to include trips to space, who kindly stepped in and saved the day at the last minute to fill the fifth spot on the panel. Not knowing who’s egg was who’s they endeavoured to judge on appearance, smell, texture and taste, 20 being the maximum points each judge could give an egg (5 for each category). At about 11pm we had a result. Tallying up the points to give each competitor a score out of 100, Osh made his way up to the judges table to announce a winner. The Devonshire’s Egg was truly outstanding and with four out of the five judges ranking it top, they deservedly lifted the cup.

Top points for best non retail entry went to Friday Food Club and David crowned The Hind’s Head, Bray as the winners of his own award for eggcellence. Commentary and laughs from Douglas Blyde on the mic all evening doing interviews and egging on the judges topped off a great night and very successful event. A massive congratulations to everyone who took part, ate, drank and went into the bar afterwards to be merry amongst a few local irish musicians.

About The Ship, Wandsworth:
On the banks of the Thames by Wandsworth Bridge, The Ship has been supplying fine ales, wines and food to its surrounding residents since 1786 when it was founded as a Thameside Waterman’s Inn.

Mat Follas

I will be watching Masterchef this year, I don't always watch the celeb or professionals but always the amateur series

Why ?

... as a fan of the program I've always enjoyed the honesty of the judges, John and Gregg, the aspirations of the contestants, the ones who flourish and the ones who's pomposity is burst with a truly awful dish. John and Gregg are not your friends who, at every dinner party, praise you for your 'wonderful cooking', they're direct and honest and more than a little painful at times. The 'journey' is a much copied format now but its always great to watch the huge leaps the semi-finalists take as they progress and get opportunities to learn.

... as a previous contestant and winner I have a huge debt and can share the highs and lows from a privileged perspective. I know a lot of the team behind the cameras, the directors and the brilliant and committed Series Editors Karen and David. I know the program is honest to its core, John and Gregg, the production and the contestants are kept at arms length from each other. I'm sure the production would have preferred a female finalist in the last couple of years but the judges are kept separate from influence and, I believe, only ever judge on the food placed in front of them.

I know now Gregg and I are friends that I wasn't his favourite to win my series until the final day although I had no inkling when I was contestant which way either of them felt.

... finally as a restaurateur there are some wonderful new ideas and dishes, its great to see other kitchens (we cooks lead pretty insular lives)

The format changes this year, I don't know how similar to the Aussie or NZ Masterchef it will be but I do know the production team is basically the same as the previous series. I know they're a bit nervous of the new, more glamorous perhaps, format and studio losing the audience who like the grittiness of the original series but am confident there will be the underlying honesty kept which will ensure the series will continue as a success.

So good luck to the program, more importantly I wish the last few luck as they are now committed to cooking for the next few years, I hope you enjoy the journey as much as I have. I look forward to hopefully meeting you soon.

Series 7 Masterchef starts on BBC1 at 9pm this Wednesday 16 February
(I might be making a brief appearance on the 24th February)

Mat Follas
Kai We Care - popup restaurant for NZ quake

Twitter is an amazing and powerful tool for our times. I've seen statements like this said a number of times but hadn't realised till Monday night how true this can be.

One single tweet from me and approx 300 replies came flooding in within a few minutes.

A short conversation with Dave Ahern aka @corkgourmetguy, a blogger and fellow 'mature' newby chef … went along the lines of (and I'm paraphrasing):

• D You doing anything for NZ Earthquake ?
• M Running an auction for dinner/overnight, not sure what else to do
• D Popup restaurant ?
• M Too far from London and not enough time to handle as much as I want to, keep asking if anyone is so I can help out
• D I run events for a living (or did), how about it? We could do a 30 cover dinner with our contacts alone
• M Why not? I'll ask twitter and see what feedback I get

matkiwi Mat Follas It's been suggested a popup fundraiser restaurant for nz earthquake ... London ... 4 or 5th April ... thoughts? Volunteers? Location?

What a response ! Literally hundreds of people offered their help immediately and lots more offering services and goodies.
Thank you all so much … I can't say that enough.

So its starting to take shape

Kai we care Kai = Māori for food ... the name is a pun on Kiwi care ...
@KaiWeCare is the twitter account
website http://kaiwecare.weebly.com/
email Mailto:KaiWeCare@gmail.com

This is now somewhat bigger than envisiged (that's English understatement for you).
We have a whole bunch of seriously good chefs including Michelin starred on board to run a course each. Some you might know and some will be better known to chefs and their local communities. It will be great to get a few TV faces on board but just as fun for us to experience some of the lesser well known but exceptional chefs we have in the UK.

For example we will have the lovely Lisa Faulkner (Celeb Masterchef winner) and the less well known Michelin starred Russell Brown from Sienna down here in Dorset. There's a few from Masterchef and The Restaurant on board and a whole bunch of exceptional chefs, more to come.
Harass your favourite chefs to offer to help, its a Monday so most of them will be available ! The best chefs we can get will make this an amazing event and help with the right ticket and auction prices … this is a fundraiser first and foremost, but we all want it to be an evening to be remembered too.

Lots of wine offers, great ! I'm thinking a wine company per course to sponser and a few special bottles for the Auction.

Auction prizes: a number of meals, training courses and wines … please keep them coming!

Bloggers and twitters I need your help to sell tickets, We will need to source ingredients free or at cost and lots and lots of publicity so we can maximise ticket sales and auction values. I know you'll help and please bear with us as the above is all the planning we've been able to do so far.

Importantly
Date: 4 April 2011 - put this in your diary now please ! (as a nice antidote to Mothers day it has been said ...)

Location: London (several sites probable/possible at the moment, looking for size, kitchen and locations, hopefully finalize asap but please do suggest more)

Tickets: £ to be agreed (suggestions?)

Sale method: Ebay or direct from the email account

Numbers: 100 planned

Who's doing what ? In rough terms I'm organising the chefs, Dave the location and auction and John running the twitter and email accounts and day to day … conveniently he has arranged to be unemployed while we're organising the event.

Please retweet/email/blog/copy this letter and let your friends and family know.

More to come soon, Mat