Alexander the Great helped University of Derby Chef Lecturer Rob Stordy to claim two gold medals at a nationwide culinary arts competition.
Rob used pastry margarine to sculpt a statute of the legendary conqueror astride his horse Bucephalus to win Best in Class at The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO) Salon Culinaire which tests the skills of the UK’s top university chefs.
He won the same contest in 2015 and now has a tally of four TUCO gold medals.
Also at this year’s Salon, held at Warwick University, Rob scooped a gold medal for his plated desserts.
Rob created the sculpture, based on a bronze statuette, at his home in Buxton, using 10 kilos of pastry margarine, which has a similar consistency to Plasticene.
“It’s something I like doing,” said Rob, a former University Chef of the Year. “I treat it more as a hobby.”
The real Alexander survived all his battles, but Rob’s version is a little more delicate: “When I was carrying it downstairs, I caught its front leg on the doorknob and I had to repair it,” he said.
And driving to Warwick was a nightmare as he avoided potholes in the roads.
Rob’s award-winning desserts were a new twist on a lemon meringue with a limoncello curd plus a liquorice and lemon sorbet topped with a truffle tuile, liquorice gel, lemon glass tuile, and a chocolate parfait with salted caramel sauce, cinnamon popcorn and chocolate “soil”, a type of crumble.
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