Red Anywhere’s new kitchens in Littlehampton, West Sussex hosted the final of the Lion’s Den Challenge which is an annual event for young adults from Littlehampton Community School to be put to the test in lots of different scenarios and challenges!

4 Students from Littlehampton School had already completed 3 demanding challenges over the last 3 months and now the school wanted their final test to really test them….. It certainly did!

Sara Hopkins - Community Liaison Manager at Littlehampton School contacted me and asked if i would come up with a challenge for the final test, I thought about it and quickly said yes!

i decided to set them a challenge of creating a Pud for a celebrity that had to have a wow factor, this was quite significant as I had recently had to do the same for R and B Singer Jamelia a couple of weeks ago.

All 4 students had 1 hour to prepare a dessert for 2 people and serve to a panel of judges. The students only had 5 days to do their research and come up with a recipe and then purchase the ingredients and also practise the dish at home!

They were marked on seasonality of ingredients, presentation, flavour, texture and balance and also the way they worked in a commercial kitchen environment!

i have to say they all did very well and the standard was very good as these students were not chefs and some may of not ever cooked a thing in their life! They all stood up to the challenge and all served their puds within the 1 hour time limit…. Phew!

The judges were made up of Me, Editor of the Littlehampton Gazette, Deputy Mayor of Littlehampton and members of Arun District Council…. We deliberated and cogitated and had an extended discussion on the eventual winner.

It was very close and we also had to take into account the last 3 challenges they had all been in, they were not just judged on this challenge but on overall….. First prize was a Laptop and an IPod so a lot at stake!

We eventually decided on a winner and got the students and guests together, I spoke of the standard reached by all the students and how proud they should all be of their efforts, but there could only be 1 winner and that was………..Andrew Sula who created a mouth watering dessert of White Chocolate Mousse with fresh crushed Raspberries set in a White Chocolate Cup and surrounded by a fresh Raspberry Sauce!

Second place went to Rosie Lewis who created an upside down cheesecake which tasted sublime!

Joint third went to 2 lads, Simon Nicholls and Chris Holland-Skinner both did very well and one of the lads even attempted to create a recipe from Gordon Ramsay’s book…… very brave!

Well done to you all and as I said earlier watch out Ramsey, Oliver and Delia!

Dan Clarke

Creative Chef Red Anywhere

I often get asked what makes a good Hog Roast!

Well in my opinion the ingredients, the drink and obviously the weather! We cater all over the South of England but already this year we have roasted more than 20 pigs, 5 lambs and served huge amounts of Sausages, Burgers, Steaks and Chickens.

We recently catered at our exclusive venue Eastland’s Estate where the bride and groom wanted a Hog Roast. We needed to cook 2 pigs for this event as there were 130 guests attending and a pig can feed around 60 guests comfortably.

The Hog

The pig comes prepared from our local butcher (Swandean Meats) and then we get the task of inserting a pole through the middle of it and putting all the clamps and braces on the pig to hold it in place when it cooks on the spit, this is a very important part of the preparation as if the pig is not on the pole properly it can split or come off when cooking and cause all kinds of problems!

We then rub the pig with water and salt to keep it moist and stop the pig from drying out and burning, we also score the meat in certain places, the belly, legs and shoulders to help crackle the skin.

The pig is then put onto the machine, these vary most of the modern ones have motors on them that turn the pig as it cooks. We hire our machines in from Classic Event Hire based in Rustington, Phil and Wayne are great guys and the they have invested in brand new machines this year…. they even have wheels on them so you can pull the machine around with ease!

the average cooking time is 6 hours depending on size, some larger pigs can take longer, I believe its always best to cook a little longer if unsure then be under cooked as RAW PORK is defiantly not good! we test by inserting a knife into the back legs and pushing it right in and then touching the tip of the knife to make sure its hot, if so then its cooked.

You are then ready to carve the pig, ideally if you can leave it for about an hour then the meat will rest and stay very moist as the juices are setting as the meat cools slightly….!!

We serve our hogs with Home Made Apple Sauce and Stuffing in a Bap with lots of exciting salads, chutneys and pickles…. perfect for that party or corporate entertaining

If you are looking for a Hog Roast then please get in touch, you will not be disappointed!

Leading Sussex based law firm Bennett Griffin wanted to celebrate their 18th year in business with a party… so they got us involved at Red Anywhere

The brief was first to find a venue in the Worthing area and then propose a day of Food, Drink and Entertainment which to us at Red

was not a problem.

We decided on the venue which was the beautiful Highdown Vineyard in Ferring near Worthing, Karin the owner was a delight to work with and were pleased that such a local firm were coming to the winery and would also get the chance to taste some of Highdown’s award winning English Wine…. which was lovely!

We then started with non alcoholic cocktails which included our own Red’s Lemonade and a Peach Cobbler, they both went down very well! The staff then tucked into a light lunch of Posh Open Sandwiches, Breads, Olives and Tomatoes before going into their AGM.

There were around 50 staff for the day event and then another 75 clients that had been invited for an evening get together with more cocktails which we created for the day, Bennett Breeze and the Griffin Sour both went done very well…. ask the partners!

The evening food was a mixture of a Classic Hog Roast with Apple Sauce and Baps and a BBQ which had Peppered Steaks, Cumberland Sausages and Homemade burgers which were all accompanied by a Salad Bar and lots of pickles, relishes and Chutneys.

Dessert was my famous Summer Berry Pavlova using local strawberries and raspberries and all this accompanied by a light passion fruit sauce a true summer pud!

Later in the evening we had music from 2 local DJ’s Mis Judged and Fraggle Rock who mixed some old classics and some funky recent songs which got people up and dancing whilst enjoying the surroundings of the vineyard.

it was a great event for Red Anywhere with so many local business people attending and a real delight to work with such a prominent local firm who have offices all over Sussex including Worthing, Ferring & Rustington.

Also a big thank you from me and all at Red for Claire Loves help who runs the highly successful Local Web Solutions based in Rustington who acts on behalf of Bennett Griffin with all there marketing and website presence.

If you are looking for a corporate event with a twist then there is no else but us who can deliver…. that’s a promise!

Dan Clarke

Creative Chef