StrEATfood Awards interview
We speak to Andre Olto, chef manager for OCS, who adapted his recipe from last year and went on to win a later competition.
What is your everyday role?
I am the chef manager at Kings Norton Girls' School, in charge of the day-to-day running of the kitchen, front- and back-of-house. I produce the menus, even down to managing the costings and so on.
How important is that street food to your offer?
It's really important, because we have lots of concepts that OCS has created. We offer a different one every day here at the school, five days a week. It encourages the kids, because with street food being quite popular and trendy, they are drawn to it, rather than us just offering generic school meals. Street food is something different and you can show it off, and not just the food, but also the labelling, the marketing, the branding, even the logos we have on the menus.
What was your signature dish and how did you come up with it?
My signature dish was a longganisa rice burger, which is traditionally a breakfast item in the Philippines. You have this sausage called longganisa, which is basically like chorizo, that you have with garlic fried rice and a fried egg in the morning with banana ketchup. I wanted to turn that into a burger, but a healthier version, so I thought, ‘Rather than bread buns, why not use rice?’
That was my signature dish, but unfortunately it didn't place at the StrEATfood Awards. I think it was mainly down to the fact that it was too big. I basically made one giant burger, but then I changed it into bite-sized sliders. That idea came from the development chef I worked with.
What was the award that you subsequently won?
It was LACA’s Grab 'N' Go Challenge in the summer. I entered the year before, but I didn't get to the final. I got to the cook-off stage and one of the pieces of feedback that I got from the judges was the fact that it was falling apart. So I took that feedback onboard, incorporated it this year and it worked.
How did it feel to win? You must have been delighted…
It was amazing! I said to my manager, Rob Cass, that I understand that saying ‘living the dream’ now, because it literally felt like I was in a dream world for, like, three days. It was just unreal. I couldn't believe I'd actually won!
Even talking about it now, that feeling comes back from when my name was called. I didn't expect it, and it was very emotional for me, because one the inspirations behind the dish was my mum, who unfortunately passed away. So this win was for her.
Would you recommend that other chefs enter competitions like these?
I recommend doing it for the for the experience, rather than to win. It's nice to win, but it’s helpful to experience something outside of your comfort zone, especially as I'm a very big believer in looking after your mental health.
It helped me loads, because doing stuff like this, even with the pressure, it wasn't a ‘bad’ thing for me. It was more exciting.
Also, you meet and get to know loads of new people, so it's a good way of networking. I would recommend it to anybody.
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