It’s been 12 months since Daniel Clifford, chef patron of two Michelin-starred Midsummer House and recently opened Flitch of Bacon, was crowned the AA Restaurant Guide 2016 Chef’s Chef at the annual Hospitality Awards.

He was taken aback when his name was called and then he realised he would be cooking for the same 1200 hospitality industry guests next year…..nervous chef?

“It’s the numbers! To do food for those kind of numbers is the scariest thing ever,” explained Daniel. “First of all you have a room full of your peers, you’re judged on every single plate of food which is put down, the chefs in the kitchen have got to be able to deliver it and the worst thing is you’re not in the kitchen cooking it! You are sat at the table – it’s the most cringe worthy experience you will ever put yourself through because someone else is cooking your food.”

He added: “Good luck to whoever wins it this year because it’s been an absolute rollercoaster getting that menu up. To do what we do at Midsummer for 1200 people is near enough impossible. We’ve had to work really closely with the Grosvenor House Hotel and I think we’ve nailed it, I really do.

“Last year Nathan’s (Outlaw) was so good, it was probably the best banqueting food I’ve ever had – at the time I thought ‘how am I going to beat this?’”

>>> Find out more about Daniel and watch his videos here

Daniel will be serving an eel dish to start with celeriac and apple, it’s a dish with 18 years of Midsummer Heritage which has evolved.

He said: “I put smoked eel on because one it’s an underused ingredient, second it’s an amazing ingredient and thirdly the awards is full of industry. Everyone in the industry should be real foodies so they should love it. A lot of people would turn their nose up at smoked eel.”

For the main course guests can look forward to an ox cheek pudding, it was a course that was discussed a lot as Daniel says cooking meat, perfectly, for that amount of people is ‘near enough impossible’.

“Two years ago we put a suet pudding on the menu at Midsummer and it was a massive statement,” explained Daniel. “It wasn’t really the style of food that people were expecting when they were coming to a two star restaurant.