Day two of The Staff Canteen Live 2016 at Hotelympia

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We’ve taken The Staff Canteen Live 2016 to Hotelympia at Excel London and we’ve brought some of the finest names in the industry with us.

Our fantastic line-up of chefs continued today as we kicked off our live demos with Simon Hulstone from Michelin-starred The Elephant. Simon has held his star for 12 years and today he cooked roasted Skrei, buttered spinach, clams, poached cod cheeks and fish sauce.

After his demo he said: "The Staff Canteen Live was fantastic, I got a great reception and it was a good opportunity to interact with the students who were here at Hotelympia. There were a lot of poignant questions which really needed to be answered with a few young chefs in a real quandary about what they want to do.

"That's why demos like this are so great for the industry it allows us to talk to young chefs and they can get tips or advice."

Taking to the stage after Simon was three Michelin-starred Clare Smyth. Chef patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsey, Clare had brought her senior chef de partie Luke Selby with her to help with the demo. The pair cooked a Dover sole dish and Clare said: "Today was really cool, we had great questions, there was a great vibe and a great audience.

"It's great to do demos like this so I can share some of my knowledge and my food philosophy - it's so important to inspire the next generation of chefs."

>>> See the full line-up here and find out more about each chef

Not only cooking but butchering down a whole fallow deer was Andy McFadden from Pied a Terre. The executive chef said being a part of The Staff Canteen was 'an amazing experience' he explained: "It's nice to get away from the kitchen and when I saw the line-up and it was a privilege to be a part of it. It's good for young chefs to come and see people who are their idols or heroes, interact with them, ask questions and even ask for a job."

The final demo was by Graham Garrett who made a scallop cevich taco. The chef patron of Michelin-starred The West House said: "Doing demos is always slightly daunting but I like The Staff Canteen, I watch all the videos and it's great to be involved. "It's a great insight for people and I know when I was first starting out I really enjoyed coming to these events."

>>> Read more about The Staff Canteen Live 2016 at Hotelympia here   

The Staff Canteen Live will be back tomorrow. If you can't be at Hotelympia follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and watch all the demos live on our YouTube channel.