Cholent Fest teams aim to impress

Twenty teams are attempting to impress one man at this year’s annual Cholentfest – and he’s a non-Jewish Lancastrian who spent 34-years in the army, called Harry Lomas.

But Lomas, now executive head chef of the Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire, is up for the challenge.

“When Josh Zaitschek of the United Synagogue [who founded the competition] asked me to judge, I told him ‘it’s nothing new — don't think it’s only you doing it!’” Lomas said. “A lot of cultures make a similar dish, using inexpensive cuts of meat, beans and root vegetables cooked for several hours. “

Lomas, who trained as a chef at the start of his long Army career, added that a slow-cooked stew was a military favourite: “When we were on manoeuvres we’d prepare it first thing, bring the stew up to a boil in pots which we then put into hay boxes — insulated boxes used to slow cook food. When we arrived at our destination, hours later, the stews would be hot and ready to eat — it’s a tradition that goes back to the Crimean War.”