Manx Brazilian wins I Love ManxChef

Lizia Medina Quinn, originally from Brazil and now a colourful addition to the community of Andreas, was named the winner of the I Love ManxChef competition by judge Hairy Biker – Dave Myers at the Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival this weekend. Her traditional spicy Brazilian dish, ‘Coxinha’ cooked, using predominately Manx ingredients just piped fellow finalist Samantha Honey-Pollock to the post in a close run, against the clock, live, final cook off.

Lizia’s dish provided a mouthwatering mix of Manx produced fillings mixed with local vegetables in crouquets coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried to a golden brown. She served the Coxinha with a suitably spicy sauce using Manx grown tomatoes, peppers, onions and garlic and a pre-prepared seasoned cheese sauce.

Lizia is a regular stall holder at Ramsey Farmers’ Market, held each Saturday, where this dish is her bestseller; she praised fellow stall holder and local producer Dot Price of Purely Plants, in Andreas, for providing fresh Manx vegetables including hot chilli peppers, which she used in her dish. Thanks also went to Ramsey butcher; Teare’s for supplying choice cuts of local beef and chicken, to fishmonger Paul Desmond for cod and spicy smoked salmon and to Pennti Christian for his Manx produced Ellerslie Rapeseed oil. Her winning recipe incorporated Laxey Glen Mill flour, and Isle of Man Creamery cheese.

Lizia cooked up four flavours of filled croquettes using the local sourced fillings to the delight of judge Dave, I Love Manx Chef official tasters, President of the Manx NFU Howard Quayle and DAFF member David Cannan MHK.

Fellow finalist, Samantha Honey-Pollock created a Manx inspired Three Tapas of Mann, beautifully served on an engraved slate plate with specially commissioned horseradish ice-cream from Davidson’s Ice cream. Kathryn Sentance of Relish Cookery School provided the finalists with cookery equipment and ably assisted and interviewed the cooks as they prepared and plated their dishes in just 30 minutes, in front of a packed audience in the Manx Live Food Theatre. Kathryn also challenged the four finalists with an ingredients test using Manx vegetables from Purely Plants.

Totalling the points for proportion of Manx ingredients used, flavour, presentation and the results of an ingredients test with just half a point between the two finalists, Dave said: “Both of you have out done me and Si on the proportion of local ingredients that can be used in top quality food, the flavours were wonderful and the presentation was spot on – perfect on both counts. It just shows what a wonderful place the Isle of Man is with such a great range of ingredients available to you. What I love is the Brazilian influence on British food; I’m going to pinch the dough idea! The fillings were all different and really, really tasty. Lizia just had the edge and is a worthy winner. Congratulations too to Samantha for a stunning effort.”

On behalf of DAFF David Cannan MHK added that: “The food was excellent, they are both amazing cooks to be able to produce this Manx feast under such pressure and congratulations to both of them.”

Howard Quayle commented: “The sacrifices I make for farming!” as he tucked into another mouthful of the award winning dishes. Adding: “Yet again I find myself trying the most amazing food created using fresh local ingredients; it makes me very proud to be Manx! Speaking as farmer it is really important to us that Manx people buy local. The crowds at the Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival are a great demonstration of how much Manx produce is valued and local producers thank the public for that.”

Both Lizia’s and Samantha’s recipes will be posted on the I Love Manx website shortly, allowing you to cook up winning Manx recipes. www.ilovemanx.org

I Love Manx is a joint initiative of the Manx National Farmers’ Union and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry.