Nick Sauter of the Newport Room at the Fairmont Southampton Princess proved he is Bermuda?s top chef at the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival held at the Botanical Gardens over the weekend.

It was not only the first time that Nick Sauter won the Escoffier Cup, it was the first time he had ever competed in a cooking competition.

During the competition Mr. Sauter had 25 minutes make a dish using beef tenderloin. Vegetables could be pre-sized peeled, but not precut. Pre-prepared stocks were allowed, but no base sauces or other kinds of prefabrication were permitted.

Mr. Sauter beat out three other finalists, including Sanjay Leeme of the Lemon Tree Cafe, Jeff Christelli of the Elbow Beach Hotel and fellow Fairmont Southampton Princess chef Ruth Wigman of the Jasmine Lounge.

The competition was divided into two rounds, with two chefs competing side-by side. The kitchens, provided by Design Associates were placed on a high stage, putting the finer actions of the chefs completely above the eye level of the audience.

The two plasma screens provided didn?t help the situation much due to a mixture of poor focusing and too much sunlight in the tent. The result was an audience experience that was mostly auditory and relied on the extensive commentary of event organiser Stephan Juliusburger.

Early on in the competition it was clear that there was a friendly rivalry going between Ms Wigman and Mr. Sauter.

?Ruth was really happy when she heard she was competing against Nick,? Mr. Juliusburger said.

Ms Wigman?s secret weapon in the competition was pure speed, and when she finished with time to spare, she called mischievously, ?Are you done, Nick??

Mr. Sauter finished with only a few seconds left on the clock.

?Ruth and I are good friends,? Mr. Sauter said after the competition. ?It was more about the fun of competing against one another, than anything else.?

The winning dish The winning dish was beef tenderloin with chipotle marinade, turnip and potato mash. There was also, seared foie gras on toasted brioche with mango tomato dressing and pan fried langoustines (a type of small lobster-like crustacean), shitake mushroom salad, pan fried asparagus, turned glazed carrots and bacon and onion ragout.

?I think the beef came out quite well,? said Mr. Sauter. ?It came out perfectly crisp. I forgot about it at one point in the competition then something told me to take it out of the oven. Just out of coincidence it came out just right.?

Mr. Sauter said he wasn?t expecting to win at all.

?It was a big surprise that I won, actually,? he said. ?I was trying to watch the competitors before and I couldn?t see what was going on either. I didn?t get to see the other prize dishes before hand. I had seen Ruth practising, so I knew she was good and her dish was strong so I was worried about that.

?We didn?t really practise together, but we practised in the same kitchen. She would practise first and I?d watch and then vice versa. We had worked with each other before so we had an idea of each other?s strengths and weaknesses.?

While other competitors Sanjay Leeme and Jeff Christelli grappled with new and unfamiliar cooking equipment.

Mr. Sauter?s only obvious minor gaffe was dropping a pan with a tremendous crash, halfway through his dish.

?I dropped a pan while I was taking the shells off the langoustine,? said Mr. Sauter. ?I was nervous and too much in a hurry. It all fell on the floor. I had to wash the langoustine. In terms of whether it was embarrassing, yes and no. I was kind of in a zone and focusing, I didn?t notice the audience much. Stuff like that happens.?

He had rehearsed his dish five or six times before at the Fairmont Southampton Princess in an effort to get it just right.

?You get tired of tasting it, pretty much after the first few times of making it. If you are practising you try out different recipes and ingredients to see what works the best. After a couple of times you have to give it to someone else to try.?

Mr. Sauter, 30, is originally from Farnham, Surrey, England and came to Bermuda a short while ago. He worked in the Jasmine Lounge at the Fairmont Southampton Princess for a couple of months, before moving to the Newport Room.

The winner of this year?s Escoffier Cup first decided to become a chef as a kid, for want of any better idea.

?It is quite strange how I started,? he said. ?When I was at school and I was really young, the teacher was going around the classroom asking what we wanted to do when we were older. I didn?t have a clue. My best friend, who sat next to me, said he wanted to be a chef. So I said that?s a good idea, and it snowballed after that. He is into computers now. I enjoyed it once I got into it. I find it very satisfying. It is a good feeling when you finish work.?

He moved into cooking as a real profession after the of 16 when he left secondary school, and went to university to study.

?I have always worked in England. I haven?t worked too much out of my hometown in Farnham, Surrey,? he said.

He decided to come to Bermuda because of better weather (not counting weather from Hurricane Wilma), and a change of scenery.

?It was a nice change,? he said. ?I love it here; I really like the island. There are nice people here and a great atmosphere.?

Mr. Sauter said it was particularly satisfying to for him or Ruth Wigman to beat out those who had bested their Fairmont Southampton Princess colleague Shaker Estephene in the semi-finals.

Mr. Sauter won the wahoo round of the semi-finals when he made hot and cold smoked cured wahoo on a mango avocado salad with pickled cucumber with garlic and lime aieoli, blackened wahoo and tempura langoustines.

Having two chefs from the Fairmont Southampton Princess in the finals, and even more in the semi-finals appears to have been a great honour for the hotel. ?When we finished David Garcelon came up and shook our hands and said he was proud of us,? said Mr. Sauter.

He has an eight-year-old daughter back in England called Thea.

?No, she doesn?t cook, but sometimes I do cookies with her and very simple things,? he said. ?It would be nice to have events where parents and children could attend together during the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival, or maybe even a father-daughter cooking event.?

The competition was judged by Bermuda cooking-guru Fred Ming, last year?s Escoffier Cup winner Steve Marston and Rudolph Speckamp of the famous, but now closed, Rudys? 2900 Restaurant in Finksburg, Maryland.

The event was sponsored by Viking, and by Bermuda Gas.