Sommelier and pastry chef team Andrea Briccarello and Daniel Fancett won the fourth UK Wines of Roussillon Dessert Trophy.

Briccarello, head sommelier at Galvin La Chapelle, and Fancett won the the live cook-off with their combination of Lemon bavarois with citrus fruit salad, alongside Muscat de Rivesaltes, Domaine Pouderoux 2009.

The pair battled through against a trio of other finalist teams from 1 Lombard Street, Summer Lodge Hotel and Green’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar.

Briccarello described the winning dessert as 'citrus on steroids' and said: 'The aim was to find the perfect balance between a sweet wine and a citrus dessert. In this case we felt the acidity of the wine – with peachy, rose-petal aromas and a hint of citrus – worked well with the lemon flavours and creamy texture of the dessert.'

Briccarello and Fancett now go forward to the third Wines of Roussillon Dessert Trophy European Final in Perpignan next January, where they will be up against teams from Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and southern Catalonia.

Runners-up: 1 Lombard Street: head pastry chef Arnaud Viatte and head sommelier/restaurant manager Matthew Mawtus; Green’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar: head chef Luke Underhill and sommelier Frédéric Ahuir; Summer Lodge Hotel: chef de partie (pastry) Sophie Mackenzie and assistant head sommelier Clement Robert.

News item from Imbibe.com, 11-11-2010