Egg on Heston's Face

The Devonshire Arms scotches the competition

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On the 20th September a huge number of restauranteurs, publicans, foodies, journalists and bloggers from London and beyond gathered at The Ship in Wandsworth with only one thing on their mind – the #scotcheggchallenge to find the best Scotch egg in town. A panel of five judges included 2009 Masterchef Mat Follas of Wild Garlic restaurant in Dorset, leading food bloggers Chris Pople and MiMi Aye, ‘self-proclaimed king of scotch eggs’ David Constable and Eric Lanlard, owner and chef of CakeBoy.

Entrants included London’s leading pubs, such as the renowned Bull and Last in Highgate as well as out of townies with the likes of The Thatchers Arms from Essex. A late entry by Heston Blumental’s Hinds Head in Bray had everybody gathering round excitedly to see what extraordinary techniques were used. 36 eggs in all were tasted by the judges and eggs varied from the plain vanilla don’t mess with it if ain’t broke variety to exotic varietals with variously pickled beetroot juice, kangaroo, truffle oil injected into the yolk, black pudding pané and quails eggs. After scoring each of the eggs on taste, smell, texture and taste there was one clear and much-acclaimed winner – Chiswick’s very own recently opened Devonshire Arms!

The Devonshire Arms menu changes daily but the Scotch egg is a staple of the bar menu and it doesn’t look like it will be going away any time soon. A soft boiled Burford Brown hens egg nestles in a blanket of carefully seasoned pork….with a little haggis mixed in to make it interesting. And that’s as much of the secret as they are giving away. As Chris Pople said on the 21st September ‘Officially as of last night London’s best Scotch Eggs are to be found at Devonshire Arms in W4.’

September 21, 2011