WANT to wow some of the thousands of visitors to this year's Bournemouth Hotel and Catering Show (Tuesday, March 11 to Wednesday March 12)? Chefs are being urged to don their jackets and get their application forms in early for the fifth annual Wessex Salon Culinaire.

Budding Jamie Olivers and aspiring Nigella Lawsons have until Friday February 29 to submit an entry into this prestigious culinary challenge, incorporating more than 60 competition classes, during this year's show at the BIC.

The 2008 Salon, sponsored by KNORR and Bournemouth and Poole College, will include a variety of hot and cold live classes which have been designed to attract newcomers, 23 years and under, as well as veteran chefs.

In addition to competition classes including Bakery Skills, Cocktails and Coffee, Pasta and Cocktail Canapés, this year's competition has been expanded to include an even wider range of classes to reflect the increasing sophistication of the catering industry. These include Wine and Food Matching seminars and competition, and the new Wessex Challenge where each contestant will be presented with a mystery box of ingredients from which to prepare two different cold starters and two different cold desserts.

Chefs can enter as many competition classes as they wish and entry forms can be downloaded from hotel-expo.co.uk

  • Chocoholics beware - health claims made for dark chocolate may be misleading according to a leading medical journal. Plain chocolate is naturally rich in flavanols, plant chemicals that are believed to protect the heart. But the Lancet editorial points out that many manufacturers remove flavanols from chocolate because of their bitter taste. As a result, even dark chocolate may contain no flavanols. On the other hand, it will contain abundant fat and sugar, both of which are potentially harmful to the heart and arteries.

Recent research published in the journal Circulation showed that flavanol-rich chocolate caused blood vessels to open up and improved heart function in 11 heart transplant patients. Another study demonstrated that eating small amounts of dark chocolate can lower excessively high blood pressure.

White or milk chocolate appeared to offer no health benefits, said The Lancet. However, there was a catch for lovers of dark chocolate too. "Dark chocolate can be deceptive," said the journal. "When chocolate manufacturers make confectionery, the natural cocoa solids can be darkened and the flavanols, which are bitter, removed, so even a dark-looking chocolate can have no flavanol.

You've been warned!