TWO Essex chefs have carved their way to the top in a national competition - by producing sculptures made from fat.

Roddy Ashworth

TWO Essex chefs have carved their way to the top in a national competition - by producing sculptures made from fat.

Palash Gomes and Jayant Dhawale, who work at the Radisson SAS Hotel at Stansted Airport, created the bizarre artworks as part of a move to raise awareness about the disposal of kitchen waste fats, oils and grease in sewers.

Palash and Jayant both took between 20 to 30 hours to complete the intricate carved fat sculptures, one of which featured a warrior with a leopard and the other a zombie.

Palash won silver and Jayant won bronze in the competition at Hospitality 2009, held at the Birmingham NEC, from a total of 200 entrants.

Collette Nicholls, of Anglian Water, said: “The Works in Fat competition is a wonderful way to promote artistic and creative flair whilst also drawing attention to a potentially very serious problem for communities.

“Pollution which results from blockages in the sewer can be devastating for the environment.

“A sewer blocked with fats attracts vermin, causes a terrible stench, and slows down its flow, requiring more use of energy and taking up valuable space, if following flash floods, storm water gets into it.”

She added that 10% of British sewers are taken up with waste fats, oils and grease - around 170,000 tonnes - which would be enough to fill 68 Olympic sized swimming pools.

If converted into biodiesel, there would be enough to power 130,000 average family cars for a year.

Paul Tuthill, executive chef at Radisson SAS Hotel, London Stansted, said: “We are incredibly proud of the achievements of our chefs here.

“It is wonderful to receive recognition for all their hard work at such a prestigious event.”