National Chip Week 2008 - Keith Chegwin and the Chip Inspector

Celebrate National Chip Week 2008 & nominate your Favourite Chips for the National Golden Chip Award.

Thick or thin, straight cut or crinkly, saucy or au natural, whatever tickles your taste buds, cheeky Cheggers wants you to show your love for chips by telling him where you get your tastiest chips from!

Celebrity chip connoisseur Keith Chegwin and the Potato Council’s Chip Inspector today launched the search for Britain’s best chips.  “Britain! Cherish your chips!” chimes Cheggers.  “Come on, it’s time to stand up and show your love for the nation’s tastiest dish - skinny, chunky, curly - I love ‘em all.  I’m hungry to hear about your prize fries so get voting - everyone can chip in!”

It could be your local chippie or perhaps a posh gastro pub, restaurant, tempting takeaway or even a mobile snack van.  Nominate your favourite chips by visiting www.lovechips.co.uk and filling in the simple entry form.  The outlet that receives the most votes will receive the prestigious National Golden Chip Award.

It’s all to celebrate the 17th annual National Chip Week (11th-17th February 2008) which gives people across country the opportunity to enjoy one of the nation’s tastiest treasures, the chip. 

And this year National Chip Week will be even more chiptastic, as Cheggers and the Chip Inspector will be hitting the road, touring the country, tasting and testing to reveal the Chip Inspector’s Choice – top awards for regional chip-excellence.  The chippy contenders must not only face Keith’s tough taste test, they’ll also have to pass the Chip Inspector’s exacting examination for prize winning crispiness, colour and fluffiness.

The Chip Inspector, Britain’s top chip-ologist, takes his work very seriously; “It’s only fitting that the nation celebrates its favourite tasty treasure by letting the people decide who is worthy of the National Golden Chip Award.  It’s going to be tough but with the help of the great British public, I’m sure we’ll unearth the perfect specimen.”

Whether they are fresh cooked at home, from the chip shop, frozen or microwaveable, we just can’t resist chips.  So come on Britain, show your love for chips and get voting! It couldn’t be easier just visit www.lovechips.co.uk  and let Keith and the Chip Inspector know the name and location of where you get your favourite chips from as well as why they’re the best chips in the country.  Voting closes at 6pm on 17th February 2008.

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For more information, photography or interview opportunities with Keith Chegwin and the Chip Inspector please contact Symbiosis:

Vanessa Okell  0207 039 0101 vanessa@symbiosis.co.uk
Paul Hamilton  0207 039 0105 paul@symbiosis.co.uk
James King  0207 039 0102 james@symbiosis.co.uk

Chegger’s Cheeky Chip Facts
• 1 out of every 4 British potatoes are made into chips – that’s approximately 1 ¼ million tonnes every year.
• If you laid all the chips eaten in Great Britain each year end to end they would stretch around the world 76 times!
• It would take an area the size of 56,000 Wembley Stadium football pitches to grow all the potatoes needed for the chips consumed in Great Britain each year.
• Each 1kg bag of oven chips is, on average, made from a weighty 16 medium-sized potatoes.
• 8 out of 10 households buy frozen chips each year, so most of us have a bag in the freezer!
• 10% of the entire British potato crop is needed to supply all the fish and chip shops.

The Chip Inspector's Home Made Tasty Oven Chips

Ingredients:  700g / 1 ½ lb potatoes  Olive oil

• Cut the unpeeled potatoes into 1cm thick chip wedges
• Wash and dry well on kitchen paper
• Place on a non-stick baking tray and drizzle with olive oil, season to taste
• Bake in a pre-heated oven for 40 mins at 200oC/Gas Mark 6, turn after 20 mins

Tip: Spice up your chips by adding cayenne pepper when you season.

For more recipes visit www.lovechips.co.uk

Notes to Editor:

The Potato Council is a non-departmental public body working on behalf of potato growers and purchasers to promote British potatoes.  It is funded through a statutory levy on 3,400 growers and potato purchasers and aims to stimulate, develop and promote the GB industry to consumers and customers.

The aim of the organisation is to increase usage of GB potatoes and ensure the GB industry remains competitive.

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