THE winner of the first ever professional “I Love Manx Chef of the Year” competition is one of the Island’s keenest supporters of local produce.

John Dixon of Harbour Lights is now hard at work creating winter menus which make the most of local, seasonally available ingredients.

Each year John orders around 1,000 lbs of Manx carrots, 300 cabbages, 12,500 eggs and 150 pork loins, amongst many other ingredients. In addition, most of the beef, lamb, cream, milk, bread and queenies are all locally produced.

This winter, recipes at his restaurants will include lamb shank, braising steak, served with seasonal vegetables such as parsnips and swede to provide warming feasts, guaranteed to keep out the cold – and all locally sourced.

John has created his own special parsnip, pork and apple soup using winter vegetables from Purely Plants, organic suppliers based in Lezayre, and herbs from Staarvey Farm in Peel. The recipe can be found on www.harbour-lights.net .  Details of where to find the ingredients can be found in the Guide to Manx Produce 2010 which can be down-loaded from www.ilovemanx.org

John said, “ At all three Harbour Lights restaurants, we aim to make the most of wonderful fresh seasonal Manx produce. Not only does this mean that our customers can enjoy an ever changing menu, but we can all have the satisfaction of knowing that we are supporting the local economy.

“Manx vegetables, meat, flour and dairy products are excellent quality and we are proud to make full use of them”.

John recently won the first ever “I Love Manx Professional Chef” award at the Isle of Man Food & Drink Festival. His winning recipe was a trio of lamb cutlets using local lamb.

A spokesman for DEFA, who organised the Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival, said, “Recognition of the quality and freshness of Manx produce by chefs of John’s calibre is a tremendous endorsement of locally produced food and the support of businesses such as Harbour Lights is very much welcomed by local producers.”