Sweet treat as Devon Royal Navy chef, cooks with rising celebrity chef Will Torrent during London visit.

After keeping vital shipping lanes off Libya clear of mines, Hunt Class mine hunter HMS Brocklesby, described by Commander in Chief Fleet, Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, as a ‘jewel in the crown’, returned to the UK to a rapturous welcome in the summer.

Brocklesby recently sailed into London in support of the international WorldSkills London competition and conference on training and vocational skills at ExCel.

And Gavin was only too pleased to get the opportunity to meet and cook with world class chef and rising celebrity Will Torrent – whose grandfathers both served in the Royal Navy.

Will is a WorldSkills alumnus, winning the coveted Medallion of Excellence at the 2007 competition in Japan as a specialist patissier and chocolatier – a first for a UK pastry chef.

At just 25 years of age, he has an enviable CV having worked with the likes of Heston Blumenthal, Delia Smith, Brian Turner, James Martin and now as a consultant to Waitrose.

Will was delighted to bring his sweet treats’ know-how to the chefs on board Brocklesby and enjoyed helping Gavin out in the rather confined working space of the ship’s galley on board and hearing his stories of catering for a hungry crew with a battle to fight.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re on a helicopter carrier, a destroyer or a mine hunter.”

“One of the few things which unites everyone, from the Commanding Officer right through to the most junior sailor, is the food.

"Good scran keeps morale up and everyone ship shape for the job".

“Meal times are an important part of the day’s structure and we take great pride in producing good quality food for the ship’s company so that they in turn are able to continue to represent the Royal Navy and, indeed, the United Kingdom at the sharp end of operations.“

explained 27-year-old Gavin.

The former student of Swimbridge Primary School and South Molton Community College continued:

“The trickiest thing of all is operating in a confined space. And during our Libyan deployment there was also quite a lot of heat to cope with.

"But, as the old saying goes, if you can’t stand the heat… I was really proud to be a key member of the team on board, serving up 45 meals four times a day to a hot, battle-honed crew.

“So it’s nice to be able to sit back just for once and let someone else whip up the treats. Will has been great – a thorough professional and very helpful. We’ve enjoyed meeting him.”

And whip up a treat is exactly what Will was able to do with the hard-working chefs.

After being put through his paces by Gavin with a bit of prep and cooking for an evening meal service on board, Will then took over the galley – there are no kitchens on a warship!

He was able to get Gavin and the other chefs and stewards on board to help him out as he conjured up some fabulous dessert mastery, producing a mouth-watering dark chocolate and rum tart with glazed oranges and vanilla cream for the whole crew of 45.

And it certainly went down a treat.

“I have become used to cooking in some truly exceptional kitchens," said Will.

“I can’t believe how well equipped, but very cramped the galley is on one of these ships – it’s a very hard working environment and has certainly been an amazing experience for me.

“Both my grandfathers served in the Royal Navy, so today it has been an incredible honour to serve up a bit of a treat for these guys who have so recently returned from the frontline.”

HMS Brocklesby deployed in January to join one of the Standing Groups which are forward deployed as part of NATO’s Rapid Reaction Force.

Entering the Mediterranean shortly after, she conducted a number of training exercises in company with other European partners but, as events unfolded in North Africa, Brocklesby was re-deployed to support NATO operations enforcing the UN Security Council resolutions off Libya on Operations Unified Protector and Ellamy.

Initially poised offshore, she monitored shipping movements and assisted with efforts to prevent the flow of arms into Libya, before attempts by pro-Gadaffi forces to close the port of Misrata using sea mines required Brocklesby to move close inshore.

Taking command of two other NATO mine hunters, the ship played the principle role in re-opening the port for the flow of essential humanitarian aid, destroying mines along the way in order to keep the sea lanes open.

Under constant threat from shore-based rockets, artillery and missiles, Brocklesby ventured close inshore again and again, not only checking for further mining activity, but also gathering essential intelligence while investigating a constant stream of suspicious floating objects to confirm that the waters off Libya were clear of the very real-threat from waterborne improvised explosive devices.