Spring 09 - Welcome

Welcome again to yet another exciting issue of Stockpot, the Craft Guild of Chefs magazine. Since our last edition a great deal has changed and the economic downturn seems to be affecting all areas of the hospitality industry.

Many of our members may well have felt the brunt of a period such as this and we urge any chef who has vacancies to post them on our website. It is encouraging that our business partners are as supportive today as they have ever been, and I would like to personally thank them all for their association with the Craft Guild, the biggest chefs’ organisation in the UK.

Our membership stays firm and our image in the industry is strong and alive. We have seen our Culinary Academy forge forward again as a real force to be reckoned with on the competition circuit winning a whole host of awards at Hospitality 2009 at the NEC in Birmingham. Based at Coventry City football ground’s Ricoh Arena kitchens, courtesy of Compass Group, they were able to fully prepare themselves for the contest, which was a key factor in winning these awards (see Hospitality coverage pages 30-34).

Following quickly on the back of this success the academy represented England at the three day World Association of Chefs’ national team challenge in Dublin and won two silvers in the team event and numerous other prizes. Don’t forget you can now go to our website and see photographs of all our teams’ endeavours and success in the culinary arena.

The recent Wessex Salon Culinaire at Bournemouth attracted more than 550 entries and was well supported by plenty of college teams of chefs competing for the first time. This great event grows year on year and underpins our commitment to developing new talent by giving them the chance to flex their culinary capability. Our special thanks go to Steve Scuffell for once again supporting the Wessex salon. This year the Skills for Chefs event in Sheffield will be run in association with the Craft Guild and our Culinary Academy team will be there to create the final dinner with University of Sheffield’s Tracy Carr and her team.

Looking ahead, we have now received a record number of nominations for the 2009 Craft Guild of Chefs Awards. The awards ceremony will be held at the Hilton Park Lane on June 1 and it promises to be a great evening where we recognise the very best of our industry chefs at what is sometimes billed as the “chefs Oscars”. This year we will see our royal patron HRH the Countess of Wessex attend this most special of evenings.

I hope you enjoy reading all about our activities and events.

Nick Vadis
National Chairman
Craft Guild of Chefs

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