12th April 2013
Autumn 2009 - Welcome
Welcome once again to the autumn edition of Stockpot profiling much of the Craft Guild of Chefs’ members and culinary team activities over the past months.
In the last issue I talked about us working with all the member colleges of PACE and offering up membership to encourage our grass roots membership to grow.
I am pleased to say that we are now starting to see the green shoots of new members coming from those colleges. With Northampton and Cornwall having several new members, it is our intention to grow our younger base encouraging the head chefs of tomorrow to be part of the Guild all the way through their careers.
Earlier this year we partnered with the University of Sheffield at the annual Skills for Chefs conference. Although down on numbers from previous years we still saw a good turn out for the two day conference and more than 200 diners for the celebration dinner, with the Craft Guild’s Culinary Academy and the brigade from Sheffield under Tracy Carr cooking superbly for the guests.
Sat Baines, Cyrus Todiwala and Craft Guild’s National Chef of the Year Simon Hulstone to name just a few provided great cookery demonstrations and interesting debates on topical culinary issues. (See page 26-29).
The Craft Guild of Chefs joining forces with the Food Development Association will bring another valuable asset to our members and increase our profile in the industry, plus benefit both organisations by working together on cross sector initiatives, as reported on our news pages.
Hot off the press we have just seen the seventh annual Graduate Awards ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, which followed eight great finalists going through to battle it out to achieve graduate status. See pages 6-9 for the results.
In July we wined and dined Winifred Myers (Winnie) at Monkey Island in Bray as she has chosen to move north to be closer to her family. Winnie was presented with a gold and pearl brooch as a memento of her unstinting loyalty and her support of first the Cookery & Food Association and latterly the Craft Guild of Chefs. Whatever the weather, come rain or shine, she would always be at the monthly committee meetings and will be greatly missed. We wish her well in her new home and hopefully will see her down here from time to time – she was talking about rallying members in the Kendal area.
Looking ahead, we will be holding our annual Business Partners lunch at the home of English rugby at Twickenham Stadium on Thursday, November 5, where I look forward to meeting many if not all our existing partners to thank them for their continued support and give an update on the Craft Guild.
The immensely popular annual Christmas lunch will again be at the Crown Moran Hotel in Cricklewood on Sunday, December 6, where Steve Scuffell and his brigade will no doubt serve a superb lunch. So do not be disappointed and book early as this is always a great event and Santa will be there too.
I would also like to mention the Restaurant Show running from October 12-14. We will have two days of new competitions over the three day event where four teams of two chefs and one front of house will cook for 12 diners daily. Come along and see this new competition concept. On the 13th is the Gastropub Challenge and on the 14th is the Indian Restaurant Challenge.
Enjoy your magazine and hopefully I will see many of you at the Restaurant Show in October.
Nick Vadis
National Chairman
Craft Guild of Chefs
I am pleased to say that we are now starting to see the green shoots of new members coming from those colleges. With Northampton and Cornwall having several new members, it is our intention to grow our younger base encouraging the head chefs of tomorrow to be part of the Guild all the way through their careers.
Earlier this year we partnered with the University of Sheffield at the annual Skills for Chefs conference. Although down on numbers from previous years we still saw a good turn out for the two day conference and more than 200 diners for the celebration dinner, with the Craft Guild’s Culinary Academy and the brigade from Sheffield under Tracy Carr cooking superbly for the guests.
Sat Baines, Cyrus Todiwala and Craft Guild’s National Chef of the Year Simon Hulstone to name just a few provided great cookery demonstrations and interesting debates on topical culinary issues. (See page 26-29).
The Craft Guild of Chefs joining forces with the Food Development Association will bring another valuable asset to our members and increase our profile in the industry, plus benefit both organisations by working together on cross sector initiatives, as reported on our news pages.
Hot off the press we have just seen the seventh annual Graduate Awards ceremony at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, which followed eight great finalists going through to battle it out to achieve graduate status. See pages 6-9 for the results.
In July we wined and dined Winifred Myers (Winnie) at Monkey Island in Bray as she has chosen to move north to be closer to her family. Winnie was presented with a gold and pearl brooch as a memento of her unstinting loyalty and her support of first the Cookery & Food Association and latterly the Craft Guild of Chefs. Whatever the weather, come rain or shine, she would always be at the monthly committee meetings and will be greatly missed. We wish her well in her new home and hopefully will see her down here from time to time – she was talking about rallying members in the Kendal area.
Looking ahead, we will be holding our annual Business Partners lunch at the home of English rugby at Twickenham Stadium on Thursday, November 5, where I look forward to meeting many if not all our existing partners to thank them for their continued support and give an update on the Craft Guild.
The immensely popular annual Christmas lunch will again be at the Crown Moran Hotel in Cricklewood on Sunday, December 6, where Steve Scuffell and his brigade will no doubt serve a superb lunch. So do not be disappointed and book early as this is always a great event and Santa will be there too.
I would also like to mention the Restaurant Show running from October 12-14. We will have two days of new competitions over the three day event where four teams of two chefs and one front of house will cook for 12 diners daily. Come along and see this new competition concept. On the 13th is the Gastropub Challenge and on the 14th is the Indian Restaurant Challenge.
Enjoy your magazine and hopefully I will see many of you at the Restaurant Show in October.
Nick Vadis
National Chairman
Craft Guild of Chefs