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12th April 2013

Autumn 2011: Welcome

Written by: Admin
So where did summer get to? Speaking to our members scattered around the country, I know that many of you found it hard with the summer not being quite as good as you had expected and businesses, notably the country hotel and pub scene, had a horrible time.
Well with just under a year to go, many of the London hotels and restaurants are gearing themselves for the run up to the 2012 Olympics. This we hope will be a great chance to show the rest of the world all that is good about the excellent chefs and restaurants that we have in abundance in the UK.

As I’m putting pen to paper we have just experienced the 2011 Graduate Awards where Steve Munkley and the team put together another set of classical recipes to really test eight young chefs. I spoke with Chris Galvin, who once again acted as head judge, and as ever he expressed his admiration in the way that these chefs used their skills and knowledge fully to deliver another hard and well contested final round. Our warmest congratulations to everyone who graduated – particularly Rositsa Nikolova from the House of Commons, who was the highest achiever. I hope that this takes her on to even greater things.

I’ve also just had the good fortune to take some of our Business Partners to the Springboard/Future Chef banquet, where once again it was fantastic to see young people coming into our industry with so much enthusiasm.

We were treated to an excellent dinner, with guest chefs working alongside the ‘new kids on the block’. The Craft Guild fully supports the education of the culinary art and praises the work that is achieved by Springboard. As a testament, one of the four that cooked for us on the evening has now been offered an apprenticeship at The Savoy, another was approached by Albert Roux to join Le Gavroche, the third is a commi chef at The Dorchester, and the fourth works as a pastry chef for Dinner by Heston Blumenthal at the Mandarin Oriental – now someone tell me there are no success stories.

We are just putting together the final touches to our annual Business Partners lunch, which this year we are holding at the Crowne Plaza in St James, on Friday, November 4, and invites will be sent out shortly. This is where we express our grateful thanks to all our Business Partners who have supported us over the last year. If you do not receive one, please check to make sure your membership has not lapsed.

Another date to put in your diary is the Craft Guild’s Annual General Meeting next year. This will take place at the Royal Garden Hotel on Sunday, April 15.

The semi finals for our National Chef of the Year competition have now all been completed, and during the Restaurant Show in October we will be holding the final. Come along, watch, and support what is regarded as the one of the best competitions held in the UK. It would be great to see as many as are able to attend the show to support the competition and to take time to visit the Craft Guild stand, where you can update us with your contact details so that we can keep our database up to date – this is such a vital link to you our members.

All it remains is for me to wish you all well and I look forward to seeing and meeting many of you at the Restaurant Show and other events over the coming months.

Andrew Green
National Chairman
Craft Guild of Chefs