Managing to feed millions of people visiting these events has been a monumental task but caterers and suppliers achieved miracles in getting food into their restaurants and onto plates. And, while it has been mixed bag of results particularly for some of London’s restaurants and hotels that didn’t get the expected crowds of hungry diners, overall it has made Britain and British food great again.

In keeping with the Olympic theme, we have our own Culinary Olympics in Erfurt, in
Germany, from October 5-10, where our Culinary Academy team will be taking on the rest of the world.

Academy team manager Fergus Martin has been busy organising the trip while our new team captain, Ryan Hopper, will use his vast experience from competing in both the Culinary Olympics and the Culinary World Cup for the Combined Services to spur the team on.

This year it will be a mix of junior academy members and seniors, so it should be an exciting competition and a great experience in team building. We wish them well and hope they bring back lots of medals.

Thanks to members John Feeney, Lee Maycock and Ian Nottage, the inaugural Craft Guild of Chefs Universal Cookery & Food Festival at Painshill Park in Surrey was an outstanding success. Their brainchild of bringing together farmers and chefs to trace the journey literally from farm to fork was a great idea, and feedback from this event organised for the Guild by McCullough Moore has been very positive. I’m positive that the next one being planned will be even better.

There was a great turn out for the 10th anniversary of the Graduate Awards at the Royal Garden Hotel. There were five more achievers of these awards taking the number up to a fantastic 32 on the roll of honour. Guests were also treated to a fabulous awards lunch prepared by six former graduates, who have excelled tremendously in their careers.

Among the guests was our president Air Marshal Sir David Walker, who will also be joining the Craft Guild at the Restaurant Show in October, where our National Chef of the Year and Young National Chef of the Year competitions will be staged. This promises to be a great day of cooking.

Before I end, there are a couple of reminders about diary dates. On November 2 our Business Partner Lunch will be held at the Royal Horseguards Hotel in Whitehall, London, where executive chef Ben Purton will be in charge of the menu. I look forward to seeing as many business partners as possible.

And I know it’s early but our AGM and get-together for members is fixed for April 7 2013 and it would be great to see lots of members there too.

Here’s looking forward to some great competitions and networking events in the coming months.

Andrew Green
National Chairman
Craft Guild of Chefs

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