As some of you will know, we recently had our annual cricket day – another year, another great success, with teams battling it out to be crowned number one. There was inspirational teamwork, excellent batting technique and sharp hand/eye co-ordination aplenty, and it was brilliant to see people from all walks of the cooking world coming together to compete. My personal thanks go out to Steve Scuffell and Maria Drury for organising such a cracking event.

Looking forward to its third year and gathering real momentum is the Universal Cookery & Food Festival (UCFF) held this year at River Cottage HQ. For those of you who don’t know too much about it, the festival is a celebration of the seasons, wild food and harvest and takes place on 24th September.

To all those attending, there will be demonstrations, foraging and farm tours and a welcome by the man himself, Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall. A BBQ and live band in the evening will round things off nicely. The event is well worth attending if you and your team are looking to hobnob with some fantastic chefs from all over the UK.

Hot on the heels of the UCFF are the annual National Chef of the Year and Young National Chef of the Year competitions, which take place at the Restaurant Show (check website for details). I find it’s always a pleasure to be there to see some of the freshest talent to come out of the UK. If you’re unable to make it, Twitter will be your best bet as judges and chefs alike will be tweeting live from the show. Follow me @chairmancgc for up to date results and food snaps.

Looking forward to the end of the year, the Craft Guild culinary team will be heading out to Luxembourg in late November for the World Cup with their hearts firmly set on picking up a medal or two. Joining us this year will be three worthy winners from the Brakes Student Challenge – Nathan, Sam and Theo. As part of their prize, they will be given the opportunity to join us in Europe as part of the critical support team where activities will include lots of dipping, glazing and tea making.

Last but by no means least, we can begin to look forward to the Craft Guild of Chefs 50th anniversary which will be taking place next year. Our Royal Patron, The Countess of Wessex, will be joining us on a number of occasions which will be incredibly exciting. Expect the year to be packed full of surprises, events and much joviality.

Until winter.

Christopher Basten
National Chairman
Craft Guild of Chefs