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15th August 2016

June 2016: Welcome

Written by: Admin
It’s been eight weeks since my last confession…a very busy eight weeks, in fact, have passed since.

We have had the fantastic Craft Guild Awards evening with great food prepared by Ben Purton and his team at the Lancaster London hotel, great company in our members, sponsors, friends, supporters and guests, and great winners in the numerous talented people that had their achievements recognised. Do take a look at our report starting on page 43.

I had the privilege of judging the shortlisted nominations for the Catey Chef Award and took part in the paper judging to select the 40+ candidates through to the next stage of National Chef of the Year. Before we know it, the semi-finals will be here.

Elsewhere, I’ve been busy with site visits and planning meetings for the forthcoming Universal Cookery and Food Festival at Laverstoke Park Farm in September, delivered a wild game demonstration for wounded soldiers at the Help the Heroes headquarters, and chaired my first national committee meeting hosted by Continental Chef Supplies, one of our valued business partners. I’ve also been meeting with other business partners and have lots more meetings planned!

Some very exciting news is that we are about to start a feasibility study on opening a Craft Guild cookery school, demonstration kitchen and competition theatre to ensure that such a large-scale project is practical, achievable and deliverable.

Another huge challenge we face is improving our lines of communication both within the industry and to the wider audience through tools such as Stockpot, our website, press releases and social media, and to this end we are searching for the right media partners to help us do this in a collective and cohesive manner.

And so, I’m really looking forward to working with our committee members on some interesting and exciting projects over the coming months, with the aim of taking the Guild onwards and upwards.

Lee Maycock

National Chairman

Click here to read the June 2016 issue of Stockpot