Since taking over as chair, I have realised just how much esteem the entire industry has for the Craft Guild of Chefs. But that’s not to say that we haven’t got our work cut out, especially in terms of our membership. My main priority for the foreseeable future is to encourage new, young members to the fold and more importantly, retain our current members.

This quarter, some amazing events have taken place, including our 16^th Graduate Awards run by Steve Munkley and his team. Continuing to go from strength to strength, a good percentage of participants passed the rigorous tests this year, including the brand new two-day mentor experience.

We also crowned our NCOTY and YNCOTY winners - Kuba Winkowski and Henry Wadsworth respectively. With standards improving yet again, our finalist judges were extremely complimentary and praised the exceptional levels each chef reached.

I personally had the pleasure of awarding Claude Bosi the CGOC Cateys Award for his outstanding dedication and commitment in driving par excellence at our awards ceremony (June, Grosvenor House Hotel).

In July, the Chefs Conference celebrated its 21^st anniversary, which I attended as well as the Universal Cookery and Food Festival. Both featured some outstanding demonstrators and presentations, and I was dually impressed with my first ever UCFF experience. Its uniqueness and field to fork approach are what makes it such a special event, and one we certainly need to get behind more in the future.

On 15 October, the Craft Guild launched its Lunch Club at Jeff Galvin's restaurant, La Chapelle. Open to all existing and potential members, we hope the monthly event will enable us to better understand what the Guild means to you, our members, and how we can improve.

Lastly, I would like say ‘thank you’ for your continued support and I am very much looking forward to the exciting events and challenges that lay ahead, wishing you all a busy and successful Christmas.

Andrew Bennett MBE, National Chairman

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