Compass Group UK & Ireland, the UK’s largest food and support services provider, is celebrating its chefs, having been awarded a trophy cabinet worth of awards at this year’s International Salon Culinaire competition. The event takes place as part of the three-day Hotel, Restaurant & Catering show (HRC) at ExCeL London, held between 20-22nd March.

With more than 100 live and static challenges across three days, Salon Culinaire is an opportunity for chefs to test their skills and creativity in a competition environment.

Talented chefs from across the Compass UK business took part in the event, travelling from as far as Scotland and Cornwall to compete, with representation from across its business including ESS, Levy UK + Ireland, Restaurant Associates, Eurest, 14Forty and Chartwells.

Competing in around 30 different competitions across the three elements: Salon Live – live cooking competitions; Salon Display – static exhibits; and Skills Theatre – live kitchen and service skills competitions for students; the Compass team of chefs achieved an impressive 12 Best in Class awards and 3 Best Overall awards, plus 6 Gold, 17 Silver, 17 Bronze, 16 Merit.

Chefs from ESS dominated the gold award positions with wins from:

• Edward Perrett, ESS, Junior Starter Plate
• Rachel Michie, ESS, Junior Starter Plate
• Rachel Michie, ESS, Petite Fours
• Izabela Ginter, ESS, Perfect Pasta
• Dougal MacPherson, ESS, The Alaska Seafood Masters
• Shona Sutherland, ESS, Table de honour                                 

Nick Vadis, Culinary Director at Compass Group UK and Ireland, said: “I am very proud of our chefs and at competitions we see their talent, creativity and work shine bright. Our accolades have gone to our junior apprentices as well as more senior Exec chefs – demonstrating the importance of investing in our chef talent at all levels and the opportunities we create for them to progress and develop. Events like these are a great opportunity to challenge our chefs and for them to learn. A huge well done to everyone involved.”

Compass Group UK & Ireland is headline sponsor of Salon Culinaire at HRC and has supported the event for more than 25 years.

The HRC event also saw Ashleigh Taylor, Compass Group UK & Ireland’s Head of Environment join the food waste panel to talk about Stop Food Waste Day and Compass’ action on reducing waste and raising awareness of this issue. In addition, Kerry Crompton- Harris joined the talent retention panel, to discuss Compass’ work to nurture, develop and keep its people in line with its ‘Our Social Promise’ commitment.