I was trained as a chef at the widely renowned Sheffield College Catering School in the late 70s.
Following college I cut my teeth as a chef in a variety of restaurants in Sheffield and moved on to chef in high volume commercial catering environments.
Through the 80s I used my experience in the kitchen to progress on to commercial management within the Sutcliffe catering group. I managed a multitude of catering operations through this period which culminated me attaining the position of Area Manager for all the company’s catering operations in Lancashire.
I took a couple of years off in the early 90s to set up and operate a family camping business in the south of France.
Returning from France in the 1992 I continued in the catering trade building my experience. By early 2000 I was General Catering Group Manager looking after catering for the six NEXT distribution centres in the UK; large scale 24 hour 364 day operations.
From 2006 I have been a catering consultant in the education sector dealing with a variety of Primary, Secondary and Academy status Schools.
Below is a brief of what I do:
- Supporting schools and Catering Managers in the day to day running of their service
- Advising and making recommendations on catering and support service practices within schools within regard to company, school and statutory policy
- Presenting proposals to Head Teachers, Bursars and Governors on financial matters, on both budgetary and capital investments
- Ensuring that all clients are visited regularly, to allow appropriate communication
- Understanding the need for corrective action with business at risk
- Aiding unit managers to keep within budgeted target and nutritional guidelines, improving healthy eating, increasing sales and reducing costs
- Recruiting and developing managers and staff
- Implementing new training, development and working practices for the catering team