On 25 June at 30 Euston Square, BaxterStorey celebrated the success and achievements of its 2018 Chef Academy graduates.
This year, 34 talented chefs from BaxterStorey, Searcys and Holroyd Howe completed the Chef Academy, which represents one of many programmes run by BaxterStorey that demonstrates its commitment to furthering employees’ careers within the hospitality sector.
The Chef Academy was originally set up in 2003 with the aim of enabling students to progress to more senior positions within BaxterStorey. This year, over 50% of graduates have been promoted since they started the programme.
It gives chefs the opportunity to train on recognised courses to secure qualifications such as NVQ 2, NVQ 3 and a BSC in culinary arts. Each course offers a wide array of opportunities including a variety of excursions, such as visiting parts of the supply chain through to teaching financial and leadership skills.
It was a wonderful evening which celebrated the progression of the chefs, including the HIT MasterChef (an industry, chef apprentice competition which works with BaxterStorey) winner, Adam Leyland-Simpson and finalist, James Shaw. Chef Academy mentor, and world-famous chef, John Campbell (who made his name – and acquired two stars – at the Vineyard and now runs the Woodspeen in Wiltshire), attended and spoke at the event.
Having mentored five students through the BaxterStorey Food EQ programme, which teaches chefs about the field to fork supply chain, environmental impacts of food and their responsibilities as chefs to fuel their customers as sustainably as possible, John Campbell commented, “Our current Food EQ team are an amazing group of people – what they have produced and how they have progressed is absolutely sensational”
Executive chef at The Ritz, John Williams MBE, guest speaker at the event, commented, “The Chef Academy is a pure reflection of what this industry is all about: encouraging young people to join the industry and stay in the industry by nurturing them and developing them through training and ensuring that we offer them the best career opportunities. The Chef Academy is proof that education and training is key to any successful business.”
The Chef Academy graduation comes following 2018 Institute of Hospitality Awards, in which BaxterStorey was crowned Talent Development Team of the Year. Up against six other businesses, including contract caterers CH&Co, BaxterStorey were praised for their innovative approach to training and development through their award-winning academies and broad range of bespoke training programmes including the Service Academy and the Barista Academy.
BaxterStorey chairman Alastair Storey commented, “There has been an incredible spirit among the graduates tonight – the graduate chefs all represent the spirit of BaxterStorey and I truly appreciate them for that. It’s so important that we care about our business, our colleagues, our customers, our clients, our supply chain, everybody who comes in contact with us.
'A business grows through pursuing excellence and through taking care of others. A way to push business forward is to strive, to push yourself and to take care of others along the way. The chef academy for 15 years now has been an absolute exemplar of what is good about this business and the chef graduates are great ambassadors for the business.”