THE UK’S FIRST DEDICATED CHEFS CONFERENCE GOES LIVE!
Following a busy December and with more than 200 of its chefs placed in the some of the busiest kitchens at venues across the country, specialist recruitment agency Chefs Jobs UK (CJUK) celebrated with its brigade of interim chefs at its annual chef conference.
The one day ‘CJUK Live’ event took place in the Heartwood Conference Centre at Accrington & Rossendale College on Tuesday 17 January, and welcomed over 50 interim chefs, as well as industry professionals and guests to its conference.
It is well known that chefs can be a little competitive and the conference was no exception. To showcase the chefs’ talents 7 of the chefs attending, each with a college student as an assistant, took to the kitchens and with their identical box of ingredients cooked a dish to present to the Q&A panel. The winner of this ‘cook off’ was Scott Williams.
The prestigious and extremely sought after CJUK awards ceremony also took place at the conference and the winners were:
Best Newcomer – Ian Kershaw Going the Extra mile – Krishna Parekh Client’s Choice – Robin Beeson Chef of the Year – Scott Williams
It was a great day for Scott Williams who not only won the ‘cook off’, but was also crowned Chef of the Year winning a cycling holiday in Italy
courtesy of Freewheel Holidays.
The conference itself started with an introduction from CJUK’s Managing Director Michelle Mellor followed by Adam Reid, Head Chef at ‘Adam Reid at The French’ in Manchester’s Midland hotel. Adam talked to the conference about his experiences as a young chef and how he believes that CJUK is going in the right direction to gain a better way of life for interim chefs.
The conference was an informative and engaging event, with a ‘Question Time’ style Q & A, hosted by multi-awarding winning broadcaster Rob McLoughlin OBE, who gave the chefs the opportunity to pose questions to a panel of industry professionals.
The panel consisted of Andrew Buchanan
– Director of Pub Operations, Daniel Thwaites plc, Kate Shoesmith – Head of Policy & Public Affairs, REC, Katie Mellor – Director of Sales & Operations, CJUK and Thom Hetherington – CEO, Holden Media
Topics discussed by the panel included mental health issues, enhancing the reputation of interim chefs, transparency over tips and gratuities, split shifts, shared maternity and paid leave.
Katie Mellor, Director of Sales and Operations at CJUK said: This has been a great day for CJUK with so many of our chefs able to attend. We believe that CJUK are leading by example in creating a better way of work for our chefs. For too long interim chefs have not been treated well within the industry and we want to make changes to challenge the status quo.”
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