THE FCSI INTERVIEW T
Tere’s a stereotype about Wales’s population: that somehow everyone is linked. Be that true or not in a country of three million-plus
people, one thing is certain: the desire to forge connections is innate. For no one is this truer than Julian Edwards FCSI, whose formative years growing up in a tight-knit mining town in the Swansea Valley set a precedent for a varied career that’s peppered with connections he’s made over the years. Now based in Surrey, England, he has an eloquent description for his upbringing. “You know the expression that it takes a village to bring up a child. Every time I hear that, it brings me back to Ystalyfera. Tere’s a lot of people in my orbit.” Tat orbit was first
populated by his “amazing” mum and “fantastic” older brother “who was like a father to me”, his Scouts and Cubs leader and the local rugby club, which “life pivoted around”. While his childhood was spent playing rugby (he was good enough for district team selection) and dabbling in bands (“I’ll bash out House Of Te Rising Sun and a couple of Beatles songs”), that grounded, people-centric upbringing came into its own when Edwards landed his first summer job at Te Ship Inn’s snack bar in Port Eynon on the Gower coast. After just a month, Edwards had made enough of an impression to be
asked to take over the chef role. A good friend ran the bar and had been to catering college. “He’d give the orders in French, then bark off the ingredients and tell me what to do. Within a week, I’d learned how to cook each of the menu items.” With that, Edwards was elevated to the role of head chef aged just 17. Another head chef role
followed at a nearby country club, before a friend from the first job encouraged him to attend Neath College’s enrolment day. Two years later, Edwards had earned a BTech in Catering & Hospitality, a course that covered everything from food and drink to hotel building, bed making and accounting. “I liked the diversity of everything. It’s hospitality in its truest sense. Tat was the hook.” And hooked he was.
Catering was to be his career. He landed his first contract catering job in April 1987 at a youth resort – 300 covers a day, seven days a week. Once again, he made an impression. “Te same company at the end of the season said: “We also do welfare – we’ve got a meals-on-wheels contract in south London. So off I went.”
LEARNING THE ROPES
Despite being a head chef for several years prior, Edwards describes this as his “first grown-up, serious job – it was systems, procedures, weights and measures, monthly food hygiene audits. I learned a lot of skills there.” It was also where he first dipped his toes into special diet catering,
“I’d never had that hands-on training... So, I learned from scratch. I’d do my research, and ring my mother a lot”
discovering his love for allergen management in the process – something that would become a constant later in his career. It’s obvious that Edwards
isn’t afraid of throwing himself into a challenge. He talks with gusto about every stage of his career, even the bits that most would classify as testing – like sleeping on the beach and in a tent at the local football club while working those first head chef jobs. But after a move to a senior operations role in business and industry catering in west London in 1988, Edwards was taking stock of his trajectory – and that’s when he turned to those in his orbit. “Up until this point, I don’t
remember anybody who was a chef above me saying, ‘Oh, this is how to do it’. I’d never had that hands-on training, and you could see evidence of that. So, I learned from scratch. I’d do my research, and ring my mother a lot. Te recipe book I did rely on was Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management – which I borrowed off my mum.” After a few years away from
kitchens and catering in a sales role at Te Caterer – a job that taught him “about how things look, how things are presented, negotiating techniques, how
to understand body language” – Edwards “needed to get back in the kitchen”. After a stint in school meals catering development with his first London boss, in 1994 he moved to a small schools and B&I catering firm based on the Isle of Wight that had mainland expansion in their sights. “I spent a couple of years there doing absolutely everything: sales, marketing, operations, training, opening contracts, design planning and methods of service.” Edwards’ wide-ranging experience paid dividends, and he was able to put the firm on a level playing field with bigger, well-known contractors. “I was proud to turn that into something quite substantial,” he says.
In 1996, the orbit came
calling again. An old colleague knew that Tenet Education Services in Chelmsford needed someone with experience in schools catering. Edwards was asked to set up a catering consultancy division – his first foray into independent consulting. “My boss, Dave Toms, was brilliant. I look back today and think that was my grounding, with Dave giving me an opportunity to really spread my wings.” In 2007, after 11 years at
Tenet, Edwards set up his own consultancy firm, GY5 – and joined FCSI. Short for ‘Give Yourself Five’, GY5’s name stems from a side project that sparked his passion for school catering and healthy eating programs. “I was at a university in the North West, and I noticed that on the counter by the till there was chocolate and
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