Forty-six members and supporters of the Craft Guild of Chefs were presented with honours and awards at a special ceremony following its Annual General Meeting.
The accolades were presented by Craft Guild of Chefs chairman Christopher Basten, Vice Presidents’ Council (VPC) chairman Stephen Scuffell and the recently-appointed Craft Guild president, Vice Admiral Tony Johnstone-Burt, in his first appearance at the awards.
At the event, which took place at the Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, Stephen also pronounced John Retallick, former VPC chairman, this year’s recipient of the council’s Special Achievement Award, recognising his achievements in promoting the aims of the Craft Guild.
New award categories
There were new award categories too – one to recognise rising stars who have been noticed by the Guild as people in the industry to help develop their talent, and the other to recognise the ‘local heroes’ who have worked tirelessly for the Guild, but remain unsung heroes.
A new national hero award was also presented to Craft Guild vice president Robert William Kendrew for working tirelessly over a long period of time to promote the Guild and its ethics.
Christopher Basten said it was a privilege to hand out honours and awards to such industry stalwarts. “All these recipients make or are starting to make a huge difference to the chef profession in the UK and how it is perceived by budding chefs and the wider public,” he said.
“It was also a privilege to launch new awards to recognise some of our industry heroes, who are not necessarily in the spotlight in the way celebrity chefs are, but are instrumental in promoting our objectives for the good of the professional cooking world here in the UK.”
The full list of honours and awards recipients for 2013/14
Rising Stars
Ruth Hansom
Danny Hoang
Glenn Noel
John Traynor
Local Heroes
Dave Chalk
Tony Leck
Steve Love
Raj Mandal
Steve Reid
Alan Shipman
National Hero
Robert William Kendrew
Diploma for Support
Glenn Ewart
John Feeney
Donna Fosdick
Jane Jonson
Nick Tucker
Alan Wearring-Smith
New College Durham
Diploma for 50 years membership
John Kennedy Melling
Bronze Award
Eileen Buicke-Kelly
Hayden Groves
Silver Award
Ken Demmen
Don Irwin
Mat Shropshall
Fellow
Ian Jaundoo
Vice President
Geoff Acott
Andrew Green
Honorary Membership
Matt Johnson (Bunzl)
Sir David Walker, KCVO, OBE (former Craft Guild president)
College Certificate
Bournemouth & Poole College
Coleg Llandrilo
Lakefield Training Centre
Linwood School
University of College Birmingham
Company Award
AAK Foodservice
AB World Foods
Fresh Guernsey Herbs
Meiko UK
Reynolds Catering Supplies
Unilever Food Solutions
University of West London
Chairman’s Shield
Continuous Professional Development Centre, Worthy Down, Hampshire
Chairman’s Award
Mark Rigby, executive chef at Premier Foods
President’s Trophy
Brockenhurst College
Special Achievement Award
John Retallick, former VPC chairman
For more information, visit www.craftguildofchefs.org or follow the Craft Guild of Chefs on Twitter at #CraftGuildAGM.