The Craft Guild of Chefs Awards, known as the ‘Chefs’ Oscars’, is a highlight of the foodservice calendar and as a leading hospitality PR agency, we headed up to London to join the great and the good of the industry – and what an absolute pleasure it was.
The glittering event, held at the four-star Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, was a real celebration of the very best of our amazing industry. Recognising exceptional talent across the whole of our sector – from apprentice and young chefs just starting out to chefs who are established in their careers in hospitality, pubs and restaurants, the Eat PR & Marketing team was proud to be there – rubbing shoulders with some of the greatest chefs and culinary giants within hospitality.
The drinks reception saw 700 nominee chefs and industry faces gather to catch up and see who would be walking away with these coveted awards. Given our passion and love for food, we were in our element catching up with friends, colleagues, clients as well as key industry players.
As ever, the Craft Guild put on a great show. Chair, Matt Owens, kicked the evening off with his welcome speech, which was then followed by a delicious meal produced by the team at the Park Plaza. In between courses, the awards ceremony was held – which was a true honour to watch. The deserving winners were announced by each of the category sponsors, including two of our wonderful clients. Unox sponsored the Chef’s Favourite Branded Restaurant Award, which was won by Prezzo, meanwhile, Middleton Foods sponsored the Public Sector Chef Award, won by Scott Freeman, culinary director at ESS Defence.
Amongst the other worthy winners were Phil Mason, chef patron at The Rat Inn who scooped the Pub Restaurant Chef Award, Darren Passmore who picked up the Culinary Hero Award and Nathan Johnson, senior chef de partie at Royal Crescent Hotel and Spa who walked away with the Young Chef Award. Other notable awards went to Adam Handling, chef owner of Adam Handling Restaurant Group, who was awarded the Restaurant Chef Award, and New Restaurant of the Year Award went to Upstairs by Tom Shepherd.
Chef Simon Rogan was also awarded the highest accolade of the night – the Special Award – which was presented to him in recognition of going above and beyond during his career.
On behalf of the Eat PR & Marketing team, we would like to say a huge well done to all the nominees and winners, the sponsors and of course the Craft Guild of Chefs team – not only for yet another fabulous event, but for continuing to champion and nurture pure talent into our industry. Here’s to next year, with the date of 24th June already confirmed – so make sure you pop it in the diary as we would love to see you there!
