ESS Regional Executive Chef Matt Lord has won the Chef of the Year title at this year’s Public Sector Catering Awards!
Following his Development Chef of the Year Award at the recent Contract Catering Awards, Matt was recognised again for his outstanding achievements over the past year.
During this time, he led the creation of recipes and concepts for an innovative new Defence dining offer, as part of the most significant change to military catering in almost 20 years. Under Matt’s leadership, a large, multi-disciplinary team created a series of new concepts and over 400 new recipes, designed to meet the requirements of specific military cohorts including trainees, serving personnel and the wider Defence community.
Despite an exceptionally busy day-job, Matt has remained committed to developing his team and engaging with the wider industry and local communities.
Matt commented:
“I am so honoured to be named Chef of the Year, amongst some very tough competition. Within my role, I take pride in my responsibility to deliver great tasting, nutritious food to fuel our Armed Forces. Beyond that, I love to support programmes like the Junior Chef Academy – passing on knowledge and skills for the talent of the future. I’m proud to have taken guidance from Chef Marcus during my time on the Forward programme, and it’s an honour to pass that on to educate and inspire the next generation.”
Scott Freeman, ESS Culinary Director, commented:
“The past two years have been extremely busy for ESS, with the development and launch of the new Defence food offer - one of our business’s biggest priorities. Given the profile and importance of the project, it was critical to allocate dedicated resource to lead this work. Over the past few years, Matt has shown the skills and attributes required to take on this role - and he has excelled at it. From managing a large group of chefs to develop new recipes and concepts to communicating with our senior clients, I had full confidence that Matt would do nothing but excel. The results speak for themselves – great customer satisfaction, sales boosts and a menu that is fitting for the 21st century military customer.
"Add to that all the work Matt does outside of his role to develop his own team, and the next generation through our Junior Chef Academy and partnerships with various colleges, and it’s clear to see why Matt is such an inspirational leader and a true ambassador for our industry. I couldn’t be prouder of Matt for the recognition he has received at this year’s Contract Catering Awards and Public Sector Catering Awards. It’s a privilege to have him on my team!”
