Role: Craft Development Chef
Company: Sodexo
Track Record: An inherent love of food encouraged chef Cathy Adamson to pursue a career in catering.
HOW I BECAME A CRAFT DEVELOPMENT CHEF
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
Before I joined Sodexo in 1995 as a chef, I had worked in many and various roles here and abroad to gain experience, from commis chef positions in local restaurants through to preparing fresh food from scratch for 1,000 people in a single sitting.
Sodexo manages staff restaurants and a range of support services for clients in business, industry, government services, healthcare and education. My first role with them was as a personal chef to a board of directors who were very interested in food and I loved the daily challenge of shopping for the freshest local produce to create something special. It’s where my love of food really developed.
I then had the opportunity to work in other roles and areas to learn more about the business. I became craft development chef in 2009 and my role is, among other things, to oversee the development of innovative and seasonal food offers, to work with the company’s culinary teams on client sites to enhance their skills, techniques and to monitor the quality of service delivery.
I am also one of the judges for the company’s internal culinary competitions.
I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of culinary competitions and I’m proud to be a five-time winner of the Sodexo All-Ireland Chef of the Year Award and twice a finalist in the Sodexo National Chef of the Year Awards. For two consecutive years, I was a member of Sodexo UK and Ireland’s top ranked culinary team competing in the La Parade des Chefs at Hotelympia, the UK’s largest foodservice and hospitality event.
I now act as a mentor to the company’s up and coming chefs taking part in national and international competitions.
I recently won Contract Catering Chef of the Year Award at the 22nd Institute of Hospitality NI Awards. It’s my first time to win such a prestigious award and I was very honoured and proud to have received the recognition from the industry.
What was your favourite subject at school?
I would have to say Art. I love colour, texture, design and use of various techniques, all of which I can now relate to food.
Did you go on to further/higher education, if so what did you study and where?
Following my GCSE exams, I attended the NI Hotel & Catering College in Portrush where I studied how to become a professional chef, obtaining my City & Guilds 706 1&2
How did you get into your current area of work?
Ambition, hard work and Sodexo investing in me! I spent a lot of time travelling to and from the UK, competing, attending and working at numerous culinary masterclasses and national culinary events. I met Sodexo’s other development chefs in sectors like hospitality, healthcare and corporate services and learned a great deal about what their roles entailed.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
Yes, it became a goal in the latter part of my career.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
In my current role, the relevant C&Gs and NVQ qualifications, and a wealth of experience in all areas of the business, including competition experience, was a requirement.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
At my level, you need the qualifications and most of all, you need the experience. But if you want to be a young chef in our business, while the C&Gs and NVQs are important, there is always room for a talented individual to join without those if they have the right attitude and are willing to start from the ground up.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
Aside from an inherent love of food, you need strong communication and leadership skills to engage and motivate a diverse and widespread culinary team.
Empathy and a sense of humour also help!
What does a typical day entail?
A day in the office would include writing and costing menus, planning events and administration; a typical day in the kitchen would be working with the teams on new culinary initiatives and market trends to enhance the food offers and service styles. Chef interviews and inductions, client meetings and KPIs (key performance indicators), development days and food forums are all planned in and around those key activities.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
The best aspects are having the opportunity to develop and bring out the personal strengths in others and to help them achieve their goals. I also support local schools and colleges with mentoring and development programmes, engaging with their students and encouraging them into the industry.
A challenging aspect is time management. We work across different client sites with a lot of activity between meetings, new business pitches, training and other projects so it can be hectic at times. Another challenging aspect and it’s an industrywide issue, is encouraging young people into the catering business, particularly on the chef side. That’s why I like to engage with local schools and colleges in their career development programmes so we have an opportunity to showcase all the various aspects of the business.
Why is what you do important?
Our culinary team is not in the one place, but spread across all our client sites in the North.
Therefore, it’s very important to have a role like mine that has overall responsibility for maintaining and developing culinary standards, overseeing chef training and mentoring and ensuring the correct health and safety protocols are followed in the kitchens on all our sites.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
I’ve no desire to do anything else at present but when I was younger, I wanted to be a vet because I love animals. But what put me off as I got older was the thought of having to perform any type of operation!
What is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day?
The first day as a young commis chef in a busy restaurant can be a very daunting, so my advice would be to take a deep breath, hold it and then breathe!
Describe your ideal day off.
We’re an early starting business so what I love is no alarm clock, a little retail therapy, home for a few hours to chill and then out for dinner!
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
Be positive, do your research and follow your instincts. Don’t try and convince yourself to take a job when inside the alarm bells are ringing.