Tim Seddon is the new head chef at Pastarazzi Ristorante in Chester, which celebrated its eighth anniversary yesterday. He was previously head chef at the Imperial hotel in Blackpool and has also worked at the Carlton hotel in St Moritz, the May Fair Inter-Continental hotel in London and Northcote Manor in Lancashire.
Jeremy Mutton has become the resident manager of the Beaches Resort & Golf Club in Boscobel, Jamaica. The hotel is part of the Sandals Group and has 224 bedrooms as well as an 18-hole golf course. Mutton was food and beverage manager at the Sandals Royal Caribbean resort, Jamaica.
Online booking service Opodo, owned by nine of Europe's leading airlines including British Airways and Lufthansa, has chosen John Ryan to be its new director of hotel product. He was senior vice-president of worldwide sales at Le Méridien and has also held senior sales and marketing roles with Radisson Edwardian Hotels, Concorde Hotels and the Forte hotel group.
The Roof Gardens Club in Kensington, London, has appointed a new head chef at its Babylon restaurant. Oliver Smith has joined from Bank restaurant in Aldwych, London, where he was head chef. He has also worked as sous chef at the People's Palace and Coq d'Argent restaurants in London. Vincent Hiss, previously head chef at Babylon, has returned to his former role as head chef of banqueting at the club.
Tony Joseph, who was head chef at the 1837 restaurant in Brown's hotel, London, has joined Andrew Turner's brigade at the Bentley hotel, a new five-star property that opens this month in South Kensington, London. He will have a similar role at the Bentley as in his previous job.
Raffles International has appointed Brad Beaty as its new director of sales and marketing at the Raffles resort on Canouan Island, the Grenadines. He will be based in New York ahead of the resort's official opening in the summer of 2004. Set in 1,200 acres, the resort will have 156 separate units with sea views and its own championship-grade 18-hole golf course.
Trevor Lake has joined hotel company Golden Tulip UK as operations director. He is a former director of operations for Village Leisure Hotels, part of the De Vere Group, and has also worked as a regional director at Premier House Pubs. Brian Scurrah, the previous operations director at Golden Tulip UK, has become development director at the company.
Seafood supplier Young's has made several appointments to its team. Clare Brownlie has joined the company as a national account manager. She was food service business development manager at convenience food company Uniq. David Greenwood-Haigh has joined as a national account manager, and has worked for Chupa Chups and the Fabulous Bakin' Boys. Brian Stronge has also joined the company as a national account manager. He was a national account manager with Brakes.
Raffaele Solferino has become the operations director of the Abu Dhabi Grand hotel and will oversee its rebranding as the Le Royal Méridien Abu Dhabi later this year. Before moving to the United Arab Emirates he was director of operations at the Le Royal Méridien Bahrain.
Christian Gartmann has become general manager and regional director at the Radisson SAS hotel in Manchester. He replaces Susanne Meinhard, who has transferred to the Radisson SAS hotel in Cannes. Gartmann was general manager of the Radisson SAS Centrum hotel in Warsaw and regional director for Poland.
Brooklands hotel in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, has appointed Tim Hamer as executive head chef. Hamer started his career at the Le Méridien Grosvenor House hotel in London and has joined Brooklands from Hellaby Hall hotel in Sheffield, where he has worked as head chef for the past seven years.
Andy Evans has joined the Highgate bar and restaurant in London as head chef. The Highgate has been nominated for the Time Out best gastropub title in the magazine's annual eating and drinking awards. He has previously worked at London restaurants the Ivy, as junior sous chef, and at Gordon Ramsay and Pétrus as chef de partie. He was most recently head chef at London bar-restaurant Aka.
Television presenter John Craven has been elected president of the Youth Hostels Association, England and Wales. He succeeds botanist David Bellamy, who stood down from the role after 20 years of service. The charity, which seeks to promote the countryside by offering affordable accommodation to all, said it hopes Craven will hold the position for three years.
Fresh from a role as food and beverage manager at Radisson SAS's Bratislava hotel in Slovakia, Sean Pitchfork has assumed the role of operations manager at the group's hotel in Leeds. He has previously worked for contractor Sutcliffe Catering, where he rose to the position of catering consultant to its client British Airways.
Four Pillars wisdom secures top jobs for two former trainees
The Abingdon Four Pillars hotel has awarded its top positions of general manager and head chef to two former students of its parent company's training programme.
The Oxfordshire hotel has named Emma Bevan as its new general manager, a role she has worked towards since joining the Four Pillars Hotels training programme in 1995.
The two-year course provides students with broad exposure to the various aspects of running a successful hotel operation, arming graduates with the knowledge they need to specialise.
Bevan was previously deputy general manager of the group's Oxford Spires hotel.
Martin Bridgeman, previously senior sous chef at the Oxford Spires, has been promoted to head chef at the Abingdon hotel. Starting 10 years ago as a commis chef, Bridgeman has worked at a number of the group's hotels and has also benefited from the training programme.