They say you have to speculate to accumulate. The world of business is no place for the faint-hearted or the overcautious, and no industry sector underlines this better than hospitality, in which the ever-changing demands of customers mean that businesses and entrepreneurs stand still at their peril.

But who are the hospitality hotshots shaping the future of our industry? Which individuals are launching the most audacious initiatives, exploring the most innovative food and decor themes and building the most durable and impressive business empires? Two months ago, Caterer's editorial team set itself the challenge of singling out the 30 individuals who are moving and shaking the world of hotels, restaurants, bars and contract catering.

To compile our top 30 we considered several main criteria: the vision to launch innovative, mould-breaking ventures; the energy to make a success of these ventures; evidence of current and ongoing innovation; and the power to play an ambassadorial role outside the industry.

The results of our analysis are published alphabetically over the next few pages. Some of the names will be as familiar to couch potatoes and celebrity-magazine readers as they are to hospitality professionals. Others are back-room heroes whose vision, dynamism and hard graft have created businesses that look set to grow and grow.

Before you start reading, here's a confession: our list isn't definitive! If you spot an omission that leaves you pulling your hair out, or if you think we've included individuals who have no right to make our top 30, please e-mail us at chot@rbi.co.uk, labelling your e-mail "Movers & Shakers", and tell us who would get your vote.

Heston Blumenthal
Chef and restaurateur

Recognised for some time now as the UK's most innovative chef, Blumenthal, 37, started out doing the best steak and chips in town when he opened the Fat Duck at Bray, Berkshire, in 1995. Fascinated by the science of food, he was soon experimenting with unorthodox flavour matches like smoky bacon and ice-cream, caviar and chocolate, and Douglas pine essence and mango. International recognition was cemented in 2002 with the award of a second Michelin star for the Fat Duck (the first came in 1999) and numerous invitations to talk about his brand of molecular gastronomy around the world. In 2001, Blumenthal opened a second restaurant in Bray, the 86-seat Riverside Brasserie.

It's no secret that Blumenthal is on the lookout for ways to extend his tiny kitchen space at the Fat Duck, and there are rumours of a development lab. Watch this space...

Blumenthal in a nutshell: The man who brought molecular gastronomy to these shores.

Michael Bailey
Chief executive, Compass Group

Bailey is responsible for the day-to-day running of the largest food service company in the world. Compass serves more than 20 million meals everyday to everyone from prisoners to princes. Asked what keeps him awake at night, he replied: "Food poisoning Olympic athletes. It's easy to over-promise and under-deliver, and in our business that's lethal." Bailey is keeping Compass on course to deliver organic sales growth of at least 6% again this year.

He left school at 16, became a commis chef for caterer Peter Merchant, and then cut his management teeth running the canteens at Ford's manufacturing plants in Dagenham, Essex, during the 1970s. In 1985, he went to the USA to run Canteen Corporation. Its turnover increased from $40m to $250m in five years.

Bailey has been Compass Group chief executive since July 1999. With a pay packet of nearly £3m last year, Bailey is one of the highest-paid executives in Britain. Admirably, he has not developed one of those dreadful transatlantic accents, and holds on to his Cockney origins despite spending most of the last 25 years in the USA.

Bailey in a nutshell: Crafty cockney who has risen to the top of the world's largest food service company.

William Baxter
Executive chairman, BaxterSmith

William Baxter's track record of founding not one but two highly successful independent catering companies has set a benchmark for young entrepreneurial food service operators. At the age of 23 he was managing 17 West End London sites for Sutcliffe and then co-founded Baxter & Platts in 1987, a firm that was quickly recognised as a quality business offering a fair deal to clients and employees. By 1997 its turnover had grown to £23m. Since selling that company, Baxter has done it again with BaxterSmith, which expects to turn over £25m in 2004 with 800 employees. Last year the contractor, based in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, won deals with clients such as Selfridges, Marks & Spencer, and law firm Clyde & Co.

The company's focus on training, creativity, quality, and value is matched by Baxter's infectious enthusiasm for the business. Looking ahead to this year, he said: "We're not going to deviate from our core business, which is corporate head offices. There are no planned acquisitions. We're going to keep our foot on the gas, achieve 25% growth, and make sure that all our processes and procedures are robust."

Baxter in a nutshell: Charismatic and enthusiastic, Baxter keeps coming up with the goods.

Sir Terence Conran
Restaurateur

Conran, 72, has made his name as a designer, retailer (Habitat) and restaurateur, opening the Soup Kitchen in 1953. Conran Restaurants now has 31 restaurants in the UK, Paris, Stockholm and New York. Recent openings include restaurants Etain and Zinc Bar & Grill in Glasgow, and £2m restaurant Plateau in London's Canary Wharf. Conran Holdings, of which the restaurant group is a subsidiary, has a 50% share of the five-star 267-bedroom Great Eastern hotel in London.

Conran's company took a quarter stake in rival Bank Restaurant Group earlier this year, and he shows no sign of losing his creative verve, having announced the forthcoming acquisition of a new London restaurant, Paternoster Chop House.

Conran in a nutshell: Charismatic gent of the restaurant world who isn't resting on his laurels.

Richard Corrigan
Chef and restaurateur

Dublin-born Corrigan, 37, has quietly become a major player on the London restaurant scene over the last six years. After early training in Ireland and Holland he headed to London, and by 1994 he was Stephen Bull's head chef at his Fulham Road restaurant, where he gained a Michelin star. Corrigan's culinary turning point came when he went into business with contract caterer Searcy's in 1996. Together they launched his flagship restaurant Lindsay House in London's Soho, where his cooking steadily gained wider recognition, with a Michelin accolade coming in 1999. A sister restaurant, the English Garden, opened in Chelsea in 1999 and in September last year, the partnership garnered the highly sought-after contract for London's Swiss Re Tower.

The contract for the Swiss Re Tower - the building fondly called "the Gherkin" by Londoners - has catapulted Corrigan into the big time as a restaurateur. Opening in May, it will include an 80-seat restaurant, several private dining rooms, and a lounge bar. A second book is due this spring.

Corrigan in a nutshell: Big, robust and earthy - his food reflects Corrigan the man.

Andrew Davis
Hotelier

Players in the hotels sector don't move or shake much more than Andrew Davis, the entrepreneur behind Von Essen. It seems that not a week goes by these days without news of Davis having either bought a new hotel or added to Von Essen's fleet of planes and helicopters. Last month he completed the acquisition of legendary country house property Sharrow Bay in the Lake District, adding to the six hotels he had bought earlier in the year. He is now believed to be on the hunt for a London hotel in the £100m-plus bracket to accompany the 25 country house hotels he plans to have by the end of this year. With a seemingly limitless pot of cash behind him (from a trust set up by his Austrian aunt, the Countess Von Essen) you'd be a brave man to bet against him achieving his aim.

Davis in a nutshell: Notoriously publicity-shy, Davis is happy to let his actions do the talking.

Peter de Savary
Hotelier

Hotel-wise, entrepreneur Peter de Savary made a name for himself in the 1970s with the St James' Clubs in London, Paris, Los Angeles, New York and Antigua. In more recent times he has become known for his record of turning properties like Skibo Castle in the Scottish Highlands (yes, yes - the one where Madonna and Guy Ritchie got hitched) and Carnegie Abbey on Rhode Island into high-end retreats for well-heeled golf fans. Having sold Skibo, de Savary is keeping himself busy developing a resort community in the Bahamas and transforming a Jacobean pile in Devon into a five-star resort. Look out for the opening of Bovey Castle in spring this year.

De Savary in a nutshell: How de Savary manages to fit so much in around his passion for sailing is anyone's guess.

Nicholas Dickinson/Nigel Chapman
Hoteliers

It's been a good year for Nicholas Dickinson and Nigel Chapman, the pair behind the LHM hotel group and co-founders of the four-strong trendy boutique hotel chain Alias - so good, in fact, that we couldn't separate them. After LHM's turnover for the first six months of 2003 rose by more than 70% on the previous year to £5m, the two announced plans to divide LHM into two companies, spinning off their four Luxury Family Hotels into a stand-alone company in order to focus on developing the Alias Hotels brand. A fifth property, the Alias Ropewalks, is set to open in Liverpool in 2005, adding to the existing properties in Brighton, Cheltenham, Manchester and Exeter, and Dickinson and Chapman plan to open "significantly more". Definitely one to watch.

Dickinson & Chapman in a nutshell: Alias is coming to a town near you - soon.

Jonathan Downey
Bar owner

Downey, 38, gave up a career as an international business lawyer in 1997 to start his first drinking establishment, Match EC1, on London's Clerkenwell Road. Since then Downey has opened one bar a year and now employs 120 people in a company with an annual turnover of £7m. He took over the Player in 2001 and relaunched the popular hidden Soho bar.

His latest enterprise is Milk & Honey in Soho's Poland Street. The site is twinned to a sister bar of the same name in New York's Lower East Side and, the company claims, offers a drinking experience unique in London.

Downey in a nutshell: Hasn't met his match, yet.

Sir Rocco Forte
Hotelier

Sir Rocco founded Rocco Forte Hotels (RFH) after the family lost control of the original Forte empire to Granada in 1996. With the help of his sister Olga Polizzi, the celebrated designer and owner of the Tresanton hotel in Cornwall, Forte has built the group into a portfolio of nine hotels. Last year was an important year for Forte. The company signed its first management contract, and last month was the sole hotels chain featured in the Sunday Times list of Britain's 100 fastest-growing unquoted companies.

However, without doubt the high point was the acquisition of the former Forte property Brown's in London. Brighton and Moscow are on the radar, and work is due to start later this year on a property in Frankfurt. The company has also unveiled plans for a g124m (£85m) resort development in Sicily.

Forte in a nutshell: Hotels are in Sir Rocco forte's blood: the keen triathlete gives his rivals a run for their money.

Paul Heathcote
Chef and restaurateur

Heathcote, 43, spent 12 years apprenticing to chefs such as Raymond Blanc, and worked at world-renowned restaurants Sharrow Bay, the Connaught hotel and Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons before making the position of head chef. He then sold his house to finance his first restaurant in his native Lancashire. Heathcote currently owns six restaurants in the North of England, of which four are branded under his Simply Heathcote's name. The double Catey winner is also heavily involved in the development side of the industry, working with local institutes such as South Trafford College and running his own training school.

Keen to refresh and reinvigorate, Heathcote has opened a new restaurant in Wrightington, near Wigan, and launched a new concept, the Olive Press, serving pizza and pasta, next to his existing Preston restaurant. A second has now opened in Manchester, with plans for a further Olive Press in Liverpool during March/April this year.

Heathcote in a nutshell: True investor in people and founder member of the "Northern chef mafia".

Adam and Sam Kaye
Founders, Ask Central

The Kaye brothers, Adam, 34, and 32-year-old Sam, opened their first Ask restaurant in Belsize Park, London, in 1993. By September 1995 they had expanded the chain to nine restaurants and launched their It's Caf‚ brand and then Zizzi restaurants in 2000. The first Jo Shmo's grill restaurant opened in Wimbledon, south-west London, in August 2003. Today the company has 3,500 employees and 156 pizza/pasta outlets.

Having taken the fight to rival PizzaExpress, the brothers have been offered £168m to merge their company with City Centre Restaurants, owner of the Frankie & Benny's restaurant chain. This will create one of the UK's largest independent restaurant operators, with more than 400 sites.

The Kayes in a nutshell: Kings of the mid-market restaurant.

Tim and Kit Kemp
Hoteliers

Since kicking off in 1985 with the Dorset Square in London's Marylebone, husband and wife team Tim and Kit Kemp have made an invaluable contribution to the city's hotel stock and gained a reputation for opening stylish yet affordable small hotels.

The couple's five-strong Firmdale Hotels chain, which comprises the Charlotte Street, Covent Garden, the Pelham, Knightsbridge, and Number Sixteen hotels, now has an annual turnover of £14m. Kit, a self-taught designer, designs the interiors of the properties herself, winning the firm accolades including the Queen's Award for Enterprise. Look out for the opening of the couple's Soho hotel later in the year, and don't expect them to stop there.

The Kemps in a nutshell: Their sure eye for detail has carved out a stylish niche in the capital for the Kemps.

Oliver Peyton
Restaurateur and recent Caterer guest editor

After studying textiles at Leicester Polytechnic, Peyton, 42, entered the business with a restaurant called Coast - later renamed Mash and then sold in early 2000 - in London, before taking the celebrity scene by storm in 1994 with the opening of the Atlantic Bar & Grill in London. Further openings included two Mash restaurants in London and Manchester, the latter now defunct. Italian restaurant Isola in London's Knightsbridge followed. A tie-up with the Royal Parks Agency will see Peyton open a 200-seat Inn the Park restaurant in London's St James's next spring. The £3m new-build restaurant will feature a turf-coloured roof with boardwalk.

Peyton in a nutshell: Reformed party animal with a rejuvenated vigour for the restaurant industry.

Gordon Ramsay
Chef and restaurateur

The industry's enfant terrible blitzkrieged London when he opened Chelsea restaurant Aubergine with A to Z Restaurants in 1993. Two Michelin stars down the line, he split acrimoniously from the group and established his own company, opening Gordon Ramsay in 1998 and backing pal Marcus Wareing at P‚trus in 1999 (both in London). Three Michelin stars were netted for Gordon Ramsay in 2001 and Ramsay's kingdom now comprises 11 restaurants, stretching from Scotland to Dubai and including those in four Blackstone-owned London hotels: Claridge's, the Savoy, the Berkeley and the Connaught. Tie-ups with contract caterer Aramark, the launch of his own scholarship in 2001, a TV series or two and five books mean that his influence on the nation's eating habits is assured.

Despite the recent closure of Fleur in St James's, the continued association with Blackstone means that 36-year-old Ramsay is still leading the field.

Ramsay in a nutshell: Culinary genius seeking perfection, whom everyone hates to love.

Rick Stein
Chef and restaurateur

The man who put Padstow on the culinary map was a foodie and industry secret for 20 years until his first TV series, Taste of the Sea, in 1995. Several TV series and nine books later, Stein, 56, now runs a culinary empire in the town, comprising his original Seafood Restaurant, a brasserie, caf‚, bistro, patisserie, delis and two boutique hotels.

The nation's love affair with all things Stein shows no sign of abating, and next year will see the opening of a 42-bedroom hotel, Rocklands, in nearby Newquay which Stein bought in May 2003. He's pumping £3m into its redevelopment, which will also incorporate two restaurants and bar. This will bring the total of people working for him to about 300.

Stein in a nutshell: Cornwall's Mr Fish and self-appointed champion of British produce.

Bill Toner
Chief executive, Aramark

Aramark in the UK had been considered an underachieving company until Bill Toner joined as boss in 1999. The company's accounts since then tell their own story. Turnover has risen from £186m in 2000 to more than £300m last year. Toner made a number of changes to create such impressive growth. He introduced a new hotel and restaurants division called Parallel, which employs food and beverage hotel staff as well as running commercial restaurants. It now runs two Brian Turner restaurants based at hotels in Birmingham and London, and started a joint venture with Crowne Plaza in the City of London last month.

Toner has focused on quality food, forming strategic alliances with Gordon Ramsay, Charlie Trotter and Brian Turner. He is a board member of recruitment organisation Springboard and charity Hospitality Action (HA). Last year he helped Aramark raise more than £250,000 for HA. Last year Toner restructured Aramark's senior team into five managing directors looking after five different sectors or regions that has positioned the company for significant growth.

Toner in a nutshell: Contract catering's Mr Smooth. Can he make Aramark as big here as it is in the USA?

Peter Tyrie
Hotelier

Tyrie has been a fixture in the hotel industry since joining the reception staff at London's Savoy hotel aged 20 He founded his first hotels firm, the Gleneagles Hotels group, in 1981. After losing control of Gleneagles to distiller Bell's, Tyrie bounced back with the launch of Balmoral International Hotels in 1989, before losing control of his first two hotels, the Balmoral in Edinburgh and the Old Swan in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, in the recession.

Then in 1998, with backing from European Acquisition Capital, he founded the Eton Group. The opening of the group's Glasshouse hotel in Edinburgh was a high point of last year and in London's Threadneedles Tyrie is credited with opening the city's first five-star luxury boutique hotel. Expect to see more announcements in 2004 as Tyrie looks to expand the portfolio - now down to three - and considers opening abroad.

Tyrie in a nutshell: Make no mistake - the comeback kid is back to stay and on a roll.

Marcus Wareing
Chef and restaurateur

Liverpool-born Wareing, 32, began his career 14 years ago at London's Savoy, before fate sent him to Albert Roux's Le Gavroche, where he met a young Gordon Ramsay. Their careers have been interwoven ever since, with Wareing helping Ramsay to make London's Aubergine restaurant the hottest dining ticket in the UK in the mid-1990s. In 1996, Wareing opened (for A to Z Restaurants) L'Oranger in London's St James's Street, quickly winning it a Michelin star, a feat he repeated four years later for P‚trus, which he opened as part of Gordon Ramsay Holdings in 1999. His culinary influence is spreading via prot‚g‚e Angela Hartnett, who took over as chef-patron at London institution the Connaught 18 months ago.

Last year, Wareing stepped out of Ramsay's shadow to become a big-time restaurateur in his own right when he took over as patron of London's Savoy Grill and its sister-outlet Banquette, and relocated P‚trus to the city's Berkeley hotel. The move should bring Wareing's flagship restaurant the coveted two Michelin stars it failed to achieve at St James's.

Wareing in a nutshell: Technically brilliant and disciplined chef long overdue international recognition.

Marco Pierre White
Restaurateur

White, 42, was the youngest chef to gain three Michelin stars and the first Briton to do so. Born in Leeds, he came to London in 1981 and worked with chefs Albert Roux at Le Gavroche, Nico Ladenis at Chez Nico, and Pierre Koffmann at La Tante Claire. After working with Raymond Blanc, he opened Harvey's in Wandsworth, London. In 1987 the restaurant gained a Michelin star, with another added the following year. In 1995 White gained his third star at Restaurant Marco Pierre White at the Hyde Park hotel, London, but 1999 saw him hang up his whites to become a businessman with assets in London's Planet Hollywood, fine-dining restaurants Mirabelle and L'Escargot and Wheeler's of St James's.

Keen to market the Wheelers name, White licensed it to contract caterer Sodexho in March last year for use at its Prestige hospitality event catering division.

White in a nutshell: Restaurateur entrepreneur who's hung up his white and donned a pinstripe suit.

Simon Woodroffe
Restaurateur

An ideas man and one-time designer and events promoter, Woodroffe came from nowhere to open Yo! Sushi, the sushi conveyor belt restaurant, in London during 1997. An instant success, the brand has grown to encompass a group of restaurants, bars, food products and a fashion label, with a combined estimated turnover of £20m in 2003. Yo! Sushi recently opened a store in Birmingham's Selfridges store and has franchises in Greece and the United Arab Emirates.

The Yo! Sushi management bought the 17-strong restaurant chain from Woodroffe last September, freeing an additional £3.5m for investment. Woodroffe has retained a 22% stake in the company and assumed the position of nonexecutive chairman. He's looking to franchise the brand in the USA, Bahrain, Kuwait, Spain, Turkey and Scandinavia over the next few years, with many more UK openings. Woodroffe is also working on Yotel!, based around Japanese capsule hotels.

Woodroffe in a nutshell: Brought conveyor-belt sushi to the UK consumer.

Michael Caines
Chef and restaurateur

Caines, 35, has showed steely determination in overcoming the loss of his right arm in a car accident nine years ago to establish himself as the leader of the chef-proprietor pack in Devon. He made his name at Dartmoor's Gidleigh Park (where he remains chef-director) by winning it two Michelin stars in 1999. The following year he launched a restaurant under his own name at Exeter's Royal Clarence hotel and in June 2003 struck up a deal with Marriott Hotels, resulting in the opening of a restaurant and cocktail bar at the company's Bristol Marriott Royal. Not content, last October he went into partnership with entrepreneurial hotelier Andrew Brownsword to buy the Clarence for more than £4m.

With a £1m refurbishment planned for the Clarence this year and the possibility of further projects with Brownsword and Marriott (plus a consultancy and training role with contract caterer Baxter & Platts), Caines's influence is set to spread beyond the West Country.

Caines in a nutshell: Inspirational chef and role model - the West Country's answer to Gordon Ramsay.

Gordon Campbell Gray
Hotelier

In founding London icon One Alwdych, Gordon Campbell Gray really put himself on the map. When it opened back in 1998, One Alwdych was hailed as the most innovative luxury hotel in London, and it has won the hotelier many plaudits, including Caterer's Hotelier of the Year award in 2002. Now, having fine-tuned his offering, Campbell Gray is branching out with the opening early next year of a property in Antigua. The 88-suite Carlisle Bay will be operated by Campbell Gray Hotels, a new company set up to act as a vehicle for expansion outside the UK. Expect more luxury resorts in exotic locations as Campbell Gray looks to leverage his good name and the reputation of One Aldwych among clued-up travellers.

Campbell Gray in a nutshell: A genuine innovator with the golden touch.

Karen Jones
Chief executive, Spirit

A university graduate, Jones, 46, left her advertising job to wait at London's Peppermint Park restaurant in London during the early 1980s. While there she met Roger Myers, an encounter that led to the co-founding of the Caf‚ Rouge restaurant chain at the end of the decade. The company, now owned by Tragus, was sold to Whitbread for £133m in 1996. Jones then joined Hugh Osmond, founder of PizzaExpress, at Punch, the pub group that had recently bought the Allied Domecq pub estate and assumed her position at its unbranded managed pub estate, Spirit.

Spirit's recent £2.5b purchase of Scottish & Newcastle's managed pub, restaurant and budget hotel group, has created one of the UK's biggest pub companies with a 2,500-strong estate and 46,000 employees.

Jones in a nutshell: Britain's leading landlady.

Robin Hutson
Hotelier

Not a difficult choice this one, considering he was named Hotelier of the Year by a panel of his peers only last month. The Savoy Group-trained Hutson cut his teeth at legendary country house hotel Chewton Glen before leaving with sommelier Gerald Bassett to found the first Hotel du Vin in Winchester in 1994. It was an instant success, and more properties followed - the opening of the Hotel du Vin in Harrogate in September was the chain's sixth. Hutson has ambitious plans for expanding the brand, with Henley, Oxfordshire, due to open next year and a Cambridge property in development.

Hutson in a nutshell: To steal a line from George Goring, one of the Hotelier of the Year judges, "he's a visionary and an inspiration to the industry".

Nick Jones
Owner, Soho House

Jones turned heads when he opened the private members' Soho Club in London during 1995 at a cost of £1m. Soon, he had added the caf‚, BohŠme, to his collection. A Soho House New York has since sprung up, as has the Electric cinema and brasserie in London's Notting Hill. Luxury hotel Babington House in the Cotswolds completes the collection.

Jones has recently brought a much-needed touch of class to Balham, south London, with the opening of the Balham Bar & Kitchen, which scored great reviews from food critics.

Jones in a nutshell: Mr Exclusivity.

Mourad Mazouz
Co-founder, Sketch

Owner of the 404 restaurant in Paris, 41-year-old Mazouz opened Moroccan restaurant Momo Restaurant Familial in London in 1997. Teaming up with three-Michelin-starred chef Pierre Gagnaire, he secured private backing and bought the former Christian Dior listed building in Conduit Street back in 1999. Three years and £10m later, the four-level fantasy project opened in late 2002 as one of the most unusual and expensive dining areas London has seen.

The impact of Sketch and its continuing artistic tinkering still has Londoners' heads spinning, but Mazouz hasn't stopped. With David Ponte and head chef David Jones, he has brought the Momo concept to Selfridges department store, London, opening up a new world of potential for the North African restaurant.

Mazouz in a nutshell: The artistic restaurateur.

LASTING LEGACIES

As Caterer's editorial team cogitated over the names to include in our list of the top 30 Movers & Shakers in hospitality, we felt that some who didn't make it were nevertheless deserving of special mention. We applaud the following for their contributions to UK hospitality.

• Peter Boizot Started our love affair with authentic Italian pizzas with the first PizzaExpress in Soho in 1965.
• Ken McCullough Founder of the Malmaison hotel chain in 1994, he plans a new budget hotel chain, Dakota.
• Chris Corbin/Jeremy King Founders of Le Caprice, the Ivy and J Sheekey, the pair recently opened the Wolseley restaurant in London.
• Bob Cotton Chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, tireless campaigner on hospitality issues
• Don Davenport Chief executive of Compass UK & Ireland, mentor and inspiration to today's contract caterers.
• John Huber Former pastry lecturer, Thames Valley University, pƒtisserie doyen Huber has mentored most leading pastry chefs in Britain.
• Sir Francis Mackay City big-hitter who became Compass chief executive in 1991 and guided it to where it is now. 
• Tim Martin Founder of 600-strong "real ale, no jukebox" pub chain JD Wetherspoon.
• Anton Mosimann Proprietor, Mosimann's, London, and responsible for bringing global influences into fine dining.
• Nigel Platts-Martin Former MPW partner who set the standard for London's independent restaurants with Harvey's, Chez Bruce and others.
• Gary Rhodes The daddy of modern British cooking, as at ease in front of the camera as behind the stove.
• Michel and Albert Roux The undisputed godfathers of modern restaurant cuisine in Britain.
• Richard Shepherd Michelin-starred in 1974, Shepherd co-founded Langan's Brasserie in 1976; now owns several fine-dining restaurants and an events company.
• Marc Verstringhe Founder of influential Catering & Allied in 1970s, helped shape modern contract catering.

ONES TO WATCH

When Caterer publishes its next Movers & Shakers list this time next year, it's a pretty safe bet some of the names below will make an appearance.

• Marlon Abela Son of contract catering giant Albert Abela, Marlon plans to create a global Michelin-starred restaurant group.
• Tom Aikens Chef-proprietor, Aikens, London, and the chef with the bad-boy image.
• Claude Bosi Chef-patron, Hibiscus, Ludlow, and widely tipped for two Michelin stars.
• Nathan Outlaw Chef-proprietor, the Black Pig, Rock, Cornwall, he shows great technical know-how for his age.
• Andrew Pern Chef-proprietor, Star Inn, Harome, North Yorkshire, he's a champion of local and British produce and heads an expanding business empire.
• Glynn Purnell Chef-proprietor, Jessica's, Birmingham. Formerly at Simpson's in Kenilworth, Warwickshire, Purnell is fast becoming a hit with the critics.
• Andrew Stembridge The ambitious managing director of Chewton Glen country house hotel in New Milton, Hampshire, hopes in time to manage a chain of hotels.
• Mike Sunley and Clare Prowse Founders of the £100,000 start-up contractor Lexington, whose first deal was a £5m-a-year national contract with T-Mobile.

Lizzie Vann
Children's food campaigner, founder of food brand Organix

Vociferous campaigner for healthier school meals. Throughout 2003 she took her uncompromising message to caterers and suppliers at conference after conference. Working closely with the Soil Association, Vann was one of the key instigators of the Food for Life report that pushed school meals to the forefront of the national agenda. Cynics may argue that, as a successful businesswoman, Vann is using the healthy-eating message to promote her own products. But, while appealing directly to the school meals market, she has helped start a grass-roots movement among many school cooks who want fresh, locally sourced ingredients and more control over their menus.

Vann's courage and passion has not been in vain. In August, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs launched its reform of public-sector purchasing to include more British produce and less processed food. You can be sure Vann's campaigning efforts will bear further fruit in 2004.

Vann in a nutshell: Tireless campaigner helping to put school meals in the spotlight.

 Jamie Oliver
Restaurateur, author and TV personality

Trained at London's Westminster Kingsway College, Oliver worked as head pastry chef for Antonio Carluccio at the Neal Street restaurant, before moving to the critically acclaimed River Caf‚ in London for three years. Now 27, he hit our TV screens, aged 21, assuming the name, rather than lifestyle, of the Naked Chef. He was appointed MBE for services to the industry in 2003. He is also men's magazine GQ's food editor and writes regularly for the Saturday Times Magazine. Oliver won a Special Award Catey last year, recognising his efforts to help disadvantaged youngsters get ahead as highly trained chefs at his restaurant venture Fifteen, which he personally bankrolled. Oliver's stock is once again sky-high after a period of overexposure, especially through adverts for supermarket chain Sainsbury's that tested our patience as much as the trainees at Fifteen tested his.

Oliver in a nutshell: Larger-than-life, colourful, face of cheffing in Britain.

David Orr
Hotelier

Orr founded City Inn hotels in 1995 with his father Sandy. The company owns and operates "modern but understated" new-build hotels, using large amounts of glass to let in natural light. The first hotel was opened in 1999, and since then the company hasn't looked back. It now has city-centre hotels in Bristol, Birmingham and Glasgow, and in September it opened the 460-bedroom City Inn Westminster - the biggest new-build hotel to open in London for 30 years. Orr plans to build and operate up to seven more hotels by 2006, including up to three more in London. The chain also has an eye on international expansion.

Orr in a nutshell: With Orr at the helm, City Inn is definitely a brand that's going places.