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John Campbell(21 September 2006 00:00)Overall ranking: 54 (98) Chef ranking: 11 (17) John Campbell - Snapshot Campbell is one of the UK’s most cutting-edge chefs with an international reputation for innovation, expertise and flair. Like Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck and Ferran Adria of Spain’s El Bulli, he has been influenced by the scientific approach to cooking popularised by Harold McGhee. John Campbell - Career guide Article continues below
His next move was to London’s Grosvenor House hotel as senior sous chef. He took on his first head chef job in 1995 at the BBC’s residential training centre, Wood Norton Hall in Evesham, Worcestershire. In 1997, Campbell became head chef at Lords of the Manor in Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire, where he held on to its Michelin star and upgraded the restaurant to four AA rosettes. In 2000 he took on additional responsibilities as director of food and beverage. He moved to the Vineyard in 2002, retaining its Michelin star and adding a fourth AA rosette. John Campbell - What we think Despite leaving school with no qualifications, Campbell is now one of the UK’s best-qualified chefs. In 1999, he became one of a select handful of British chefs to achieve a BSc diploma in International Culinary Arts. He has spent years studying the gastronomic arts and sciences and was dubbed “the cerebral chef” after the publication of his award-winning book Formulas for Flavour in 2001. Campbell’s cuisine is marked by modern techniques allied to traditional culinary lore, contrasting textures and temperatures, and sometimes unexpected but carefully considered flavour combinations. He won a Caterer and Hotelkeeper's Acorn award for high-achievers aged 30 or below in 1998 and his cooking was one of the reasons for the Vineyard winning the Catey Independent Hotel of the Year award in 2003. Cambell views the Vineyard – where he presides over one of the best-equipped kitchens in the country and a brigade of 19 – as the best platform for his cooking over the next 10 years. “My job is 10% food, 90% infrastructure,” Campbell told Caterer in 2002 and his list-making, analytical approach was regarded as a de-risking benefit by Wilson Storey Halliday (now BaxterStorey), which signed him up as a consultant in early 2003. The contract caterer found its chefs could “think smarter” and be more innovative after training in the Vineyard kitchens. Campbell’s passion for training has seen him develop his Academy programme over the past four years to enable students and existing chefs to learn alongside his brigade. In 2005, the Vineyard was accepted for externships for the Culinary Institute of America, which will involve 18-week placements for US chefs in the hotel kitchens. Two of Campbell’s junior chefs are already making big waves. Nathan Outlaw won a Michelin star for the Black Pig in Rock, Cornwall, which he opened in 2004 at the age of 25, and then went on to win a Michelin star for St Ervans Manor in Cornwall in 2006. Another Campbell protege doing well is Anthony Flinn of Anthony’s Restaurant in Leeds became the youngest winner at 24 of the Excellence Award in the Restaurant Rémy Awards in 2004. Triumphs continued to roll in during 2006, when Campbell won the Craft Guild of Chefs’ Restaurant Chef of the Year award and the Vineyard was tipped by Michelin as the likely recipient of a second star next year. Campbell – who contributed to the 10th edition of Practical Cookery – also co-authored the fourth edition of the industry’s education bible, Advanced Practical Cookery, published earlier this year. John Campbell – Further information The Vineyard at Stockcross official website Read more about the CatererSearch 100, the list of the most influential people here Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper |
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