Captain cooks

WITH the popularity of theatre-style cooking and the demand for chefs to be front of house in catering units, a number of contractors have appointed executive chefs with responsibilities that reach far beyond the chopping board.

Rob Kirby combines the newly created role of company executive chef for Avenance (600 sites, £175m turnover) with that of executive chef for City-based HSBC. He has a brigade of 12 chefs and runs two à la carte restaurants, a deli, a café and hospitality for the client and 1,600 employees. Nationally, he is also responsible for liaising with suppliers, helping with menu design, aiding the training and recruitment of chefs, and setting food standards.

"My appointment in January is a sign of the company's desire to emphasise the fact that food comes first. Food is our priority and the future of our business," says Kirby, who is national secretary for the Association Culinaire Français and a Master Chef of Great Britain.

Kirby's passion is for seasonal products, which he finds better in taste and value. "Why not wait for English strawberries in June rather than the watery tasteless ones we get out of season?" he asks. "A dish like Cornish pan-fried squid with chilli jam and crème fra‹che is not expensive when served between September and February, when squid is in season."

Despite the trend towards lighter, healthier meals, Kirby finds that there is a demand for comfort food, but with a modern spin. "When we put on dishes like sausage and mash," he says, "we use Cheddar or horseradish mash with lamb, mint or apricot sausages and fresh onion chutney. Our fish-and-chips are home-made, but we make sure that swordfish and wild rocket salad is available as a lighter alternative. We need to keep menus fresh and changing to stimulate customers. Gone are the days when it was roast on Wednesday and fish on Fridays."

He prefers to go for fewer dishes, well cooked and presented, and likes an uncluttered plate - such as home-baked salmon lasagne accompanied by pan-fried spinach with Parmesan. "Don't add cream sauce and three vegetables," says Kirby. "Don't over-confuse the dish. My philosophy is cook it well, keep it simple and keep it seasonal."

Minimalist menus

Graham Eveleigh is another exponent of minimalist menus. He joined Holroyd Howe (30 contracts, £6.5m turnover) in December last year in the newly created position of executive chef. He was originally a professional photographer specialising in food, but when the food became more interesting than the photography, he put aside his camera, spent two years in the kitchens of various restaurants and then trained at Leith's School of Food & Wine.

"Instead of 10 mediocre dishes I want our chefs to produce five well-balanced and nutritious meals," he comments. "Food can be approached in a simple manner, but we must have quality ingredients to do this, such as artichoke and olive pie with sesame green beans."

Eveleigh was working for the fine-dining division of a large contractor when he decided to join Holroyd Howe, which was founded in 1998. "I was looking for an independent company where I would have the freedom to set food standards," he says, "as opposed to a large conglomerate, where this tends not to happen."

Holroyd Howe fitted the bill. It was young, becoming established, and needed the infrastructure in place to free area managers to manage a larger number of contracts. "Core values were there," says Eveleigh, "but it wanted to formalise its specific food standards. I slotted into this because their values were the same as mine - fresh ingredients used imaginatively to provide a bespoke service for each client.

"I want chefs to view anything to do with food production as important. Snacks are just as vital as a hot main meal. Soups such as red pepper with fromage frais, or lentil and Toulouse sausage, served with freshly baked bread and croutons, often takes the place of a main meal."

He runs menu training sessions and supplier demonstrations, and produces a monthly Food File booklet of ideas and recipes to reinforce standards. But he encourages independent creativity. "I don't stand over the chefs while they work," he says. "The kitchen is their territory and I'd rather work alongside them, encouraging them to use their ideas. We make sure that our chefs spend time front of house, either cooking theatre-style or plating and finishing the meals. This allows them to talk to customers, answer questions. Chefs are natural show-offs and enjoy coming front of house."

Very visual

Chris Towler, chef-development director of the Eaton Group (60 units, £15.2m turnover), who was promoted to the main board earlier this year, agrees. "Our business is all about food," he says. "It's very visual, so assembling and cooking of meals in front of customers is important."

His brief is to drive food standards forward, implement modern food trends, recruit chefs and identify the right suppliers. "We're only as good as the raw materials that come through the kitchen door," says Towler. "We use only fresh food, no convenience stuff."

Towler is constantly sourcing new products and recently found a supplier who provides a range of Italian, French, Jewish and Irish soda breads, made using different flours for each. "We've recently started buying Italian Pane con Noce, packed full of nuts sliced wafer-thin, and served with cheese," he says. "It's gone down amazingly well."

Like his colleagues, he would prefer to use more organic food but faces the usual problems of high prices and unreliable supply in the right quantities. Instead, he settles for buying-in organic products such as cakes and drinks.

The demand for healthy food in staff restaurants is something his chefs have been responding to, but not by banning chips. "Healthy eating is in the style of cooking, not necessarily the ingredients," says Towler. "We do a lot of poaching, steaming and searing in non-stick pans. The Mediterranean influence is still strong and we serve dishes such as roasted vine tomatoes and goats' cheese, or brandade of salt cod, a paste made from cod and garlic with added chives and lemon juice, and served with ciabatta."

Eaton chefs, like those in Holroyd Howe and Avenance, have the autonomy to design their own menus, usually on a weekly basis, and order their own products from a choice of nominated suppliers. "It's very important they can order this way," says Towler. "If they feel their hands are tied, we won't get the best from them."

He sees chefs as equalling catering managers in importance. This year, he took 12 chefs to the Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chefs Conference at London's Dorchester in March. "It's good for them to network," he says. "We have to invest in our chefs if we want them long-term. If they come and go, it sends out the wrong signal."

He adds: "I have a constant pipeline to quality chefs wanting to join us. I keep courting them so that, when the right job comes along, they can join us. It can take two to three years."

He believes in strong links with colleges and last year was chef-mentor in Springboard's UK Master Chef for a school whose chef ultimately won the competition. He, Eveleigh and Kirby also all run some form of regular discussion group for their chefs, have dining-out allowances for taking them out to sample the latest trends and influences, and arrange visits to leading catering events and overseas food markets. n