Adnams was amongst leading hospitality names to receive a prestigious accolade at this year’s Craft Guild of Chefs Awards, winning the Sustainability Excellence Award for 2023.
The Craft Guild of Chefs Awards is seen as the chefs’ Oscars, recognising the exceptional talent across the whole of the hospitality industry – from businesses to individuals and apprentice chefs to those who are established in their careers in hospitality, pubs and restaurants.
Held on Thursday 1st June at the Park Plaza, Westminster in London, the event was attended by 700 of hospitality’s leading lights. The annual Craft Guild of Chefs Awards aim to celebrate culinary excellence and hospitality businesses across the UK and beyond.
Collecting the award on the evening, Edward Barker, Executive Chef for Adnams’ Managed Properties said: “We’re thrilled to receive this award. It’s no surprise that Adnams’ environmental ethos has inspired our chefs to demonstrate what sustainability means in our sector. The inclusion of a sustainability category in awards by respected organisations like The Craft Guild of Chefs only emphasises its importance, especially for such a fast-changing industry.”
Our chefs secured the honour thanks to their continued search for new and novel ways to celebrate local produce and their work on menu development to control the use of products from further afield, with their associated deliveries and their carbon footprint.
Initiatives include making ‘Southwold Scampi’ from whelks, an underutilised catch landed at Southwold harbour. They also work with suppliers like the Wightman family for their ‘producer to plate’ service. The Lowestoft-based fleet have their own fish mongers and smokery and use gin from Adnams distillery to produce gin-cured salmon for our menus.
The teams have also made revisions in their cooking methods, grouping and batch cooking dishes and making use of different cuts from whole meat supplies, to suit each site’s individual menu. Kitchens working in parallel with each other like this save energy and resources, and it helps them share ingredients and manage waste more effectively.
On stage image from awards evening:
(L-R):
Sir Tony Johnstone-Burt, President of the Craft Guild of Chefs, Edward Barker, Adnams Executive Chef, Colin Parry, National Sales Director for category sponsors Rational UK, Matt Owens, Chairman of the Craft Guild of Chefs. Photo Credit -Craft Guild of Chefs