ESS and NCL scoop 12 awards at Hotelympia

A joint team from ESS Support Services Worldwide, part of Compass Group UK and Ireland, and New College Lanarkshire are celebrating after winning 12 awards, including the overall best team award at Hotelympia, the UK’s largest foodservice and hospitality event.

Held in London recently, Hotelympia showcased the cooking skills of entrants across a variety of categories in a four-day programme.

ESS teamed up with its partner New College Lanarkshire (NCL) to compete at the event, entering the Salon Display Category. Five gold medals were awarded to the team with Graham Singer, ESS’s food operations manager, scooping one for his sugarcraft showpiece. Stephen Benn won gold for his floral sugarcraft and Alisdair Crowley took gold for his restaurant fish course. Laura McNeil, a student at NCL, won gold with her innovative dessert plates and Dougal Macpherson, a lecturer at NCL, was awarded gold for his restaurant main plates. Both were also presented with Best in Class awards for their winning dishes.

A silver medal was presented to Chris Macleod for his restaurant platter for two people and Kayleigh Turner took home a bronze medal for her sugarcraft showpiece.

In addition to the haul of prizes, three Chairman Awards were presented to the team including the overall best team award. Dougal Macpherson won the best main plates of the week, bringing his total award wins to three. Kayleigh Turner was named best student for her age as she was entered into the senior category in error and still triumphed at the awards.

Vice President of the Craft Guild of Chefs, Alan Shipman said: “I was impressed with the number of successful entries and awards the team from ESS and NCL achieved. They were clearly motivated and dedicated to the task in hand.

“Kayleigh had a constant smile and positive attitude which clearly rubbed off on the whole combined team.”

Bob Brown, ESS food development manager and executive chef, said: "I saw how all the team members were working and being well supported by Graham. He was clearly a great motivator and his team showed great respect for him. He gives his full commitment as do the rest of the chefs, and is a most inspiring person."

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For more information:

Hannah Rumbles, Fifth Ring – hannah.rumbles@fifthring.com/ 01224 628088