Announcing the winners of The Staff Canteen Awards 2023

We are proud to announce the winners of The Staff Canteen Awards 2023, celebrated today at our third awards ceremony at The Compound Studio in Birmingham.

From 1071 nominations, over 49,000 of you voted, whittling down the list to four individuals or teams shortlisted for each of the eight award categories: Chef of the Year, One to Watch, KP of the Year, Sustainable Business of the Year, Front of House Team of the Year, Hospitality Hero, TSC Member of the Year and Social Media Influencer.

We can now reveal the winners:

- Chef of the Year: Tom Shepherd, Chef Owner of Upstairs by Tom Shepherd

- One to Watch: Daniel Rogan, Chef Patron, Restaurant AO

- KP of the Year: Richard Storkey, Ynyshir

- Sustainable Business of the Year: Pignut Restaurant Helmsley

- Front of House Team of the Year: Xavier Brette and the Front of House team Winteringham Fields

- Social Media Influencer of the Year: Paul Foster, Chef Owner of Salt

- Hospitality Hero: Angelina Adamo, Chef Owner of Tutto Aposto

- TSC Member of the Year: Demetri Nikolaidis, Sous Chef of The Hope and Anchor

Our Chef of the Year was Tom Shepherd, Chef Owner of the Michelin-starred Upstairs by Tom Shepherd.

Commenting on his win, Tom said: "A massive thank you for everyone who voted for me for The Staff Canteen Chef of the Year award. I've now got a beautiful addition to my already incredible TSC mug collection. Thank you so much to everyone.

Describing what the win meant to him Tom said: "I'm absolutely overwhelmed that I've won The Staff Canteen Chef of the Year award, espcially when the three other chefs in my category are such phenomenal chefs who I aspire to be one day. Thank you so much to everyone who voted."

Social Media Influencer of the Year, Paul Foster, chef owner of Michelin-starred Salt, and Grassfed said: “It’s great, it’s not something I was expecting but I’m authentic online, and I’m always myself so this award makes me feel vindicated for being myself online."

Paul added: “Social Media is really important and The Staff canteen Awards is a completely different style of awards and by being different it allows every area of the awards stand out."

 

 

 

 

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Daniel Rogan, Chef Patron, Restaurant AO said: “It’s a very proud moment and it means a lot. There’s a lot of expectation on me because of my Dad, so winning this award means I’m doing something right.”

Angelina Adamo, Chef Owner of Tutto Aposto, said: “Winning is so amazing, I really didn’t expect it. I really do care about the work I’ve done for women in hospitality and I’m really amazed it has been recognised. “It shows just how much work goes into it.”

Angelina added: “The Staff Canteen Awards gets talked about all of the time. As soon as I came into this industry I was tole about The Staff Canteen, it’s massive, so to be here today and looking around the room is full of chefs I’ve worked with, chefs I aspire to work with, chefs with Michelin stars – being a part of that group is amazing.”

 

 

 

 

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Tomer Shavit, Head of Hospitality EMEA, Lightspeed: “The awards were incredible. I think it is such an important event to reward the often-unsung heroes in the hospitality sector. The people working behind the scenes to keep these amazing restaurants running – for Lightspeed it’s really important to give back to that community."

Tomer added: “Lightspeed are always trying to get in front of the staff who work in restaurants, technology is made to make things easier for those staff members. They want to spend their time with their customers or creating delicious dishes, not dealing with internet outages or payment terminal crashes. Lightspeed allows them to do what they do best.

“I think it’s super important for there to be a Staff Canteen awards for the industry, you can see by the calibre of chefs who come to this event and want to celebrate each other and put the people who keep restaurants running, front and centre," he said.

Russell Mayes, Head of Sales at Cleenol said: “It’s a great location, quite quirky – it makes it stands out from other awards ceremonies and there was a real diverse group of people involved in it.

 

 

 

 

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On being part of the awards, Russell said: “It’s to get our name out there, get our market share and have a presence but it’s also really important that Cleenol support people within the industry, coming through. From the chefs to the kitchen porters it’s essential we support everyone in the industry. On the awards: I think it’s extremely important, it’s valuable and allows us all to talk about the industry and share experiences. It brings awareness to the various awards within the industry.”

Paul Saunders, Marketing Manager at Major said: “We’ve done The Staff Canteen Awards for the last couple of years, and it’s really good to celebrate the talented individuals in the industry. Events like this are really sorely needed in the industry, celebrating some the brilliant UK talent which we have up and coming and it’s a good networking opportunity. It allows you to meet people who may not have come across our brand or products and connect with them."

Thank you to our sponsors, by RATIONAL, Chef Works UK & Ireland, Compass Group UK & Ireland, Major International, Meiko, Alaska Seafood, Cleenol, Lightspeed, and RATIONAL TV, without whom none of this would be possible.