Member of the Month December 2023: Paul Hickman

Here at The Staff Canteen, we feature a different member every month we think deserves to be celebrated - this month’s winner is Paul Hickman.

As thanks for being a regular contributor to The Staff Canteen, Paul will receive an item of TSC merch of their choosing, a TSC mug and will be entered in our Member of the Year 2024 competition. The Staff Canteen Member of the Month feature is brought to you in association with Major.

>>> Find out more about Paul and follow him 

Current Place Of Work/Position?

I currently work for Middleby as the UK Group Culinary Director working within and overseeing our culinary team and centres within based in the UK.

This involves both hosting guests and hospitality along with demonstrating the wide selection of Middleby brands to chefs and teams from all sectors.

I also work heavily with my team in both the development of new products for the industry and testing along with assisting our national clients with both menu development, product training and documentation for example.

What is your cooking style and what should people expect from the food on your menu?

I particularly love my outside cooking, smoking, slow cooking and driving my charcoal grills, so we often use these to cook for our visiting guests from around the globe.

What is your favourite dish to cook and why?

Of course, you will see I love baking, sourdough and yeast cookery has always been a passion along with crafting sugar flowers or sculpting sugar for cakes, my wife has a cake company that I end up helping with

Name a food item/dish/ingredient that isn't considered "cheffy" but you love to eat?

So, I can’t do without brown sauce on my bacon buttie! just love it too much.

What do you like about The Staff Canteen app and website?

Love the app and website.

Inspirational and great to see other like-minded people being able to share creative ideas and dishes, also an informative platform.

What is the most important lesson you’ve learnt as a chef?

As a chef, we will never stop learning or teaching as we all grow and learn constantly from our industry colleagues from around the globe.