The next stop for The Staff Canteen Live 2017 Networking Lunch was Simon Hulstone’s The Elephant Restaurant, Torquay which currently holds a star in the Michelin Guide UK.

Fourteen chefs from around the South West region and representatives from six of the sponsors met for a delicious five course lunch with champagne from Pommery to kick things off! 

Chefs in attendance were: James Tanner, chef owner, The Kentish Hare; Chris Tanner, chef owner, The Kentish Hare; Ashley Wright, head chef, The Horn of Plenty; Elly Wentworth, junior sous chef, Lucknam Park Hotel; Russell Brown, owner, Creative about Cuisine; Brett Sutton, chef owner, The White Post; Bruce Rennie, chef owner, The Shore Restaurant; Tom Mackins, head chef, Restaurant Chapter 1; Rob Howell, head chef, The Pony & Trap; Tina King, chef owner, Il Casita; Nicholas Hack, chef owner, Il Casita; Elson Castro, head chef, The Boat House Bar and Restaurant; Tim Bouget, owner, ODE - True Food and Roger Hulstone, executive chef, The Rainbow Hotel.

Once the Pommery was flowing and the canapés had been consumed, Simon Hulstone gave a kitchen tour of The Elephant, explaining the day to day running of their operation and introducing his team. The menu was a showcase of some of Simon’s favourite dishes and some new ones.

He introduced each course, which included: heritage beetroot ‘samosas’, sea trout with smoked vodka and Santa Maria Tellicherry black pepper, Orkney scallop, venison loin (with Nestlé CHEF Veal stock) and a dessert with rhubarb and white chocolate. This was followed with coffee and teas from Birchall Teas and some tasty petit fours.

There was plenty of conversation already amongst the chefs, many of whom were old friends and former colleagues. Simon was popping out of the kitchen for a chat where he could and introduced each course.

He said about the event: “We’ve done more covers than we normally do on a Monday! It’s always good to cook for local chefs and peers, to have them come down to Torquay, to see what we do and what our philosophy is. It’s networking so it’s great to catch up and have a good chat. I’ve been out there and chatted to everyone, t’s my house so it’s very personal, we’ve invited them in and it’s great to have that connection. It’s nice to keep that contact with people.

"Now with social media, chefs are a lot more friendly, it’s a lot less territorial. So bringing them together is great for all of us.”

The suggested discussion topic for the event was: “How do chefs stand out from the crowd? How do they use the media, what are the positives and pit falls?”

Mark Morris, MD of The Staff Canteen introduced the topic, mentioning that @thestaffcanteen Instagram account delivers to over two million timelines a day. Some of the chefs were definitely in agreement that social media has been a useful, cheap promotional tool for their work. Others highlighted the risks of having media coverage and a public presence.

Michael Joslin, Business Development Manager for headline sponsor, Beacon Design said: “I was a chef so I knew about The Staff Canteen already. When it says ‘we’ve got x amount of active users’, I know that these are people who engage and use the site as a resource. For me as a business, wanting to look at where we want to spend our marketing budget, we want to spend it with people who are like-minded, passionate and who want to work with chefs.

"We’ve worked with a few other people and they’re very much interested in the sponsorship because they just want your money. With TSC, it was like ‘we’re going to connect chefs to you’ and that came across as more genuine and I could relate to it as I was a chef, using TSC as a resource. We get a nice lunch every month which is good! For me, it’s been great to meet lots of new people, make those contacts, start the journey of establishing a relationship and see where it goes over the next few years.”

Chris Tanner, chef/owner at The Kentish Hare added: “It’s important to support the South West, the chefs don’t often get the time or the chance to get together. We’ve known Simon for decades. There’s also potential here for you to look for any staff vacancies, people moving on.

"There was great food from a great chef in a nice restaurant. It’s good to be able to come down and see people you don’t necessarily see all the time.”  

The lunch was sponsored by Birchall Tea, Nestle CHEF, HIT Training, Charvet, Santa Maria, Pommery and Beacon Design.

Next month The Staff Canteen Live networking lunch will be held at Jonathan MacDonald’s Ox and Finch in Glasgow on Monday, March 13, followed by Adam Reid at The French in April. 

>>> To register for the next TSCLive Networking Lunch click here