The Staff Canteen Live 2022: Networking Lunch at The Fordwich Arms

Daniel Smith and his team at the Michelin-starred Fordwich Arms pub excited guests with their brilliant September 2022 networking lunch.

We invited chefs from around Kent to join us and our sponsors for drinks and tasting menu.

Ingredients throughout the menu, as well as the wine pairings, were provided by some of the events' sponsors.

Chefs

Adam Turley, Head Chef, The Old Bank Kent; Liam Fauchard, Head Chef The Swan; Petrus Madutlela, Chef Owner, The Poet at Matfield; Patrick Hill, Owner of Thackeray's Restaurant; Robert Marshall; Chef Owner of The Square Peg; Rob Cooper, Head Chef, Angela’s; Scott Dineen, Head Chef, Rocksalt; Samuel McClurkin, Head Chef, Fish at 55; Lee Edney, Head Chef, Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve; Daryl Quested Head Chef, Herd; Ben Williams, Group Head of Food & Beverage, EKC Commercial; Sean Mason, Sous Chef, Tallow; Matthew Sankey, Chef Owner, The Old Fish Market; Alex Yates, Head Chef, Bowleys; Sam Spratt, Head Chef, The Yarrow Hotel; Stephen Harris, Chef Owner, The Sportsman

Sponsors

Supporting the event were ChefWorks; Seafood from Norway and Nyetimber. 

What the guests said

It was the first Networking Lunch for Rob Cooper, Head Chef of Angela's in Margate, he said: "It was fantastic. I didn't know what to expect, really. I was obviously flattered to be invited and it was really good fun. It was good chatting, lots of people I knew, met some people I didn't, met some great suppliers as well."

Talking about the benefits, he added: "For me personally, Nyetimber, we deal with English wine and we've dealt with them before, but I'm definitely going to be going back speaking to Lee my wine guy and saying, 'let's have a chat, it's really interesting, lets revisit that relationship'. Dealing with Victoria, we're a fish restaurant. It's just interesting to have different suppliers. We all work in little routines, we have the same suppliers, we go through the same little spiel. So it was actually nice to speak someone different and kind of revisit relationships. I think that's what it's all about.

Victoria Braathen, from the Norwegian Seafood Council has attended. She said: "I think it's been fantastic. Having these networking opportunity meetings directly with chefs, having that one to one interaction, getting to know them, what's important to them - it's been fantastic. I really treasured this day."

She added: "We love bringing chefs to Norway, really educating them on the origin, explaining where the produce comes from and how it's being treated all the way to the market, so just working closely together is really key.

"I think from our side at least, we definitely want to see how we can reach out to the chefs and see if we can continue that conversation as well."

Matt Gay from Nyetimber added: "It's hard work to get a bunch of the best chefs in any region to sit down in formal situation, in one of their peers to have some great food, and great wines. It just makes the job easy so a great format and another one for many that we've had today."

Commenting on the menu, Matt said: "I've come here a couple of times before,and the food is always fantastic and actually they made it really easy for us by putting some classic dishes like scallop on, which is great with our Blonde de Blancs, norwegian cod with with the Tillington, it all worked beautifully."

Patrick Hill is the Owner of Thackerays, he said: "There's a lot of people that I knew the names of but didn't put a face to them, so it was really nice to meet some new faces and also meet some old faces as well that used to work with me, or work for the company. It's been a really nice day out for chefs."

Talking about the access to sponsors he added: It's just nice to see those different people and meet the faces to the companies as well, and have a chat with them and getting to know a bit about them.