Page 41 - Naked Foodies - July 2021

“It’s a great day to engage with others and for chefs to get out and about at this particular time, and particularly great that chef associations are now supporting the ucff,” says Owen. “We all need to come together now especially with the current state of our industry.
Peter Griffiths MBE, president of the British Culinary Federation (BCF), says the BCF is very happy to support the ucff. “It’s very encouraging to see that all associations are coming together with the objective of showing unity and support for an industry event after all the difficult times we have experienced,” says Griffiths.
Graeme Watson, vice chairman of the Master Chefs of Great Britain (MCGB), agrees that it’s a fantastic idea. “All of us should be coming together more often to have a total voice,” explains Watson. “In our industry we struggle to attract people and recruitment is very challenging, so what we can do collectively is good.”
Watson says there is a shortage of chefs in the industry, which has always been a problem, but this has now been exacerbated by the effect of Covid and Brexit, which has led to people making necessary career changes. “The industry will have lost some high quality people, including Europeans who have gone back home because of Covid and the uncertainty of Brexit,” he adds.
At ucff, MCGB has teamed up with foodservice provider Compass to work with their apprentices via a competition with other apprentice chefs to create street food dishes, and the winning dishes will be served to delegates at the festival.
“This is an opportunity for young chefs to be creative and also have some customer facing,” says Watson. “It’s what our association is all about – promoting our industry to young people and encouraging them once they’ve entered it.” Another first for the ucff will be a special recruitment zone for chefs to seek guidance following the effects of the pandemic.
Simon Martin, chef patron of Michelin-starred restaurant Mana, will demonstrate his distinctive Nordic specialities, and Jordi Gallego, corporate executive chef – senior development chef at Griffiths Foods South Europe, will demonstrate his authentic Catalan dishes.
Joining them are Lexington’s executive head chef Dennis Mwakalua demonstrating exciting African cuisine, and Jeremy Villaneuva, head chef at Romulo Café & Restaurant, demonstrating flavoursome Filipino cuisine.
On the Main Stage, MC’d by Nigel Barden, experts will come together to cover a variety of subjects that are relevant to today’s cheffing community.
They include Miranda Quantrill from Westminster Kingsway College and Mark Griffin from Griffin Historical, who will share a brief history of British food with delegates in the ‘Past Perfect’ session, while the specialists for ‘The Birds and the Bees’ session about pesticide reduction and sustainability are Nick Saltmash from pulse and grain specialist Hodmedods, and Mark Hayward from specialist pork producer, Dingley Dell.
A panel of speakers discussing social media in ‘Keep it Social’ and advising on good and bad input includes Karen Fewell, founder of Digital Blonde; Paul Foster, chef director at Salt; Majella O’Connell, owner of Pavlova & Cream; and Jacqui Brown, creative director at Naked Foodies.
With mental health recognised as a growing issue within the industry and worsened due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Dave Sayers, a chef and advocate for mental health issues, and Tony Lewis, founder of the Burnt Chef Project, hosts the ‘Chill out’ session to focus on how to identify mental illness, how to support and where to find help.
Festival favourite ‘Local Heroes’ returns, with Paul Foster from Salt back on stage along with Nik Spencer of Heru and George Beach of Mudwalls Farm, to put Warwickshire, its chefs and local produce under the spotlight.
Finally, Simon Stenning, strategic advisor for foodservice at The Future of Foodservice, makes a welcome return to ucff to talk about ‘Brand & Deliver, the future of brands and delivery on the high street’, and what it means to our industry.