ISS Mediclean Chef of the Year

Jack Raynes has been crowned as the inaugural ISS Mediclean / Knorr Chef of the Year.

Jack, the Production Manager for ISS Mediclean at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, beat off 15 other candidates that had made the cook off stages of the competition that was held recently in the brand new development kitchens at Unilever’s Head Offices in Leatherhead.

Among the prizes he won is a five day working trip to Spain, where he will experience working with his Spanish ISS colleagues in some of their contracts.

Two heats were held with chefs from around the Healthcare, Education and MOD kitchens covered by ISS Mediclean showing off their skills with a two course meal (Main course and choice of starter or dessert) prepared under the watchful eyes of a large audience of friends and colleagues. The state of the art show kitchens have glass walls on two sides, enabling spectators to view every aspect of the Chef’s skills. There are also remote cameras beaming the event live to screens around the building and other Unilever offices across the globe (the contestants were not told this until after the event!).

The judging was carried by Managing Director, Simon Cox, Service Development Director, Andy Jones, Food Hygiene Manager, Phill Ruddock and Contract Manager, Alex Moyeux (formerly Head Chef at the Sunborn Yacht Hotel. They were given professional guidance by Ray Lorimer

Ray was classically trained as a chef and caterer in the Army Catering Corp, over a 25 year period, starting with a two and a half year chef apprenticeship in 1967. He joined Caterplan/Bestfoods in 1992 on leaving the Army, and set up the original Unilever Foodsolutions Culinary Services team.

The two winners of the morning’s event were Jamie Renno from Kingston Hospital and Jack Raynes, who went on to meet up the afternoon winners; Sandrine Bercy from Walsgrave Hospital, Coventry and Gary Fleming from Hairmyres Hospita, East Kilbride.

The event was supported by Knorr along with R H Hall; 3663 and Churchill China, who kindly donated the crockery used to display the finished dishes.

In presenting the awards Simon Cox mentioned just how close the final scores had been, and on inspection afterwards it showed that the three runners up were separated by just 3 marks on Simon’s forms, with Jack just 2 points ahead.

Speaking after the award ceremony, Andy Jones said, “I am simply bursting with pride this evening. The standard of culinary skills demonstrated today would stand up against some of the best chefs. Jack is a very worthy winner but everyone who took part should be proud of themselves. To produce quality dishes like these, in a strange kitchen and with a live audience, takes a lot of courage.”

 

The overall postions were:

1st- Jack Raynes (Barnsley) who was awarded £1000, as well as a set of Global knives and his trip to Spain

2nd -Gary Fleming (Hairmyers) £500 and a roll of professional knives

3rd- Sandrine Bercy (Walsgrave) £250 and a roll of professional knives

Highly Commended - Jamie Renno (Kingston)

 

ISS Mediclean wishes to record their thanks to Unilever’s National Account Manager, Jeremy Sear and Development Chef, Tim Franklin, both of whom made the day such an enjoyable experience.