David Cavalier joined us four years ago as our Director of Food. Coming from a glittering, Michelin-starred career in restaurants, his decision to move into contract catering seemed a little odd to outsiders.

However, the reasons were obvious to us. We wanted to stay at the cutting edge. Food innovation within a food-focused company such as ours needs to continue apace, and we knew that a further resource would keep up that momentum.

Bringing in an external viewpoint was also a critical factor in our decision to appoint David. Our customers were eating out more and we needed to bring what was happening in the High Street more directly into staff-feeding in order to retain their interest.

Not only that – having David on board says a lot about our business and how highly we value chef skills. It underlines our commitment to using fresh ingredients and using our staff to prepare and present our food – rather than opening packets!

David’s appointment has brought a renewed interest in Charlton House as an Employer of Choice for skilled, passionate people. We are able to recruit and retain better chefs for longer than other caterers as they can see a future for themselves within our organisation.

David runs chef workshops and training sessions, our Salon Culinaire and Chefs’ Conference, ensuring that there is a genuine sharing of ideas and inspiration among our growing team, to keep the passion for food alive and top of the agenda.

Our clients benefit from David too because skilled chefs want to work for Charlton House and, undoubtedly, David’s passion for fresh food has an inspiring effect on them! David gets involved with site teams to cater for large special functions, assisting with menu development and pulling in additional resources from our team of chefs and supplier network.

Please click on the links for the latest food news and David’s newsletter – l’esprit winter 2007