Alice who is the leading person for Entrée (reception services) at Vacherin was declared the overall winner in front of over 200 hospitality guests at the British Library. As part of her prize Alice will receive the Robyns Trophy and lifetime membership to ACE.
Tim Jones, joint founder of CH&Co with his late wife Robyn, was one of the judges and said: “I would like to congratulate all of the entrants.
“We thought last year’s entries were good, but they were even higher this year and we had great difficulty drawing up a shortlist as many were particularly inspiring, demonstrating the drive and initiative that Robyn was well-known for. The judges had to make some difficult choices, but I know that Robyn would have been very pleased with the winner and the success of the awards.”
Alice will be invited to sit on the board for the next year to ensure ACE considers the needs of the younger generation as it evolves. In second place was Sam Smith from BaxterStorey, and in third place was Jess Simpson also from BaxterStorey.
Also at this event Francois Gautreaux, who is managing director of Bespoke Food, took over as chairman of ACE from Sarah Prentice who had held the position for two years.
He added: “The Robyns awards are always an exciting time of year for us, and this year was no exception. We had an incredibly strong group of nominees, and the top three candidates were all so close in scoring that only fractions decided it. Alice is a worthy winner of this year's award, and we can't wait to work with her on the ACE board over the coming year.”
The next ACE event will be Ready Steady Cook on Thursday 19th September.