A Compass team will compete against 29 Community Catering teams from six countries in the Community Catering Restaurant category. The event will take place tomorrow (18 February) and James Larkins, executive chef at Chartwells Higher Education, will captain the Compass team.
The Compass theme of ‘our deepest roots begin with nature’ is embedded in their menu, which includes salt baked beetroot, roasted celeriac and salsify wellington, chalk stream sea trout and Suffolk pork entrees.
Compass team coach Graham Singer, said: “To coach the Compass team for this Olympics is a real honour. Every team member is integral to the overall teams’ success, with everyone pushing themselves to the limit to showcase their talent at a world-class level, for the very first time.
“Developing the culinary careers of our chefs is critical to our business and this competition allows us to demonstrate the creativity and innovation we have in abundance at Compass. This has been 18 months in the making and we are here through blood, sweat and tears to compete with the crème de la crème.”
On 16 February eight Compass chefs competed in the Regional Team Culinary Arts competition where they competed against 52 regional teams from around the world.
Compass will also be supporting Team England at the Culinary Olympics, who are being led by Compass Group UK & Ireland culinary director Nick Vadis. He has competed at the culinary Olympics for 25 years and he has won numerous medals.
The Compass Community Catering Restaurant Team includes:
- Team captain: James Larkins, Chartwells
- Pastry chef: Ana Paula-Oliver, Restaurant Associates
- Team chef: Chris Macleod, ESS
- Team chef: Nathan Clark, ESS
- Assistant: Gordon Makenzie, ESS
- Assistant: David Bryant, Eurest