The owner and chairman of Catering Consultancy Bureayu had a career spanning over half a century, beginning with an apprenticeship with BP (British Petroleum), where he received a classical kitchen grounding and then management training before moving into catering management.
He was promoted to manage all BP’s satellite units before, in 1985, he joined Croydon-based Catering By County as area manager for the special events business.
He later became business development manager and then was recruited by Gardner Merchant and placed in charge of the implementation and development of a new regional office in London (East).
He later moved on to head the company’s fine dining division and then was made Senior Catering Consultant.
His ability and personality was recognised time and again as he won many of the company’s consultants’ awards.
His career then took him to contract caterer Baxter & Platts as national sales and marketing director and then on to Yes Dining as regional director.
Peter increasingly saw the need for what he thought should be a different approach in the link between consultants, clients and caterers. In particular, he identified demand for a ‘refreshing change to the way that food service consultancies were operating at that time’.
This led him to establish Catering Consultancy Bureau in 2002, a business which quickly gained industry-wide respect for the way it worked to improve the relationships between caterers and clients.
He was a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality and served as an executive board member of the Foodservice Consultants’ Society International UK (FCSI).
He said there was also a need to develop an informal networking group for like-minded foodservice professionals and so, together with others, he set up the Hospitality Network Group.
He was elected as its chairman, and in the past five years had seen the HNG grow to provide regular organised events that welcome an ever-increasingly diverse range of people joining together for the good of the industry.
In recent years, while Peter remained chairman of Catering Consultancy Bureau, day-to-day running had passed to Simon Harrington, the managing director.
In a statement his wife Sally said: “His boundless energy, enthusiasm and passion for the business has ensured that both clients and foodservice operators are treated with fairness and professionalism.
“This will be one of the many legacies that Peter will leave with CCB and the catering industry among his many other attributes.
“The industry tributes and messages paid to Peter demonstrate the esteem and respect with which he is held, describing him as ‘extremely professional, highly respected, kind, generous and always having time to offer help and advice to all when needed’.”
His funeral is being held on March 28th and his family have asked that instead of flowers well-wishers make a donation to Cancer Research UK on Peter’s behalf.