Chef and restaurateur Rick Stein and Patrick Crerar, CEO of Scottish hotel company Crerar Hotel Group, have been made CBEs in the New Year’s Honours List 2018.
Stein, who gained an OBE in 2003 for services to West Country Tourism, was recognised for services to the economy.
Since opening The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall in 1975 with ex-wife Jill Stein, Stein has written over 20 cookery books and made more than 30 TV programmes. The business, which he runs with Jill and involves their three sons, Edward, Jack and Charlie, now includes 12 restaurants in Cornwall, Winchester, Sandbanks, Marlborough and Barnes, 40 hotel rooms, self-catering accommodation, shops and a cookery school.
Crerar, whose company Crerar Hotel Group, owns and operates 12 hotels in Scotland and one in Yorkshire, was awarded a CBE for services to the hospitality industry in Scotland and to charity.
Crerar established the business in 2006 along with Crerar Management Ltd, which manages a number of hotels in the UK. Plans to sell Crerar Hotel Group and short breaks operator easy-breaks.com to Thai backed FICO Castle collapsed in October with Crerar Hotel Group instead retaining ownership and planning to make ‘substantial investments’ into the hotels.
Responding to the news of his award, Crerar told Hospitality & Catering News: “I’m flabbergasted and humbled that anyone would propose me. And of course the award to me is really an award to all of those that I’ve worked with over the last three decades.
“It’s also good that our industry gets recognised and in particular that in itself highlights recognition of the importance of hospitality to Scotland.”
Stein and Crerar were among 1,123 people to receive an award in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours.
MBEs were awarded to Ian Harris, chief executive of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, the organisation responsible for training many of the industry’s sommeliers and other wine and spirit professionals, and Michael Moss, formerly general manager of Portstewart Golf Club, for services to golf, tourism and charity in Northern Ireland.
Arwyn Watkins, managing director of Cambrian Training Company in Welshpool, was made an OBE for services to education and training and Ellen Wiles, a chef at Oak Field Special School in Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, received a BEM for services to children with special dietary requirements.
