By Angela Green: KP trio strike again.
The industry’s appreciation of KPs has reached another milestone as the Kitchen Porters Club announce the winners of their Kitchen Porter of the Month award for November.
Due to the sheer volume and quality of nominations received, not one but three winners have been announced, again.
Entries came in from every sector of the hospitality and catering industry including… caterers, hotels, restaurants, pubs, care homes, sports clubs, education providers, cafes, and private members clubs. From the finest of fine dining to cost sector catering, and everything in between, it seems unanimous that every operator is only too willing to show gratitude to the KPs that keep the engine rooms of our industry running.
The November winners are…
- Alexander Lingham, The Greyhound Beaconsfield
- Carlos Jose Pereira, Grazing
- Nikhil Bandari, Foxhills Club & Resort
All three will soon be receiving their Kitchen Porters Club apron, joining other recent winners as honorary members of the Kitchen Porters Club.
The Kitchen Porters Club is enabled through the sponsorship of Meiko UK, Meiko MD Paul Anderson is also one of the competition judges.
Reflecting on the reaction from the industry to recognising Kitchen Porters every month Anderson told us: “The Kitchen Porters Club empowers us to engage with kitchen porters and the teams they work alongside meaningfully. Earlier this year we took two kitchen porters out to lunch at Galvin at Windows. One was a trainee kitchen porter, the other a kitchen porter and supervisor of a team of KPs. The reach of the competition allows us to communicate with every level of kitchen porter and across every sector of our industry where our warewashing equipment is used. And it does so in a way that we see we are making people happy, long may that continue.”
We also spoke with one of the nominators Mark Thewlis, Hotel Manager at Foxhills, who on learning his colleague was one of the November winners said: “I am delighted for Nikhil, he deserves to be rewarded and recognised for his constant hard work and dedication. He lives and breathes the values of Foxhills, a real team player where nothing is too much trouble, going above and beyond to ensure the success of the team.
“Always the first in the kitchen, Nikhil takes great pride in his work, making sure the kitchen is clean, tidy, and well-presented for our chefs. Nikhil is a real asset to Foxhills and a delight to work with, our smooth kitchen operation wouldn’t be where it is without him.”
Nicholas Bedassie, head chef at Grazing was just so pleased for his colleague Carlos Jose Pereira, explaining: “We are so happy for Carlos. He does such great job here onsite. He is very much a team team player and somebody who will always get involved to help outside of his day job. We’re so proud of him.”
Daniel Crump, co-owner, of The Greyhound nominated his colleague Alexander Lingham, on hearing the news of today’s announcement Crump was delighted saying: “I love the fact there are awards such as this that really recognise everyone in the business.
“It can be so easy to overlook the role of a kitchen Porter as there will always be a big emphasis on the chefs so this is fantastic.
“Alex is a great example of someone who comes to work with a great attitude and is always willing to assist in whatever needs to be done to make sure the chefs and front of house have what they need to do their job. I’m really proud of him.”
As aprons are received, we will catch up with the winners themselves as well as those that nominated them in a further update next week.
The Kitchen Porters Club, Kitchen Porter of the Month competition for December is now open, so please use the form below to nominate one or more of your Kitchen Porters, who will receive an official Kitchen Porters Club apron and similar coverage.
