International Chef’s Day - 20 October

Most of our customers will never meet the people who prepare their food. You'll see the sandwiches arranged on the platter, the finished grazing box or the buffet arriving at your office, but by that point our kitchen team has already done its part.

International Chefs Day on 20 October gives us an opportunity to recognise the people behind that work. Established by Worldchefs in 2004, the day celebrates the profession and the skills and knowledge chefs can pass on to others.

Being a chef involves much more than knowing how to cook. A professional kitchen requires organisation, consistency and the ability to work to deadlines, often while several different orders and tasks are being managed at once.

For our team, preparation is a huge part of the working day. Ingredients need to be prepared, dishes assembled and finished, dietary requirements followed and presentation checked, all while making sure orders are ready to leave the kitchen at the right time.

And because we're catering for workplaces, no two days necessarily look the same. One order might be breakfast for an early meeting, another sandwiches for a working lunch and another a larger buffet or selection of grazing boxes for an office event. Behind each is a team making sure all those individual elements come together.

Then there's the knowledge behind the food itself. Understanding ingredients, flavours, preparation methods and how different elements work together is something chefs develop through training and experience. Those skills are often passed from one person to another in the kitchen too.

It's very much a team effort. A busy kitchen relies on people working together, communicating and paying attention to the small details that customers may never see but which make the finished order possible.

We talk a lot about the food that leaves our kitchen, understandably, because that's the part you get to enjoy. International Chefs Day gives us a good reason to turn our attention in the other direction and acknowledge the people preparing it.

So, this one's for our chefs and kitchen team, and for the chefs working behind the scenes in kitchens everywhere.