Team Member Spotlight.

Food for thought: getting to know our chefs.

Carl Hickinbottom | Executive Chef, Drayton Manor Park

Carl has 16 years of experience in catering and is now passing on his expertise to his team of dedicated chefs.


I am the Executive Chef at Drayton Manor Park where I am responsible for the food at the 150 bedroom Drayton Manor Hotel which has two restaurants and a lounge bar, seven hospitality function suites and meeting rooms, as well as the 250 seater grill restaurant in the park. I have 16 years of catering experience working in four-star hotels, restaurants, sports stadiums and contract catering for Compass, where I spent five years as Head Chef at the Lloyds Banking Group residential training centre.

In my time at Lloyds I assisted the Account Executive Chef with menu and product development, presentation and catering services for the other 85 sites in the contract, as well as training and developing young talent in the business. I have brought that ethos to Drayton Manor Park and have helped multiple kitchen porters, waiting staff and school leavers through their NVQs to become accomplished chefs, some of which are still here.

Working in partnership with Aimbridge Hospitality EMEA gives our teams great opportunities to grow their careers not only at Drayton Manor Park but also throughout the other Aimbridge-managed properties. One of my current chefs, Kieran McWright, started at Drayton Manor Park as a Kitchen Porter and has developed through the organisation to a Chef de Partie.

Together, Drayton Manor Park and Aimbridge are great companies to work for, giving the support to up-and-coming chefs to develop their talent as well as offering a host of additional benefits, for example, reduced rate hotel stays across the UK, 50% off food and beverage and continuous training and development opportunities.

Carl.

 

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