Olympic Theme sees Dan strike gold
Pub chef Dan Welstead of the Farmers in Sevenoaks, Kent, was a member of the winning team in this year's recently-announced Nestlé Toque d'Or competition 2005.
Dan began his career at the pub aged 13 when he started helping with the washing up. He had ambitions to be a chef at a young age and his long-term aim is to open his own gastro pub.
After a year in the kitchens at the Farmers, Dan moved on to a local two-AA Rosette restaurant, Greggs, where he worked
as a commis chef for two years.
Keen to follow his ambitions, Dan secured a place on the three-year Professional Chef's Diploma course at Westminster Kingsway College in London at the age of 16.
During this time he was contacted by Mike Collings, owner
of the Farmers, to see if he wanted to return to their kitchens to work on his own section to cover for the head chef's days off - which he did.
Dan has been working part-time at the Farmers since then, and having completed his Professional Chef's Diploma, passing with flying colours, he decided to stay on at
Westminster Kingsway College to complete a Hospitality Management Foundation Degree.
During the first year of this course, Dan was chosen to join a team of students from the college to compete in the Nestlé Toque d'Or competition 2005, a national challenge for
catering colleges. Each of the four teams had to create their own restaurant concept, serving 100 members of the paying public for one day each at the recent Daily Telegraph House & Garden Fair at London's Olympia.
Westminster Kingsway's restaurant concept was Twenty 12 - a modern British restaurant encapsulating all that was great about London's Olympic bid.
Dan believes there are huge opportunities for young chefs to develop a career in pubs and would recommend that anyone looking to move into this area gains hands-on experience as well as attending a good college course.
He says: "They teach you the basics and from there you can move on to the classics, which are the foundations for any good pub chef."
