This month’s Featured Chef…
John Woodward
Executive Chef, De-Vere Venues & Village Hotels
This month the Staff Canteen Chefs Website is delighted to welcome John Woodward Group Executive Chef for De-Vere Venues and Village Hotels. John oversees 50 properties spread across the UK.
John is a passionate hands on chef who has developed and expanded the food offer within his current role at De-Vere rolling out new concepts across the De-Vere estate. John is responsible for the food concept strategy and food development across the Village hotels and De-Vere Venues.
John’s CV offers a diverse career, beginning by working for acclaimed Chefs such as Pierre Koffman, he travelled and worked in Australia before returning to the contract sector for Everston Hewitt as a director, before its merger with Baxter Storey.
So, John, if you could just give us an outline of your current role with De-Vere; tell us a little bit about your day to day responsibility – the number of units, number of people you manage?
Yeah, sure. Well, the role’s slightly changed since I’ve been here which was… I think, I’ve been here now 18 months. I came into the business as the Executive Chef for Village, De-Vere Venues and Heritage. We then decided to stop people working across various brands within the estate. It was important to place key people at the head of each brand, so every brand’s has now got an individual Head Chef, or Marketing guy, or HR person…
