Businesses across Europe lend support to young Chef
Young Chef Luke Thomas is no stranger to hard work, since winning FutureChef in 2009 at just 15. Luke now 17, has his sights firmly set on becoming the youngest Chef in Britain to win a Michelin Star.
Helping Luke to achieve his ambitions are an array of people and businesses from the catering, retail and business world. This support is vital to Luke and has already enabled him to secure work experience with some of the UK’s most outstanding Chefs, including Heston Blumenthal, Gary Rhodes, Brian Turner and Simon Radley. Recently, Luke has also been appointed as an ambassador for FutureChef, helping to promote FutureChef to other young Chefs. Sponsorship has come from Villeroy and Boch, Bragard, F.Dick Knives of Germany, Hawarden Estate Farm Shop, Meat Promotion Wales, Desique Digital, Springboard UK, Steve Vaughan Butchers and 2PhotoYou. Claudia Scholz-Knobloch from Frieder. Dick comments, ‘Friedr. Dick is proud to be sponsor of such a young and talented guy as Luke Thomas. With his abilities he will probably reach his own aim to become one of the best chefs in the world in no time. As we all know, besides ambition and talent, high-quality equipment can be quite helpful. That’s why we support Luke Thomas with our products’. Alan Downes, from Hawarden Estate Farm Shop comments that, ‘it is a pleasure to be associated with such a determined, creative and talented young person. His passion for food is shown through his cooking demonstrations at the Farm Shop and his flair for creating recipes, with our seasonal produce. We are proud to support his career development’. Along with sponsorship, Luke also has numerous mentors who provide invaluable support and advice. His mentors include, Simon Radley at The Chester Grosvenor, Aiden Byrne at The Church Green, Brian Turner CBE, Anne Peirce MBE from Springboard UK, Richard Seller from the Welsh Assembly Government, Caroline Sanger-Davies from Aero Media & Marketing and Nick Vadis of Compass Group. Brian Turner comments, 'Luke is one of the best self motivated young cooks I have ever met, this along with his great talent for cooking will make him a star of the future'. Aiden Byrne complimented Luke by saying, ‘A young man with ambition, passion, drive and determination who I'm sure will take my title and become the youngest chef to ever win a Michelin Star' In this current climate, it is extremely important that businesses support young ambitious people to develop themselves and realize their full potential. With all this help and support for Luke and his sheer hard work and determination the future seems very bright for Luke and the Michelin Star is within his grasp. Of the support he has received from businesses, Luke says, ‘the assistance I receive from these companies cannot be underestimated, and without this my goals and ambitions would be harder to achieve. I am very grateful for the investment made in me by the industry’.
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