I have a few loves in my life...

The ones that make me a living all tend to revolve around people, the Law and process.

I’d heard “I just don’t get it” too many times. People I knew were tied in knots with food safety and health & safety not really understanding what a ‘reasonable precaution’ was or confusing the principles of HACCP with logical steps or how many first aiders do they need.

It can be a minefield when you have so many other facets to a business so I decided that I’d help out and start to create solutions that were practical, robust, smart and engaging. Before long Food Advisory Consultancy and Training, also known as FACT, was born. That was 2007 and a lot has changed since then.

Passion

Hospitality and licensed retail sectors have been a huge part of my working life, to say the sectors are a passion would be an understatement. The people, the environments and the varying styles of operations all have an allure.

I was lucky to get breaks from great people I had met along the way. I remember telling a very good friend how lucky I was working with the clients I had to which he replied “Luck was getting the first ‘gig’, keeping those gigs was down to the quality of the training and the learner successes that came from your sessions”

Laughter

I’ve worked with some of the best businesses on the high street owning hundreds of outlets and I’ve also worked with little independent restaurants. I’ve worked with 5 star hotels in London and small 12 bedroom boutique hotels, pub chains of hundreds and pub chains of three not to mention private members clubs, red brick universities and food manufacturers.

The setting may be different and I may dress differently for each job but a couple of things always stay the same – People and Laughter!

Simple formula

The subjects I work with are pretty serious stuff as they tend to revolve around legislation and regulations; food safety, health & safety, HACCP, first aid, ensuring we discuss the legalisation and regulations in enough detail to achieve the outcomes and achieving the qualification during training courses but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a good ole belly laugh when you’re working. If we all enjoy the journey the results are there, it’s a pretty simple formula.

I’ve been privileged to work with some of the best people in each sector and they have taught me as much as I have taught them, by transferring skills we all get better at what we do – again that simple formula.