A career to savour: Mark Saxby’s job as a chef
July 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
During his career as a chef, Mark Saxby has travelled to exotic destinations around the globe and prepared luxury meals for VIPs and members of the royal family.
Today, 43-year-old Mark is in charge of 74 kitchens across Britain, catering for hundreds of thousands of people every year.
But you won’t see Mark in gossip columns or on television. Instead of making his name as a celebrity chef, he works behind the scenes at the John Lewis Partnership as Development Manager for back-of-house operations.
“Front of house means the people who meet and serve customers while back of house means the kitchens,” he says.
“Hospitality offers many opportunities. As someone once said: ‘Everybody needs to eat and everybody needs to eat somewhere’.”
Mark began his career in an unusual way, catering in the RAF. “At one point my ambition was to have my own restaurant, but now I am passionate and extremely happy in my job.”
Mark always knew he wanted to cook for a living and took a catering course in Southampton. “As I studied my enthusiasm grew,“ he says.
“A lecturer who used to be in the forces invited the RAF to visit the college. Then they showed us the local base in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and I signed up and spent 13 years with them.
“I worked in bases around Britain and travelled to remote spots like Belize and the Falkland Islands…
Read the original article at Mirror
