Looking back, food was always a part of my upbringing, though I didn’t realise it would become my career until a bit later. My grandmother was a huge influence; she used to specialise in traditional wedding cakes with intricate lace sugar designs. If I had to pinpoint a foundational food moment, it would be baking cakes and scones with her.

I started when I was about 17. I left school after my GCSEs and went straight to work for Williams F1 as an apprentice commis chef. I trained on the job and completed my entry level qualifications through day-release at college. Williams had two distinct kitchens: a staff canteen and a conference suite for corporate sponsors. I would work my regular day shifts catering for the staff, and then use all my spare time in the evenings and weekends to volunteer in the corporate kitchen, essentially working every hour they would pay me to learn as much as possible.

I’ve only ever done stage in a two Michelin-star restaurant, and my career has been rooted in contract catering. Standard restaurant environments never really appealed to me. I fell in love with the scale and dynamic nature of large-scale event catering.

It all started almost a decade ago when working for Restaurant Associates. I was offered a job supporting the previous executive chef, Adam Fargin, to run the Skyview Suites during The Championships – and I was eager to say yes! The sheer buzz of the place was incredible. When Adam later reached out and asked me to return as part of his team, I jumped at the chance. To be honest, before I started, I didn’t fully appreciate just how prestigious and massive the operation was, but it truly is the jewel in the crown of the hospitality world.

The variety across the grounds is immense – we cover everything from grab-and-go retail and fish and chips all the way up to high-end hospitality in the suites and the Royal Box, and absolutely everything in between. It’s a massive operation with over 50 individual outlets open during the fortnight.

It’s an intense but very rewarding daily routine. I start at 5.30am and the very first task is checking in with our night production team – the first cog in making sure everything runs smoothly for the day ahead, as their preparation through the night getting things distributed across the site is crucial. After that, I’ll walk all 50+ kitchens to ensure the correct produce has arrived and that everything is up to our unwavering high standards, and the teams are happy and set up for the day ahead.

I spend lunch on the floor seeing as many elements of service as possible in different restaurants, wanting to ensure my vision is delivered and if we can improve anything for tomorrow. After lunch, we dive into the data ensuring the assumptions we made are correct. Are those menu items as popular as we thought? Do we need to adjust the orders for later in the week? I’ll spend a couple of hours in the storerooms with the Stockroom Control team adjusting stock. We also ensure that our product is the quality we want it to be ensuring we continually meet the standards we set.

Finally, in the evening, we manage cocktail parties and daily changes ensuring we are exceeding expectations. Once those are running smoothly, we make sure everything is prepped for the next day, and then we are set for tomorrow.

Working tirelessly to ensure we are delivering something that is unique to the guest and is an evolution from last year means we are always working on menus and they take several months of development and approvals. The development process typically starts during The Championships, and we are still fine-tuning things right up until May. With more than 50 outlets, about half of which operate on a rotating two-week menu, we easily look after 100 different menus. For context, the competitors’ restaurant has a variety of offers to meet both the performance needs and tastes; this would see us with 14 different menus in a week.

Exceptional British produce and sustainability play a pivotal part in our development. We focus heavily on celebrating local, high-quality British produce that may traditionally be imported. We’ve also done a lot of development with wild venison; it’s traditionally seen as a more autumnal meat, but we’ve put a lighter summer twist on it to make it a standout hero ingredient on the menu.

I recently visited 74 Charlotte Street, which is Ben Murphy’s restaurant (he is also hosting at Rosewater Pavilion with us at The Championships this year). He opened it just after Wimbledon last year and has deservedly won a lot of up-and-coming chef awards. We had a brilliant tasting menu there that featured a fantastic venison dish.

I’m really impressed by the team behind Fallow and Roe. Their social media presence is brilliant, but from a chef’s perspective, I love how they highlight ingredients, minimise waste, and maximise every part of the product. They run incredibly high-volume, busy restaurants, yet they think so smartly about dish construction. I also think Adam Byatt delivers, balancing high-end culinary concepts with accessible food. Because of the scale of what we do at Wimbledon, I’m always drawn to chefs who can translate incredible creativity into high-volume, big-business environments rather than a tiny 20-cover restaurant.

Sleeping, mostly, at this time of year! All my downtime is spent with my wife and children. My work family has me around The Championships as we all drive to deliver what we believe in, so my weekends are fully dedicated to family time.

That is a tough question to answer! I honestly don’t have a single favourite because every dish is on the menu for a specific reason and has been crafted to an incredibly high standard. That said, some of the food being put out across our hospitality spaces and the Royal Box this year is incredibly innovative, fresh, and some of the most exciting work our culinary teams have ever produced.