Sodexo had two winners at the Cost Sector Catering Awards last week (20 April).

Gemma Amor, Sodexo Sports & Leisure head chef at Ascot Racecourse, won the chef award and Maureen O’Leary, Sodexo Defence services manager at Larkhill Garrison in Wiltshire, won the unit manager award.

As Sodexo head chef at Ascot, Gemma Amor runs an incredibly busy and demanding kitchen operation. She produces over 400 different fine dining menus a year which are enjoyed by more than 500,000 customers, including those at the world-famous Royal Ascot race meeting.

Judges remarked upon Gemma’s ability to provide top quality food at scale while leading a team of 250 chefs and training them to the highest standards.

In her role as services manager at Larkhill Garrison, Maureen O’Leary is responsible for a team of 210 people providing catering, retail, leisure, mess management and cleaning services.

Maureen spearheads a lot of charity work in the local community. In the last year, Maureen has organised an overnight sleep out at Stonehenge to raise £14,000, and arranged toys, clothing and food drives for a number of local children’s hospices.

Judges were impressed by the quality and scope of the client feedback for Maureen, and recognised she has raised turnover, driven innovation and boosted staff training, while managing a complex site.

Sean Haley, Sodexo UK & Ireland regional chairman, said: “Congratulations to Gemma and Maureen, who embody Sodexo’s values of providing excellent services to clients and customers, inspiring their teams to develop and grow, and positively impacting the communities where they work. We are very proud of them both.”

 

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