Nepo kitchen consulting 2024

Another Nepo kitchen consulting working year has come to an end, here’s a quick recap.

Catering

Back on the tools during early January here in Stockholm hands on during early January helping a couple of friends with some big catering projects. These kinds of large operations when the guests count in the thousands and the logistics and transport challenges are so important help keep your feet on the ground, it also makes you realise how important teamwork is in the kitchen.

Tasmania

A quick overnight stop in Dubai on the way dropping of a suitcase full of prime Swedish produce looking for import opportunities into the U.A.E before the onward flight.

We travelled around and looked at some of the local producers ex. Three Friends Abalone in Stanley, Tasmania’s far northwest. Stanley is also home port to the rough and rugged fishing waters of the north-western corner and the west coast of Tasmania; the fishing waters are smack in the middle of the roaring forties here rough and rugged is the norm. These cold southern waters produce some of Australia’s absolute best seafood including rock lobster, abalone, sea urchins, octopus. Further west is the home of Cape Grim beef and of course, our southern rock lobster. A fantastic product from our cold clean water.

We also visited Tasmanian Quality Meat in Cressey and their Lamb of Tasmania operation. We stopped at Little Swanport to look at the Tasman Sea Salt factory one of many locally produced “gourmet” products.

Turkey

Preparing for the upcoming two-week TUI F&B training conference in April Sarigerme Turkey, where I’ll be the leading chef we will be hosting both the TUI Suneo and TUI Holiday village executive chefs and F&B managers. 40 plus conference delegates split into two groups, these intensive training courses with tough practical hands-on session work is no mean feat, especially for the delegates thrown in at the deep end and suddenly being back hands on. Thanks to all the participants, co-trainers and of course the generosity and our hosts and their employees.

Cape Verde

A long trip flying to the island of Sal, we were just outside the main city of Santa Maria in the middle of the tourist area. Cape Verde is not an easy place to work as a decision-making executive chef with logistical and delivery challenges every day, these challenges heightened by the lack of local produce makes menu planning a constant flexible puzzle.

Bulgaria, south of Burgas to Pearl Beach for a couple of days then North to Sunny Beach, Sunny Beach is a bit more financial and modern this is reflected in the design, amenities and volume of tourists, even though the end of May is still early in the season many shops and restaurants are only just waking to life, these holiday destinations always seem a little desolate before the masses arrive. It

Canary Islands

visiting Hotels on both Lanzarote and Fuerteventura & visiting the popular seaside towns of Costa Teguise and Costa Calma. During my working visits to these destinations, I don’t get to see much more than airports, transfers and the hotel kitchens I’m working in. I find it more rewarding meeting the local dedicated teams, hardworking likeminded cooks and chefs doing their best to meet our guest expectations within their budgets & staffing limitations than visiting these holiday destinations.

Rhodos

Faliraki is one of many early European charter trip destinations still going strong. Faliraki features great beaches and local taverns serving local food. If you’re lucky enough to visit such a tavern with a local who orders off the menu everything, he/she thinks you should try then you’re in for a great treat.

Norway

For work, this was the third time I’d taken a consultancy there this time in Voss, a smaller city with a strong winter season and a thriving adventure summer destination, drawing active entrepreneurs to the region and creating job opportunities to keep young locals in the area is super smart.

I was working at Store Ringheim Hotel & Restaurant a boutique hotel with 15 unique and traditional rooms in combination with restored existing farmstead buildings, a tool shed, an old barn a dairy all buildings reflecting the 300-year-old rustic farm heritage.

Network

Apart from these trips working abroad my year has been dotted with extra work, working locally within my network as I call it. I always encourage younger chefs to be more active with networking it opens more options, and many of those options tend not to be work orientated.

Högtorps Gård

One such contact resulted in an informative visit to Högtorps Gård, a gourmet treasure trove the 70+ hectare bio diversified forest farm which is situated in a rural Sörmland ca. one and a half hours drive south of Stockholm. Högtorps Gård create new and reinvent long forgotten delights to heighten even the most ambitious Michelin starred restaurant menus in Sweden.

Yrkesdörren

Volunteer work with a job interview coaching program assisting and tipping migrant workers in Sweden on how to present themselves to prospective employers, which questions are relative and generally advising them what the employers want to hear.

London

A quick long weekend in London a kind of reunion, about 40 years since I worked there, a group of reminiscing old guys with a strong band to the invincibility we had as young and ambitious chefs and how our individual employment at London’s Savoy Hotel impregnated our careers, great to catch up and fantastic that our memories are still so strong and vivid.

Fuerteventura

a return visit to Costa Calma a fantastic return visit with an energetic crew, we made lots of detail changes, it’s all about the details and logistics. We changed some of the details a little and created together a new product and even surprised ourselves a little.

Cape Verde

Back to Cape Verde, back to the same hotel again the hotel had a few more months experience under their belt since my earlier visit, a new management team and executive chef as well, together we made many detail changes to their ongoing operation which resulted in a quick positive guest reaction.

Swiss Cheese

Early November found me back at the Stockholm Food, Wine & Chocolate trade fair and for the fourth year back again at the Swiss cheese booth. This year we featured four cheeses, the fair lasts three days and we were constantly under an intensive barrage of visitors, luckily for us Le Gruyère AOP Réserve, Appenzeller Black Label,  Fribourgeois AOP Rustic and Tête de Moine AOP are so well respected that they sell themselves. After 3 days it was sold out again.

Swedish Christmas smorgasbord

From the middle of November through December it’s all Christmas, working at “Gamla Riksarkivet” here in Stockholm, a rolling Swedish Christmas smorgasbord buffet well presented in an exclusive environment. 4 sittings a day ca. 35000 guests for the season. a tough agenda. Proud to be part of the team, well managed and quality, it’s easy to realise why it’s become a Stockholm favourite.

For Nepo kitchen consulting 2024 rolls to a close as 2025 starts up.