Graham Tucker

Graham Tucker – Senior Development Chef

To work as a development chef in Bakkavor I think you need to be hard working and disciplined with high standards of quality and consistency and good systems of organisation. You certainly have to have a passion and knowledge for food and a sound restaurant background in which you have created your own menus through research, knowledge, passion and interest.

Before joining Bakkavor 11 years ago I was a Head Chef for 5 years in an old Elizabethan restaurant in Cheshire. I created monthly seasonal changing menus and through a lot of hard work built the business up to be a successful restaurant with a fine reputation both locally and nationally for which I gained a few awards along the way. Prior to this I worked in upmarket country house hotels and restaurants throughout the British Isles for approx 12 years.

In 1998 I felt I needed a change of direction and a greater opportunity to explore new cuisines and so I joined Bakkavor as one of the original team of development chefs first employed by the company at Spalding. I went on to develop and run culinary workshops for employees and customers whilst taking on business-focused projects for different sites across the Group. Following this I transferred to one of our retailer dedicated salads sites in Kent where I stayed for five years. I am now based at one of our sites in Lincolnshire managing a team of people and heading up the development of products and ranges such as Mediterranean Deli, Oriental and ready to cook foods for one of our major customers.

Like working in a restaurant, it is really rewarding to work within a successful team whose expertise and knowledge is recognised and respected by the customer and exceed the customer’s expectations by delivering continuous quality and consistency day in day out.

The variety of cuisines and product categories that we cover and explore with the retailer are quite extensive and always interesting. Researching new innovative ideas can involve travelling with the retailer to places such as Italy and Spain for inspiration and the great thing is I feel I can still keep my purist chef skills and knowledge and have the opportunity to research new areas whilst developing and launching successful commercial products consumers want to buy.