Award-winning new head chef Tom eyes more prizes for University
The University of Huddersfield has an award-winning new head chef who has been highly praised by Jamie Oliver.
Tom Armstrong was named as School Chef of the Year in the summer, in recognition of his efforts at Shelley College near Huddersfield, and now he has arrived at the university where one of his first assignments was cooking for a former prime minister.
He was employed by Mellor’s Catering Services while at Shelley College, and received his School Chef of the Year award after winning through to the national finals at the Birmingham Hilton following a regional competition.
A nerve-wracking MasterChef-style competition saw the 31-year-old take the title awarded by LACA – the Local Authority Catering Association.
Jamie Oliver tweeted, "Big congratulations to Tom and all of the chefs involved working so hard to bring fresh and delicious food to young people 190 days a year."
LACA encourage career development and so the opportunity to become the university’s head chef was one that Tom could not pass up.
“The nice thing about the university is I can get to work with entire outlets that can embrace diverse ideas around different styles of food that are wanted by such a diverse population of students, staff and visitors on campus,” says Tom, who trained at Kirklees College.
“We have some fantastic outlets here and there is a real range of venues as well as types of food. For example, to have something as unusual as the Toast House, in the old factory wash house, is a unique selling point.
Tom and some of his Quorn creations“It is very wide ranging here. We can have important local businesses or local authority people here for business lunches, or awareness events and recently we had Sir John Major here. We provided the catering, which was a real honour.
“And recently the VC held an evening meal about baby loss awareness. It is a varied but privileged service. I know that over fine food, good conversation will flow so it up to myself and the team here to take care of the food part.”
Tom will shortly have the chance to cook for more political big-hitters, as later this month he will cook for 200 MPs at Westminster at an event to support the Jamie Oliver campaign to extend the funding of free school meals to all families receiving Universal Credit.
After his training at Kirklees College, Tom spent around a decade working at hotels and pubs in the Huddersfield area
“I am really excited to make my mark with the events,” he adds. “As a chef you are putting your identity on the plate, so when I put my menus forward and creations on to a plate I feel really proud. I’m keen on driving us forward into more competitions and awards.”
