Richard Bowden

Executive Chef - Business & Industry Sector

Richard joined Compass Group in 1989 as head chef at Cheltenham & Gloucester. Since then, he has not only won an impressive array of culinary awards, he has also shown complete commitment to developing the skills of other up-and-coming young chefs.

Richard has achieved all this while still giving his full commitment to his key roles at Compass Group. These include executive head chef at Rolls Royce in Bristol, executive head chef for Eurest Defence Support Services at the Joint Services Command Staff College in Swindon, business development executive chef for EDSS, and executive chef for Eurest at Qinetiq.

Richard was promoted to his current role in 2007 after a rigorous and highly competitive selection process, demonstrating the high regard he is held within at Compass Group. He leads culinary innovation for Compass Group's Business & Industry sector across 2000 client sites in the UK & Northern Ireland.

In his current position, he has established food standards and criteria for the Centres for Excellence Programme. This is being used as a benchmark for the rest of the business to aspire towards.

Richard works closely with the purchasing teams to ensure a more effective supply chain, focusing on unit costs, seasonality and provenance.

Competition success

Richard has played a pivotal role mentoring the Compass Group and ESS culinary teams in competitions, contributing to their unrivalled success on a national and international culinary stage. Equally, he has won a string of individual medals at prestigious UK and international culinary competitions. Richard has gained 84 awards in the past ten years, including the first Compass Group Chef of the Year in 2001 and Gold medals at the Culinary World Cup and Culinary Olympics 2008.

Richard has also achieved industry recognition, being named Cost Sector Chef of the Year 2003, and Craft Guild of Chefs Cost Sector Chef 2003.

Competition judge

Richard's experience in the competition arena and passion for culinary competition has been drawn upon in his role as judge at many culinary competitions, both in the UK and abroad. These include:

Icelandic International Salon Culinaire - Chairman of Judges
Hotelympia
Malta International Salon
Turkish National Salon

Membership of professional bodies

Richard is a member of the British Culinary Federation and a Master Craftsman of the Craft Guild of Chefs.