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With the return of the Hotel Restaurant & Catering Show in London’s Excel, following the pandemic, Essential Cuisine were delighted to welcome British Army Chef Major, Shaun Collins-Lindsay, Chairman of the Combined Services Culinary Arts Team to work as part of the team on the stand.

It was a pleasure to be able to have you on our stand at the HRC Show, can you tell us about your career in the British Army to date?

I have currently served 35 years in the Army joining the Army Catering Corps (ACC) in 1987 as a boy soldier at the age of 16. The ACC merged to be part of the Royal Logistic Corps in 1993. I have served in many locations around the world catering in very diverse climates from the hot sun of Iraq/Afghanistan, Artic climates of Norway to the jungle in Belize. All these climates bring their own challenges which keep you on your toes as chefs, especially when cooking on different field catering systems (not your everyday cookers). 

I have also dabbled in the competition world for many years and have been fortunate to represent my country at the Jerez Sous Chef and Wine Waiter of the Year in Spain in 2009. I have also competed at many competitions both Military, National and also competed on Masterchef the Professionals in 2011.  

I believe that giving back is important, so I do a lot of mentoring and judging, helping young chefs develop their own skills.

In 2012 I was commissioned and became the Technical Training Officer at the Food Services Training Wing at Worthy Down, this was when I was offered the position of Chairman of the Combined Services Culinary Arts Team (CSCAT). This was an opportunity for me to influence a team that nearly folded after the 2012 Culinary Olympics. The team was resurrected and rebuilt with new structures put in place and a new team which focused not only on competing but developing junior members of the team. Over the last 10 years the CSCAT has been very successful and I have been blessed to have had some extremely talented chefs from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Airforce to be part of the team. With the focus now being on the Culinary World Cup to be held in Luxembourg later this year.

I have also been fortunate to be selected as a member of the Military Committee for the World Association of Chefs.

With your career in the Army closing soon, what are your plans next?

With my Army career closing soon, I am currently looking to stay within the industry and hopefully give back to the trade that I love so much. I’m currently going through interviews so let’s see what happens. I intend to support CSCAT or stay as CSCAT Chairman so that my experience of competitions abroad can be utilised and can be passed on to my CSCAT Manager. 

You’re the Chairman of the Combined Services Culinary Arts Team, can you tell us about the team and the role you play on the team?

Yes – the role as Chairman has a few moving parts, not only utilising my catering / judging knowledge but also engagement with our sponsors of which we are very grateful to have Essential Cuisine sponsor the team. I am also there to look at what the team are trying to achieve and provide them objective feedback, whether on catering or specialist equipment. 

We also hold management meetings which includes the President, Sponsors Director, Media Director and other key members of the team.  There is a lot of planning that is required not only to corral the best chefs from 3 services for 4 workshops a year but also the planning for logistic run throughs and also preparation for competitions which are held either in Luxembourg or Germany.

How did you find working on the stand with the team at Essential Cuisine?

Firstly it was an honour to be part of the team on the stand with Essential Cuisine and be a chef ambassador for you over the 3 days at HRC. I have to say seeing it from a business point of view rather than as a customer really opened my eyes and I thank you all for what I learnt during the 3 days. A totally professional team and the in-depth knowledge that I learnt from the team, especially Robin Dudley who mentored me during the 3 days and took me through all of the products including your new frozen range was amazing. I would like to thank Howard and all the Essential Cuisine team members at HRC for making me very welcome and for the learning experience that I really enjoyed.

You have just found out you have been nominated in the Armed Services Award at the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards 2022, from all of us at Essential Cuisine, we wish you all the very best for your nomination and your future career, we look forward to seeing where you go next!

Follow Shaun's journey on Instagram @shaun.collinslindsay