Toby Hartley was crowned with the Olive Barnett Award title at a champagne reception held in the sumptuous ballroom of The Langham hotel in London, which hosted the awards as the principal sponsor for this year’s competition.

Photo, L to R: Ian Scarth, Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne; Toby Hartley,
Olive Barnett 2007 winner; Duncan Palmer, Managing Director, The Langham.

Toby, General Catering Manager at In House Catering, London, scooped the award from seven other contenders and walked away with the fantastic prize of a £1000 per year grant for the next three years to assist in his career development, courtesy of the Savoy Educational Trust. In addition, he won a coveted place on the week long Hospitality Management Summer course at the world famous Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne in Switzerland.

Toby has been with In House Catering Ltd a little over two years and is making his mark already. Starting as assistant catering manager, he became the general catering manager at 76 Portland Place when the company won the re-tender, and he’s very enthusiastic about winning the Olive Barnett Award.

“Entering was a career challenge and the experience of working with like-minded people has been fantastic,” he said.“I’m looking forward to the hospitality management course in Switzerland and its first class lectures, which will provide me with some knowledge to bring back my workplace. Conference and banqueting offers the uniqueness of bespoke events that can be held everyday, and the opportunity to showcase within the confines of a single venue, and I’m always looking for ways to improve our offering.”

“Toby was very impressive,” said Tony Elliott of the Savoy Gastronomes, who created the award in 1975, and which is now run by Springboard. “He demonstrated a phenomenal grip on his business and dedication to making it as profitable as possible without any detriment to standards.”

“All of this year’s finalists were of an excellent standard,” said Duncan Palmer, Managing Director of The Langham. “They all will do very well in their future endeavors and as a result, all this year’s winners are exceptional employees in their various businesses – given the chance I would employ all this years finalists!”

Second prizewinner was Sabrina Hencke, Graduate Trainee Manager at the Crowne Plaza London – The City; who receives a three-year career development grant of £750 per year. This year sees the third placing shared by Christina Heindl, Restaurant Manager at Swissotel The Howard, London and Marta Klehr, Reception Shift Leader at The Berkeley, London. The joint third prize was made possible when catererglogal stepped in and donated the extra prize money pf a £500 career development grant for three years.

“These are the stars of our future. All of them were absolutely first class and it bodes very well for the future of our industry,” commented Anne Pierce, Springboard’s Chief Executive.

The Olive Barnett Award was created by the Savoy Gastronomes and is run by Springboard. The principal sponsor this year is the Langham Hotel, London and the Savoy Educational Trust provided the prize grants. The Ecole Hoteliere de Lausanne supplied the main prize.

For further information on the Olive Barnett Award please contact: 

Gabriele Burgath, Events Manager, Springboard UKT: 020 7497 8654 www.springboarduk.org.uk/olive