Catering development professional - winner
Vince Glouton, executive chef, Fuller Smith & Turner
Number of pubs: 362 in total; 156 managed.
Vince is responsible for 13 gastropubs and 10 City bars, and provides support to 25 more outlets in the Premium City division.
He oversees everything from training to menu development and quality control to working with suppliers and planning new kitchens.
Food sales have shown a strong increase as a percentage of turnover in the past three years and Fuller's has focused on visual impact to give City sites the wow factor.
The Vintry, in the City's Cannon Street, has an open kitchen and a clear-fronted chiller cabinet where customers can see meat, oysters and other seafood.
City pub the Banker's rotisserie entices customers with the sight and aroma of roasting chicken.
The ordering system works like an old-style canteen: customers pay at the bar and take their ticket to the counter to get food.
Since revamping the food offer, turnover has doubled. The Fence, in Farringdon, and Red Lion, in Barnes, offer high quality barbecues.
As well as developing concepts, Vince has introduced different meats, including camel, to some of the gastropub menus.
Provenance is important and about 30% of menu products come from named farms, including pork from a Wiltshire farm where pigs are fed on spent yeast from brewing London Pride.
Vince uses a number of suppliers through Hampshire Fare, an initiative in which the brewery is involved corporately.
He says: "Before choosing a named supplier, such as Freedown Food or Simpson Fishery, we look at the economics.
"However much you want to be green and ethical, a kitchen can't lose sight of the fact that long-term success will also depend on sound economic and business principles."
