Our Super Chef, Phil Sumnall

We don’t like to brag (too much) but we think we have the best in Culinary Innovation - Phil! His passion for new food creations and discovering new unusual ingredients is infectious. But that’s not all, check out his working day, and you’ll see why we think he is ‘Superchef’!

Day in the life of Phil Sumnall

Having spent the early part of his career in the kitchen alongside Jean-Christophe Novelli, Gordan Ramsey and Jamie Oliver, Phil, hasn’t been able to put the early mornings behind him. Rising at 4.45am, Phil kisses goodbye to his wife and 2 young daughters in a relaxing home on the coast of Kent, to embark on a 2 hour commute to the leafy green offices in Surrey. 

Before the office hubbub starts, Phil enjoys a bit of valuable quiet time at his desk with a cup of tea, following up emails and getting through admin. The working day officially starts at 9am when Phil meets with the sales team to discuss sample requests, presentations and customer requirements.

“This is a really important part of the role as I get to hear customer needs and feedback and discuss new ideas with the sales team. These meetings will shape the team’s workload, the product development plans, and our timings.” He goes on to say “We have a passion for creating recipes and products for our customers so they can deliver the best service to their passengers. Our customers feedback is really valuable in making this happen. We always do our best to be agile and meet even the tightest timings. There’s never a quiet, or dull moment!”

With plans in place, the chefs spend the rest of the morning in the kitchens mixing, blending, and baking the next round of recipes and new creations. Anyone who passes the kitchens will get a sense of the camaraderie (and healthy competitiveness) amongst the chefs! 

“This is my favourite part of the day, where we can experiment with new flavours and products. Recently we have been working with black Urfa chilli from Turkey which brings a hint of chocolate notes in some of our recipes – a really interesting new twist.”

Over the past 12 months the team have created over 360 recipes, based on new food trends, new product ideas and customer requests. Offering innovative new ideas to customers is an important part of the service from Monty’s Bakehouse. The chef’s understand their customers want to offer variety to their passengers and be fluid with changing trends.

Every day at 1pm, the team attend a quality assurance panel with the technical team to assess the quality of manufacturing line samples. The quality standards are documented and checked against pre-set standards to ensure everything that is sent out to passengers meets the strictest quality checks. 

With all quality checks complete, Phil spends the rest of the afternoon focused on on new projects.

“My latest focus is on plant-based alternatives and discovering how restaurants use plant-based and vegetable-based ingredients.” says Phil. “It’s fascinating to see the variety of combinations, ingredients and textures used. The plant-based diet is progressing rapidly and it’s exciting to be part of the journey. We can’t wait to share some of our development work in this area with our customers really soon.”  

Aside from the day-to-day tasks, Phil and his team are also busy preparing for client presentations in September where they will showcase the next range of new products. And with the benefit of their unique internal manufacturing plant at the head office, each of the samples are a strong replica of the finished products from the manufacturing line. This allows the team to be agile in development and be more cost efficient. 
 

So, if you’d like to meet our ‘Superchef’ Phil and sample some of the delicious new recipes, get in touch with our sales team today to book your appointment.