Chefs Philip Corrick and Yolande Stanley recognised in New Year's Honour list

Former Royal Automobile Club executive chef Philip Corrick and pastry chef and lecturer Yolande Stanley have led the contingent of hospitality industry representatives to be featured in the New Year's Honour List 2020.

 

Both stalwarts of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts (RACA), they each received an MBE for services to the hospitality industry.

 

Corrick was recognised for his 29 years spent as executive chef of the Royal Automobile Club in London's Pall Mall.

 

He entered the hospitality industry at the age of 14, peeling potatoes and washing dishes at the Wyndham hotel in Sidmouth, Devon, under chef-owner Martyn Perryman, before moving on to positions at the Berkeley and Claridge's hotels. Corrick joined the Royal Automobile Club in 1990, overseeing a team of approximately 95 chefs across its two properties in London's Pall Mall and Epsom, Surrey.

 

Explaining why he remained in the role for almost three decades, Corrick told The Caterer in April 2019: "Every day was a challenge; every day was different. I was given pretty much free rein and lots of support. Some of the outdoor events we've done have been incredible, including going down to Monaco for the Bentley Drivers Club at the historic Grand Prix."

 

Corrick is now running a holiday cottage business called Bulverton House in Sidmouth, Devon.

 

Stanley is one of only seven chefs in the UK to have achieved the Master of Culinary Arts in pastry from the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts. She was awarded the accolade in 2000, the same year as her husband Keith Stanley, who at the time was head chef at Langan's Coq d'Or, London, achieved the honour in culinary skills.

 

Stanley’s early career saw her working in the pastry kitchens of hotels such as the Dorchester, InterContinental London Park Lane, the Ritz and the Landmark in London; Cliveden House in Taplow, Berkshire; and Carlton in St Moritz, Switzerland, before moving into culinary education when she joined Thames Valley University (now the University of West London) in 1998 as senior lecturer in pâtisserie. She stayed for 12 years, moving on to Westminster Kingsway College in 2010.

 

 

Throughout her time as a lecturer, Stanley has also worked tirelessly on a voluntary basis training young people to compete at the highest level in national and international competitions in pâtisserie, chocolate and confectionary. She has encouraged them through her role as chairman of the RACA Annual Awards of Excellence (AAE) in pastry and from 2003 to 2015 she travelled the world as a trainer supporting UK representatives at WorldSkills. More recently she worked with WorldSkills International as the skill competition manager for pâtisserie and confectionery.

 

Among the chefs she said she “is immensely proud to have trained” are Alistair Birt, head pastry chef at Harrods, and Will Torrent, consultant at Waitrose & Partners (both AAE winners and now members of RACA), who has said that he would not be where he is today without Stanley's “mentorship, guidance, support and encouragement.”

 

Stanley told The Caterer that she was “greatly honoured” to be recognised for her work with young people and played tribute to her mentor, the late John Huber, for inspiring in her the passion to pass on the pastry skills she learned from him. “Much of what I do today was instigated by John – he gave me the knowledge which I feel privileged to be able to teach to young pastry chefs.

 

“I am also grateful for the massive support from my family who have accepted my roles without question, and enabled me to participate in training so many wonderful young people.”

 

Meanwhile, three television chefs and authors were also honoured. Nigel Slater received an OBE for services to cookery and literature, while both Ainsley Harriott and Nadiya Hussain were awarded OBEs for services to broadcasting and the culinary arts.

 

Other hospitality recipients included Ian Curle, former chief executive of Edrington, for services to the Scotch whisky industry and Diageo chief marketing and innovation officer Syl Saller, for services to business and equality in the workplace. They both received a CBE.

 

Meanwhile Wilma Erskine-Heggarty, former club secretary at the Royal Portrush Golf Club, received an OBE for services to tourism and golf in Northern Ireland. Simon Staughton also received an OBE for services to the brewing industry and to the community in Cornwall. An MBE was awarded to Martin Austin, managing director and founder of Nimbus Disability for services to accessibility in the tourism and entertainment sectors.

 

A total of 1,097 people, of whom 51% were women, received an award in the New Year's Honour List 2020.