Toque Talk

TOQUE TALK

Adrian Brett-Chinnery

With decades of experience in high-pressure roles, Adrian Brett-Chinnery is taking his latest role in his stride.

club in his native UK: so young that he had to get approval from his school to work there. But once he’d got a start, he never looked back, realising that food was in his make-up thanks to foodie parents who had run a hotel and a bakery, and a step-brother who was a chef. Following a move to New Zealand in 2004 and a five-year stint heading the kitchen at Hotel du Vin in the Mangatawhiri Valley, the talented chef eventually wound up at award-winning fine-diner Bracu. But it was the position he took in 2011 that would truly set him on the path to joining Compass six years later. As Group Development Chef at Tanoa Hotels based in Fiji, he helped reorganise the kitchens top to bottom, putting in place higher standards of hygiene, cheffing and output. The Fiji link made him a natural to head up Compass’s contract with Air New Zealand, having travelled with the airline frequently. “I had no idea how huge the contract would be. It was massive, and there was a lot of scope to do some really cool stuff,” he says. “What really excited me was that 4.5 million people a year would be tasting your food, which is nearly the population of New Zealand.” If there’s one thing Adrian Brett-Chinnery has learnt how to handle in his In the exec role, Brett-Chinnery’s responsibilities 25-plus years working in the heat of the food industry, it’s pressure. have expanded to managing everything from

Now the National Executive Chef of Compass Group’s operations in New Compass’s 80-plus retail and cafe contracts Zealand, the British ex-pat spends any given day working on high-stakes multi- throughout New Zealand to supplying food for million-dollar contracts, puzzling out logistical operations that would challenge numerous district health boards. Most recently he an army general and overseeing menus that will be enjoyed by countless has been working on a project to provide 12,500 people, old, young and every age in between. lunches for schoolkids in three lower socio-economic

Currently in his fifth year with Compass, Brett-Chinnery landed the leading role areas up and down the country later this year. last October and immediately set about trying to find efficiencies and win new “Logistically that’s been challenging, to put it contracts for a company that, like so many others, had been hit by the pandemic. mildly,” he laughs. “Not only have you got to make

And yet, having spent so many years as a chef, Brett-Chinnery concedes the lunches, and make them healthy, interesting, and that this kind of stress comes with the territory. in a way kids will actually eat them, you’ve then got

“I’ve worked in hotels, restaurants, and now at to deliver them right to their classrooms.” Compass: quite a broad range of things,” he says. Above left. Chef Adrian Unsurprisingly, Brett-Chinnery is taking it all in his “And every job comes with its own different pressures.” Brett-Chinnery on the scene stride.“You just want to make sure you’re utilising the

His level-headedness comes, perhaps, from at Compass Group. money companies are paying in the best way and beginning in kitchens so early. He was just 14 when Above right. Innovation on a plate — one of Adrian’s you’re making interesting, locally produced food that he began washing dishes at an up-market country eye-catching creations. people are going to like,” he says.

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