David Mulcahy

A highly respected individual with a wealth of industry experience, David is the Culinary Ambassador for Sodexo UK & Ireland.  David is also Vice President and past National Chairman of The Craft Guild of Chefs.

In addition to representing Sodexo externally his remit includes enhancing the reputation and recognition of Sodexo within hospitality industry. Together with his team he strives to drive and support initiatives involving food strategy, sustainability, supporting SME’s and championing the use of British produce as well as chef training and development across the business.

A highly experienced chef, David has gained numerous awards on the national and international stage, including winning multiple Culinary Olympic and World Cup Gold medals both as an individual and representing the UK National Culinary Team.

Highly active in promoting catering industry standards and current vice President of the Craft Guild of Chefs, David has been awarded a prestigious Catey Award for services to Foodservice and an Order of Merit, the Craft Guild of Chefs highest recognition award.

Most recently David has been awarded the Freedom of The City of London at the Guildhall London, for services to the Hospitality Industry.

David is widely recognised as co-ordinator of many of the UK’s leading competitions and events, including The UK National Chef of the Year, Young National Chef of the Year, The Craft Guild of Chefs Awards, FutureChef and many more

The National Chef of the Year competition is considered the most challenging and prestigious competitions in the UK today and boasts past winners including Gordon Ramsay, David Everitt-Matthias and Mark Sargeant.  The 2019 final saw over 30 Michelin Stars between the judges alone demonstrating the calibre of the contest.

David created the Young National Chef of the Year in 2010 and it remains an exclusive by invitation only with young rising stars having won or been highly recommended in other national events.

David is a patron of West London University and Westminster Kingsway College, and patron at Lakefield Training college as well as Trustee of Sodexo’s Stop Hunger Foundation and supporter of such charities as Trussell Trust, Fareshare and Centrepoint to name a few. David is also an active supporter of Hospitality Action charity and Beyond Food, a charity offering a second chance career to long term unemployed as well as working on a Mental Health for Chefs initiative.

Under the Sodexo National Craft Forum network David has developed a robust training and development calendar for chefs within Sodexo including the Sodexo apprenticeship programme and continuous learning at varying levels.

This work includes engaging with leading industry training bodies, leading producers and manufacturers and influencing at government level as well as thought leadership and understanding current and emerging trends.

For many years David has run the Sodexo Live Salon Culinaire programme across Ireland, England and Scotland, the largest of its kind in the UK with over 1,000 competitors annually as well as artisan suppliers exhibition, a street food festival, thought leadership seminars and celebrity chef demonstrations and workshops.