John Fahy

Chef lecturer at Tresham Institute John Fahy said he agreed with the report that more people were signing up to full time education.

He said: "While there are issues with employment, education seems to be booming.

Skills developed during his artillery career certainly paid off for John Fahy when he served lunch for the Queen ...

Ex-Para John Fahy needed all of his old military skills to cook-up meal fit for a Queen - in just three days!

In a campaign which would have done his old regiment proud the 44-year-old MAC member kept his cool to produce a remarkable last-minute battle-plan which saw the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh dining in style at the official opening of the purpose-built Rockingham Raceway in Northamptonshire.The occasion on June 28 marked the culmination of 72 hours of frantic manoeuvres for the seasoned campaigner, for the past five years the award-winning executive chef with Corby-based events caterers Buffet Direct.

"I had a pretty clear week ahead of me until I received a text message on the Monday asking if I could do lunch for the Queen and 70 others on the Thursday" said father-of-one John, former sergeant with the Parachute Regiment who, for 22 years served up gourmet-style dishes to squaddies all over the world."I've cooked in the desert and on frozen lakes, and I've even catered for royalty before during my term in the army but this was something else", said John, a MAC member for the post five years who learned his culinary skills at Tresham College, Corby.

OCCASION

A complete run-through was called for on the Wednesday, not forgetting a director's dinner already booked for the same evening."After the initial shock, I set about preparing the menu".A series of frantic phone calls saw John rallying his 'troops' for the big occasion, including Craft Guild of Chefs member Peter Baker, Royal Navy food maestro Dallas Chisholm and Tresham College catering students Carrie Reed and Kelly Young.
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Wednesday's run-through followed smoothly, with a good flavour to the Terrine and Lamb, and Peter Baker's 'culinary Olympics' sweet dubbed by John 'fantastic'.
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"The occasion came and went in what seemed like a blur," admitted John."With the Lamb being plated and served, someone came in and asked if they could have another 20 rounds of sandwiches for one of the VIP boxes - discreet expletives followed, along with a polite 'would they mind Waiting while-we-feed the Queen?' response."The team's faultless performance later prompted a letter from Buckingham Palace complementing them on the day, and the delicious lunch -something for the Tresham College students to place at the top of their CV "Serving with the Army gave me a host of opportunities to cook all over the world, along with the independence and adaptability to improvise and achieve the best every time -disciplines which paid off yet again on this occasion," added a proud John.

You can check out the services offered by John and his team by logging on to www.buffetdirect.co.uk