A FAREHAM chef who feeds as many as 4,000 British Airways staff and customers every day has scooped a national catering award.

At the Craft Guilds of Chefs Awards at the Savoy Hotel in London last month, Nick Vadis, of Eden Rise, received the title

of Contract Catering Chef of the Year.

The award, in recognition for

setting the highest standards of

professionalism for food quality, innovation, training and development in contract catering, was not a first for Nick, who has won more than 100 awards in his career.

Since 2001 the 46-year-old chef has worked as an executive chef for Eurest, part of the global food-

service group Compass, where he is responsible for catering at all the staff restaurants across British Airway's Waterside.

He also oversees catering staff at other British Airways sites as well as supervising food preparation for passengers for pre-flight first class dining at Heathrow.

Nick joined the Royal Navy at 16 as a chef and finished there as the senior naval verifier at the Royal Naval Cookery School.

Despite the numerous awards he has already won, Nick was delighted with his most recent, which he received after being nominated by other chefs in the industry.

"I was over the moon to win this award because I was nominated by my peers," he said.

"To win is a great boost to what you do in the industry."