Chef's Corner
Darren Proud, Senior Head Chef
Darren had always wanted to be a chef and started his career straight from school at The Royal Station Hotel in Newcastle.
From there he moved to The George Hotel in Hexham and later to Gosforth Park a four star, 2 Rosette hotel before getting his first head chef job at Redworth Hall – a four star hotel which had 1 Rosette when he joined and, as Darren is keen to point out, 2 Rosettes when he left!
Darren then moved to Grosvenor House in London as Head Chef before deciding to head north and coming to The Midlands and ending up at The NEC Group where Darren now works heading up Amadeus.
Darren loves the challenge of doing something new and is always pushing himself , he says; "I love creating something new for a client and get a real adrenaline buzz at seeing everything come together during service. Equally the scale of events we do at Amadeus still excites me. Having done years in hotels only catering for 200 or so our volumes never cease to amaze me. The food spend alone I over see at Loch Lomond would’ve covered a couple of months in hotels but takes me 5 days in Scotland!"
In terms of style, Darren likes to take simple food and create something truly special using only the finest ingredients – good quality ingredients. When he’s not busy at work, Darren has two young daughters and is teaching them the tricks of the trade as they are keen to follow in his footsteps.