Food is our passion at Blue Apple, but people are our business and we’re always looking for talented and enthusiastic people to join our teams; from entry level positions through to operations management, we love to help nurture and develop people, so if you’re interested in a career with us have a read of the below stories to get a taste of what we’re all about!

“Food is our passion, but people are our business!”

Endang — Chef Manager, Bedfordshire

Our star baker, Endang, has been with us for 12 years and has progressed from being a deli-bar supervisor to running one of our largest units at a high-profile client. She describes her career with us below.

“I was trained by Blue Apple to become a chef having taught myself, before working for the company. My first job was running a deli bar with just one team member working with me and I now run a busy, innovative unit with 8 team members. I became a second chef and then a Chef Manager at a small unit and I was supported with on the job training, attending a nutrition chef course and coaching and mentoring from my Operations Manager. Blue Apple gives me the freedom to create my own menus which is one of the reasons I love working here. My passion is creating new flavours and trying out new menus to wow our customers. I can also show off my baking skills with cakes for events!

Blue Apple believes in producing high quality food and supporting and developing their team. Without the training I have been given, I would not be doing the role I love today.”

Kellie — Operations Manager

One of our Operations Managers, Kellie, has worked with us for 12 years. Kellie has enjoyed every minute of her career with Blue Apple and describes it below.

“I started working for Blue Apple 12 years ago as a food service assistant and about a year into my career, I was promoted to Unit Manager. Blue Apple has a knack of spotting and encouraging potential in people and helping them to see how they can make a career in hospitality. After successfully managing my unit I was promoted to Operations Support Manager, with fabulous mentoring by the Operations Manager and external coaching, I soon became an Operations Manager. I now manage 14 sites and have an Operations Support Manager of my own to mentor.

What I love most about Blue Apple is the family feel, the fact nobody is just a number, and how well they support and develop people who want to progress further in their career. I feel they truly care about their people. I have had some great development over the years with 1-2-1 coaching, external training courses and mentoring.”

Alex — Chef Manager, Warwickshire

Alex has been cooking since he was 14 and has a background in Michelin starred restaurants. We were very excited that he decided to bring his high-end skills to our contract catering environment. Here’s his story…

“I worked my way to become an Executive Chef of a pub company in the Midlands, having cooked in high-end hotels and restaurants for most of my working life. I decided that I wanted to make a move into contract catering, partly to get a better work-life balance but also to take on a new and different challenge. The environment is a completely different one compared to working in a restaurant. My Unit Manager at the time offered me a Sous Chef role and I now understand that this was a great way of getting in to this environment. The site I now run is a new, state of the art facility and we get the chance to prepare creative and beautifully presented food to our customers and at events. It took 9 months for me to progress from Sous Chef to running the unit and my Unit Manager has trained and supported me every step of the way. My role is very varied, focusing on leading the team, pricing, sourcing products, building relationships with our customers and training the team. I am hoping to keep developing my training skills and to have a career in training others one day.

Blue Apple has a small company feel with big ambitions. We are always challenged to do better and to produce even better food. I have a lot of support from my Operations Manager and we get regular visits from the senior managers. I like the ambition and the drive to keep improving.”

Sarah — Assistant Manager, Bedfordshire

We are proud of Sarah and her achievements on her Level 3 Hospitality Supervision Apprenticeship.

Sarah is Assistant Manager at one of our largest sites in Bedfordshire having recently completed our first Blue Apple apprenticeship. She now has a recognised qualification in her profession. Sarah was enthusiastic about taking on the apprenticeship and recently progressed in to her new assistant manager role.

She’s passionate about sustainability and with the support of her mentor and her Unit Manager, she presented her thoughts on improving waste management in a 30-minute presentation to the senior managers within the business. She was assessed regularly in the workplace to ensure she was meeting all the criteria for the qualification, and her apprenticeship included one day a week learning time spent building her knowledge of how to manage a team and how to run an efficient business.

Her hard work paid off in 2018 as she was given the day-to-day responsibility for one of our prestigious clients, working alongside our campus manager. A fantastic story for our young starlet who joined Blue Apple as a General Assistant and was named our 2018 ‘Rising Star’ at our annual awards evening.

The proof is in the pudding!