Jobs

Bob Devereux- Catering Manager

Catering most definitely runs in Bob Devereux’s family.

His wife is a school catering manager, his son is an RAF chef and his daughter is in her third year at the prestigious Westminster Catering College.

Bob himself is catering manager at New Barnfield, Hatfield, where Hertfordshire County Council’s training centre, resources library and other offices are based.

Besides running the busy New Barnfield restaurant, which serves snacks and meals from 8am to 4pm on weekdays, he also oversees a coffee shop service for county council staff based at Mount Pleasant in Hatfield and catering for special events.

Bob has been in the catering business since he was 15 when he got a job washing up at a golf club. After training at the North Herts College catering school, he went on to make his career in catering for functions.

“Function catering is a seven days a week job,” said Bob. “After doing it for 30 years, I wanted some free time at weekends so I started looking for a five days a week job.”

Bob joined Hertfordshire Catering in May after his wife Alison told him about a vacancy for a catering manager at New Barnfield and suggested he apply for the post.

“Working in catering always seems to be looked on as low paid, but that’s not really true,” said Bob. “Just like it is in any job you do, you work your way up. I’ve always earned good money and so has my wife. We have everything we want and when the kids looked at our lifestyle, they wanted to give catering a go.

“Catering can be hard work and it sometime, involves unsocial hours, but not often in schools. I’d certainly recommend it. I’ve been doing it for 30 years and I wouldn’t want any other sort of job.”