The award, which showcases young talent across the contract catering sector, crowned Amos - catering manager at Ampersand (CH&Co Group’s specialist venue and visitor attraction catering business) - this year’s winner in front of 250 hospitality guests at the ACE annual summer party.
Responsible for a range of catering functions, including the Café at the Palace of Holyroodhouse and numerous formal receptions and events, Amos has been praised for increasing afternoon tea sales at the Palace by 400% and the number of customers by 30,000 in 2016.
Tim Jones, chairman and co-founder of CH&Co Group with his late wife Robyn, and ACE Robyns Award judge, said: “The overall winner is someone that typifies Robyn’s drive, passion and attention to detail and the judges found this in Laura Amos.
“She excels in her role, as the results and client feedback clearly show, and contributes significantly to both the success of the business and her team members. I congratulate Laura wholeheartedly. She is a deserved winner who should be very excited about what the future holds.”
The award, which took place at ZSL London Zoo and were sponsored by Troika, also commended Marta Pegram from Lexington, Sam Roth from Baxter Storey and Rebecca Cuppit from Lusso.
Other finalists included Sonia Carvalho of Restaurant Associates, Amanda Cox of Sodexo, Nicole Du Preez of Restaurant Associates, Teresa Gohil of Amadeus, Christopher Howard-Kraft of Blue Apple, Rob Simmons of BaxterStorey, Miguel Teixeira of Bartlett Mitchell, Adam Thomason of Restaurant Associates and David Touizer of CH&Co Group.