He was appointed OBE in 1990 for his contribution to tourism and training and received a CBE in 2000 for services to gastronomy. In 2010 he received the Catey’s Lifetime Achievement Award for services to the hospitality industry.
Back in the 1980s he was chairman, then president of The Restaurant Association in the 80s leading the charge to get restaurant licensing laws relaxed.
He had also been chairman of the Hotel and Catering Training Board and other honorary positions he held included president of the Academy of Food and Wine Service, chairman of the Governors of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts and chancellor of The Wine Guild of the United Kingdom.
Ackerman started his career with apprenticeship training in the kitchen, moving on in 1975 to open his first restaurant, Quincy’s Bistro in Oxford.
He went on to form Kennedy Brookes with then business partner, the late Michael Golder. Starting with five restaurants, the group grew to over 130 restaurants and hotels.
His long-established consultancy, Tadema Studios, offered a service to international and local hotel groups and provided links with restaurant owners and hoteliers with chefs and restaurateurs.
The art division of Tadema Studios, meanwhile, specialises in providing artwork for hotels, restaurants and private commissions.
The studio also works with both internationally renowned artists as well as emerging artists. His online TV food and drink review programme, coolcucumber.tv, showcases leading chefs, sommeliers, restaurants and hotels in the UK and abroad, with an audience in excess of two million.