Head of Culinary Recruitment
Dan started his hospitality career within local pubs, hotels and beach cafes in west Cornwall. He ended up enrolling onto the Academy of Culinary Arts Specialised Chefs Scholarship and trained under the guidance of Martyn Nail at Claridge’s for just under 5 years. After some time travelling and on his return to the UK, he made the transition into hospitality recruitment by taking a role at Just Chefs. He spent 3 years here, recruiting Chefs for London’s leading restaurants and hotels. Following this, Dan joined Evolve hospitality, supporting both the permanent and temporary divisions as part of the Reigate team.
Dan moved into in-house recruitment by becoming a Recruitment Manager at Carluccio’s in 2014. The group expanded to over 100 restaurants, still under the stewardship of the original founders and his highlight was visiting the Action Against Hunger project in Senegal. He was approached to take on the position of Group Chef Recruiter at Corbin & King Restaurants (which later became The Wolseley Hospitality Group) in March 2017 and was promoted to Head of Recruitment later that year. He oversaw the talent attraction, recruitment and onboarding for the restaurants and Head Office. Whilst on furlough in this role, he studied for his CIPD HR Level 3.
Dan was delighted to return to the Evolve group as Head of Culinary Recruitment in July 2023.
Away from work and he splits most of his time between running after his two young sons or running in the Surrey Hills. He still loves returning to Cornwall and of course, a good pasty.