David M

David Mulcahy

Food Innovation & Sustainability Director, Schools & Universities, Sodexo UK Vice President, The Craft Guild of Chefs

A highly respected individual with a wealth of industry experience, David’s role includes enhancing the reputation and recognition of Sodexo within the hospitality industry, driving chef development and food strategy initiatives with a key focus on sustainability and food waste initiatives.

As an experienced chef, David has run and managed extensive catering businesses and facilities and gained numerous awards including winning multiple Culinary Olympic and World Cup Gold Medals Internationally.

Highly active in promoting catering industry standards and current vice President of the Craft Guild of Chefs, David has been awarded a prestigious Catey Award for services to Foodservice, the Craft Guild of Chefs Order of Merit, and was recently awarded the Freedom of The City of London for services to the Hospitality Industry.

He is widely recognised as co-ordinator of many of the UK’s leading competitions and events, including The Craft Guild of Chefs UK National and Young National Chef of the Year and The Craft Guild of Chefs Awards. David has been co-chair and lead judge for FutureChef for over two decades.

David is a patron of West London University, Westminster Kingsway College, Lakefield Training college as well as Trustee of Sodexo’s Stop Hunger Foundation, is an active supporter of Hospitality Action charity and social charities including Fareshare, Trussell Trust and Made in Hackney.

Under the Sodexo National Craft Forum network David has developed a robust training and development calendar for chefs within Sodexo including the Sodexo apprenticeship programme and continuous learning at varying levels.

Most recently David has focused on a number of projects to support sustainability and social value, driving behaviour change and introducing new innovations in food and responsible sourcing.
Key projects include reducing food waste, significantly increasing plant-based choices (33%+ of menu), reducing energy usage and forming strategic partnerships with collaborators.

In addition to setting up The Future Food Collective in UK, current initiatives include working with partners including The WWF, The World Resource Institute, Humane Society, The Food for Climate League and The Carbon Literacy Project as well as key producers and suppliers as well as industry professional bodies.

This work includes identifying and building a range of training and development programmes to support new food models through apprenticeships and continued learning.