More Than a Team: Meet the Chefs Cut Family
Updated: Oct 6
There’s a reason we call ourselves the Chefs Cut family… because, in quite a few cases, we actually are.
But there’s a bigger, slightly complicated, story behind our team being created.
As Chefs Cut has grown from its early days into the business it is today, something pretty special has happened. Our team has been built through brothers, partners, best friends, former colleagues and people we trust recommending Chefs Cut to the people closest to them.
And we think that says a lot about what we’ve built here.
It All Starts With James
At the centre of Chefs Cut is our owner, James Vickers, who started the business with a vision to do things differently – combining quality butchery with genuine hospitality experience and building a supplier that understands what its customers actually need.
Not long after Chefs Cut began, James' brother Larry joined the business later in 2021.
Before Chefs Cut, Larry spent years driving across the East Midlands for Trent Barton – so if you're local, there's a chance he may even have driven you around at some point!
Today, Larry is our Delivery Manager, overseeing the team responsible for getting Chefs Cut orders out of the building and into the hands of pubs, restaurants, cafés, hospitality businesses and customers across the region.
Friends Became Colleagues
Then there's Jade, one of Larry's best friends from college, who has been involved with Chefs Cut since the early days.
Jade helped James establish the Chefs Cut brand and develop the online side of the business and continues to work across our website, marketing, social media and customer communications.
If you've spoken to us about your wholesale account or price lists, messaged us through social media, browsed our website or seen one of our campaigns online, there's a good chance you've spoken to or interacted with Jade somewhere along the way.
Then, when James needed experienced chefs to get started, he asked Jade if she knew anyone.
Luckily, she happened to live with one.
Enter Nathan.
Nathan joined Chefs Cut at the very start, bringing his own hospitality and kitchen experience with him, and is now our Production Manager, playing an integral role in the day-to-day operation of the business. Nathan handles 90% of the day-to-day running of Chefs Cut, and if you're one of our customers or suppliers, you've probably spoken to him too.
Nathan also happens to be Jade's fiancé.
We told you the family connections got complicated!
Building the Chefs Cut Kitchen Team
As Chefs Cut expanded beyond butchery and developed Chefs Cut Kitchen, we needed people with genuine professional kitchen experience behind it.
Our kitchen is headed up by Mitch, who brought years of experience from some of Nottingham's top kitchens with him.
Working alongside Mitch is Rebecca – his fiancée and, very soon, his wife.
Together with the wider Chefs Cut team, they're helping us grow Chefs Cut Kitchen and produce the pies, pastries, cooked meats and chef-prepared products we supply to hospitality customers.
Brothers, Partners and Lifelong Friends
Elsewhere in Chefs Cut, you'll find brothers Josh and Jasper, pictured after the Robin Hood Half Marathon this year, working across our production and processing operation.
And they're far from the only family connections within the wider team.
Over the years, partners, sons, daughters, dads and lifelong friends of our team have stepped in to support Chefs Cut, particularly during weekends, busy periods and some of our biggest seasonal production weeks.
Even the person behind the camera is family.
The photography and video content you see across Chefs Cut is produced by James' brother, Dan at Next Edit Productions, who has documented plenty of the journey as the business has grown.
It Goes Further Than Family
The connections behind Chefs Cut aren't only about who is related to whom.
They're also about shared experience.
Members of our admin team, including Jade and Dani, previously managed pubs together - some of which Chefs Cut now supplies.
Across the wider team, you'll find people who have spent years working in professional kitchens and hospitality venues alongside people with experience at some of the region's leading butchers and butchery suppliers.
Many of us already knew, worked alongside, supplied or were customers of the pubs, restaurants, cafés and businesses we work with today.
That experience matters.
When a chef needs something specific, we understand why.
When a pub has a busy weekend coming up, we understand the pressure.
When consistency, portioning, delivery times and product quality matter, we're not looking at it purely from a supplier's perspective.
We understand this industry because we've lived it.
People Who Believe in Chefs Cut
Perhaps the part we're proudest of isn't simply that so many of our team know one another.
It's how they got here.
As Chefs Cut has grown, the people working within the business have repeatedly wanted to bring the people closest to them along for the journey.
Their brothers.
Their partners.
Their best friends.
Their children.
Their former colleagues.
You don't recommend somewhere you don't believe in to the people you care about.
Our team believes in Chefs Cut. They believe in the quality of what we produce, the service we provide and the direction the business is heading.
And they're proud to put their name behind it.
Growing Without Losing Who We Are
Chefs Cut looks very different today from the business James first started.
We've moved into our new purpose-built Unit 9 facility, expanded our team, increased our delivery fleet, grown our customer base, developed Chefs Cut Kitchen and invested heavily in the future of the business.
And we're nowhere near finished.
But as the business gets bigger, one thing we never want to lose is the culture and relationships that helped us get here in the first place.
We're proud to be ambitious.
We're proud to be growing.
But we're equally proud that behind the facilities, vans, products and equipment is a group of people who genuinely care about the business they're building together.
We're colleagues. We're friends. We're family. And we're all connected by one thing: we believe in what we do.
That's Team Chefs Cut. 🥩
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