Profile

Dominic James

General Manager of Dexter House.

Dominic is a specialist caterer and venue operator having spent the last 11 years in key managerial roles at Initial Style Conferences, Pret A Manger, Maison Blanc and De Vere Venues. Known for his warm welcome and friendly manner - Dominic is a great personification of etc.venues’ brand values of service quality and customer experience.

In total Dominic has worked in the hospitality industry for over 18 years, and in that time has had some very strange requests including a client who once asked for an egg, stepladder and a 2 metre square piece of tarpaulin. As GM of Dexter House, Dominic gets to enjoy Head Chef Alan’s cooking on a daily basis - his favourite dish is Yorkshire Beef in Ale with Thyme Dumplings and Broccoli and Almonds followed by Baked Cherry and Almond Slice.

Dominic lives in Berkshire with his wife Jo and two boys and goes the extra green mile by jogging into work.  He's also a supporter of "Walk the walk" -  a charity that organises walks to raise money in the fight against breast cancer.  His biggest challenge in 2009 will be trying to convince his wife Jo that they don’t need a new kitchen.

Alan Palmer 

Head Chef at Dexter House.

Alan joined etc.venues in 2007 with the opening of Dexter House – our largest venue covering two floors near the historic Tower of London. He’s an active member of the etc.venues food group – who ensure our daily food offering is of such a high standard, but in Alan’s case also teach 200 school children how to make smoothies as part of our charity support for Magic Breakfast.

Originally from Dundrum in Co Down Ireland, Alan’s love of cooking was inspired by his Mum who was also a chef. He started his career as a kitchen porter in the local pub, until one day the kitchen found itself a chef down – Alan stepped in, prepared the starter and saved the day!

His route to becoming a chef wasn’t as straightforward, as Alan originally trained as an engineer before deciding to return to his passion for food. After leaving college in Portrush, Ireland his chefing skills took him all over the world, including Norway and New York before finally settling in Reigate to work for celebrity chef Tony Tobin. From here he moved into the conference and meeting industry as a Sous Chef, leading eventually to the top job at Dexter House.

Alan’s travelling bug has obviously influenced his taste in food - he’s a big fan of the Catalan Chef Ferran Adria, considered by many to be the best chef in the world and proprietor of El Bulli in Spain. Nearer to home, Alan admires Grosvenor Square based Jason Atherton, the Head Chef at Maze who also happens to be a former protégé of Adria.

Alan’s “favourite eating experience” is to catch his own salmon in the last week of the fishing season, seared in a frying pan with a knob of butter and served with home grown seasoned crushed potatoes.
 

Click here for more information on Alan's "Magic Breakfast Smoothie Day".

Fantastic food facts - want to know more about the theory behind our food?  Click here to see what makes the chef's tick.

Want to know more about etc.venues food?  Click here to read more.

For more information on our team click here.