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Meet the Team

  • Follow Clare on Twitter
    Clare Edwards
    Grill Academy™ Manager
    Clare is the Grill Academy™ Manager, and joined Weber® in 2010. Prior to this she spent 10 years working for a premium domestic appliance manufacturer. As well as a BSc degree in Food & Consumer Studies, Clare brings with her a wealth of experience devising & delivering; training packages, recipes, and cookery demonstrations & events, aimed at both retailers & consumers.
    Clare’s favourite part of working at the Grill Academy™ is meeting so many new faces, and seeing people have surprised faces at the menu, and then them completing the day with ‘Wow…I did that…all on the barbecue!’
    Her inspiration for cooking came from her Mother, but the love for the barbecue from her Father. Clare now sees one of her missions in life to get more women barbecuing!

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    Jamie Foy
    Grill Academy™ Assistant Manager
    Jamie is the Grill Academy™ Assistant Manager, and joined Weber® in September 2010 from a Partner Store in the Isle of Man, gaining first-hand experience on the shop floor selling Weber® products. Running a professional kitchen in Sweden for 18 months and attended catering collage for three years, Jamie adds great value to the Grill Academy™ team.
    Jamie is passionate about food and loves to be inventive. The draw of working at the Grill Academy™ was to be part of a team of 4, out of 63 million people in the country working at the UK’s only dedicated barbecue cooking school.
    Jamie’s most extreme cooking experience comes from being caught in the large wake of a fast craft on the Irish Sea. He found himself barbecuing freshly line caught herring on a small fishing boat!

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    Dan Cooper
    Weber® Experience Chef
    Dan is one of the Weber® Experience roadshow chefs and joined Weber® in 2011 after five years running his own outside catering business, so he is prepared for the weather conditions he may face!
    Looking for a new challenge Dan joined the Weber team as he gets a ‘buzz out of meeting new people’ and has a passion for cookery. Dan has enjoyed his Weber® Experience tour so far, in particular Cork, Ireland where many of his family holidays were spent as a child.
    Dan enjoys cooking unusual cuts of meat such as row deer and experimenting with wood smoke on the barbecue. When Dan is not on the road on having a well-deserved break, he can be found helping out at the Grill Academy™.

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    Richard Holden
    Weber® Experience Chef
    Richard joined Weber® in 2012 straight from the London Summer Olympics where he worked with one of London’s top hospitality companies catering for corporate clients at Westfield Stratford. When Richard’s not instructing at the Weber® Grill Academy™ you can find him touring the UK and ROI with the Weber® Experience.
    It may have taken him until his 30’s to train as a chef, but Richard has always had a passion for cooking from scratch. He completed his formal training in 2012 at the Tante Marie Culinary Academy in Surrey with Distinctions in both Practical Cookery and the Theory of Cuisine. Richard has a Cordon Bleu Diploma and a Level 4 Diploma in Professional Culinary Arts.
    His appreciation for barbecue food and the classic ‘Low & Slow’ method for cooking large cuts of meat was instilled on his first trip to the Calgary Stampede in 1997. The aroma from the cookers almost filled the park and the flavour was unlike anything he’d ever tasted before. Some would call it a ‘watershed’ moment because from that day on it was all about cooking on a barbecue.
    With a love of people, food, cars and travelling, it’s almost as if his role at Weber was created with him in mind.

  • Jordan Follows
    Customer Service Executive
    Jordan’s role is the Customer Service Executive for the Grill Academy™. Jordan joined the team as an apprentice, whilst studying for an NVQ in Customer Service. He gained is qualification in May 2013 and ensures that everyone who visits the Grill Academy™, from booking to attending a barbecue course has the most efficient and enjoyable experience.
    Although, not the most adventurous of eaters, Jordan has most certainly stretched his palate and enjoyed a great range of barbecue foods since joining the Grill Academy™. It wasn’t difficult when working in an environment constantly surrounded by food. Jordan enjoys cooking and looks to improve his barbecuing techniques whilst working at the Weber® Grill Academy™. His collection of barbecues is growing and he now has two in his back garden!