Success Stories: Inspiring Career Paths

Christmas is a time when we come together with our family and friends. At Le Cordon Bleu, our graduates are part of a vast international network which we like to think of as our extended family. We are exceptionally proud of our alumni’s ambition, achievements, hard work and dedication, and we wanted to take this opportunity to celebrate them all, with a few examples.

Olivia Burt, Head Chef at Stanley’s Restaurant in the United Kingdom

Olivia Burt

Olivia Burt has been passionate about cooking since she can remember, but it wasn’t until she was 18 working as a private chef that she realised she wanted to make a career of it.

Olivia signed up for Le Cordon Bleu’s Grand Diplôme® in 2014, graduating the following year after splitting her studies between the London and Paris institutes. Upon completing her diploma, she took a job at L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon Etoile in Paris.

Hungry for more, she moved to London and joined the Claridge’s Hotel in Mayfair. Starting out as part of the team for Simon Rogan’s Fera, she went on to become sous chef. In 2019 Olivia made the finals of the prestigious Roux Scholarship, the first female chef to do so in 4 years. Later the same year, Olivia was a finalist in BBC’s MasterChef: The Professionals. “Competing takes things to a whole new level; I’d never known nerves like this. It was the start of a huge journey for me and it got my face out there for the first time.”

Olivia’s career continues to go from strength to strength, and this year she took on the role of Head Chef at Stanley’s, a new restaurant in London’s Chelsea. Looking to the future, Olivia is keeping her mind open.

“I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to do my pop-ups at the start of 2020 and cook for a lot of my MasterChef viewers. The obvious plan is to open a restaurant when I am ready and so my time now is dedicated to learning as much as possible and trying to become better every day.”

Clara Puig, Co-owner of Tula Restaurant in Spain

Clara Puig

Clara Puig started out as a law student before realising her true calling a year before the end of her course. After graduating it only took her two weeks to get into the kitchen, having decided to join Le Cordon Bleu Madrid. “I thought that the most sensible option was the one that Le Cordon Bleu offered,” explains Clara. A decision which she does not regret and which she would take again “without a doubt”.

After graduating in 2012 with her cuisine diploma, Clara headed to Bolivia, where she spent six months teaching at the Escuela de Hoteleria Y Turismo in La Paz, before returning to Spain to join Quique Dacosta’s three-star restaurant in Dénia. It was during this time she met future life and business partner, chef Borja Susilla.

With a wealth of experience between them, Clara and Borja decided that they had enough skill between them to open their own restaurant. They had originally planned to take on a site in Madrid, but after a friend urged them to see a property in Jávea, Alicante - a little coastal town where Clara’s mother lived, they decided to take a chance and opened their restaurant, Tula, there.

Now in their fourth year, the restaurant has gone from strength to strength. Without a doubt, Clara has used her passion, intuition and the knowledge learned from Le Cordon Bleu to achieve success; “The discipline acquired during my training helped me to manage and work in the kitchen.”

For both Clara and Borja, the most important thing is for all the dishes they prepare to be delicious, “no matter how creative or complicated they are”. The kitchen is almost completely supplied with local materials, allowing them to fully

identify their kitchen with their restaurant’s location. Their approach has clearly paid off, and the restaurant was awarded a Michelin Star.

Nico Fitzgerald, Head Chef at London Stock Restaurant in the United Kingdom

Nico Fitzgerald

Nico Fitzgerald gained a lot of culinary experience before deciding to take formal training. Originally from Gibraltar, Nico started his career as a chef in the British army before moving on to private catering and eventually signing up to study the Grand Diplôme®. Of this decision, Nico said “As a junior chef I always saw a qualification from Le Cordon Bleu, for myself and others, as a mark of great foundations. As a more senior chef now I see it as a fantastic way to judge if a chef has that knowledge, that core experience that is going to make them a great chef in the future.”

After graduating in 2016, Nico went on to garner experience in some of the UK’s finest restaurants, including Adelina Yard in Bristol and Heston’s The Hind’s Head in Bray but he always knew he’d return to London. Having travelled to much of the food capitals of Europe, Chef Nico feels that the capital is second to none in terms of the cultural diversity and variety of the restaurant scene.

I knew if I wanted to make it that London was the place to return to. It’s where all the big names are, it’s where all the opportunities are.

Nico’s return to London wasn’t just to work in any restaurant, but to step into the role of Head Chef at London Stock, a brand-new restaurant from two other London alumni; Assem Abdel Hady and Andres Bernal.

The ethos at London Stock is to serve dishes that no one has experienced before, which has given Nico the opportunity to get very creative in his role as he is responsible for designing new dishes and ensuring that everything coming out of the kitchen is of the highest standard.

“Working alongside my friends from Le Cordon Bleu is a once in a lifetime opportunity. We’ve all been through the mill together, we know what it’s like, we know what our experiences were like at Le Cordon Bleu, and we all have this shared mentality as well.”