The commercial kitchen is a high-pressure environment and, when the heat is on, the foodservice sector needs fresh produce suppliers it can trust. No one knows this more than Danny Murphy, who set up Chef’s Connection 18 years ago, having worked in the trade since he was a boy, before running a restaurant of his own.
Murphy started off by pulling out and breaking down stalls on Exmouth market from the tender age of 11 and, at 14, he worked a market stall in Chapel Market. He became the third generation of his family to work at Covent Garden markets, new and old, and has now been part of the market for more than 40 years.
His first-hand experience of the day-to-day running of a restaurant kitchen, having built and opened the first Café Rouge in the UK, has proven invaluable in making a success of the business. “I thought I knew everything about working with food until I opened a restaurant,” he says. “But I learnt so much more about fresh produce, and saw for myself what it was really like in the kitchen - I know how hard chefs work and I know where they are coming from,” he adds.
Chef’s Connection was conceived when Paul Gayler, chief executive chef at the Lanesborough Hotel, visited Café Rouge, spotted a punnet of redcurrants, and asked Murphy to source them for him. “He gradually asked for more and more and that’s where the idea for Chef’s Connection came from,” says Murphy.
He continued to work in his restaurant for 18 months but, when it was clear the new business was taking off, he sold up his restaurant and focused on supplying the sector. “I knew I had to concentrate on the market side because it was getting busier and busier,” he says.
Chef’s Connection has supplied a number of leading lights in the restaurant world as well as household names, including Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay. “They taught me how to be particular, and I have always taken that with me,” says Murphy.
The customer base now ranges from contract caterers, group restaurants and independents through to Michelin star-rated establishments, as well as schools and hotels.
But Murphy is not driven by sales figures, turnover and margins, and instead thrives on trying to offer the best possible service. “I never envisaged that we would be turning over what we do at the moment but, if we do increase it, it won’t just be for the sake of it,” he says. “Service is paramount, and that goes hand in hand with quality. The ethos of the business is that all customers are important, however small, and I emphasise this to everyone in the team. You have to put yourself in the place of the customer, and you have to work with them.”
The supplier makes deliveries six days a week to ensure customers get the freshest possible products. “If we haven’t got something, we’ll go and get it, whatever it takes,” says Murphy. “If we can’t find it at New Covent Garden, we’ll go somewhere else to get it. We’ll go out of our way - I’ve even been to Harrods - to get customers what they want.”
It is this kind of attitude that has seen the family-run business grow into a multi-million pound company. “We are very conscientious about what we do and we are passionate about doing things to the best of our ability,” says Murphy. His son Paul, son-in-law Miles Browne, brother-in-law Arnold Schack and cousin Brad Gorton make up part of the core team, alongside former chef Stuart Busby, who was right-hand man for Gary Rhodes and worked with Antony Worrall Thompson, Pierre Koffmann, Nico Ladenis and Brian Turner, before setting up a preparation kitchen at Chef’s Connection. “Everyone puts in a tremendous amount of effort,” says Murphy. “You can’t be successful without discipline. We know that high standards are essential, and we work to maintain them.”
The hard graft put in by all members of the team has been key to the success of the business. “I am a very, very lucky man because a lot of sons and sons-in-law that come into their father’s business take liberties. But my two boys work so hard and love the job, and I am proud of them,” says Murphy.
“Everyone picks up the broom and sweeps the forecourt, we all make deliveries - the whole team pitches in. We all have a lot of respect for each other,” he adds.
The constant re-evaluation of the business is integral to maintaining high standards and making progress, according to Murphy, and he is confident that the team will continue to do this. “We have had a good year, but that isn’t to say that that we won’t look at what we are doing and try to improve on it,” he says. “It has taken us 18 years to build this up and, even if sometimes it hasn’t been easy, giving up is not in my vocabulary.”
Murphy is not one to rest on his laurels and, even though he claims to be stepping back from the business, he is still up at 5am every morning and in the office six days a week.
A series of investments in the last three years has taken the business forward. The expansion of the warehouse and installation of temperature-controlled storage units, the development of a preparation kitchen and the introduction of updated IT systems have all driven growth, says Murphy, but diversification will be the way forward in the next five years.
Plans to extend the range of prepared products are underway, and a venture into ready-cooked products, such as chargrilled vegetables as well as soups and sauces, is also on the cards. The firm already supplies dried ingredients and dairy.
“I was so against this at first - I saw myself as a greengrocer and that’s how I wanted to stay,” Murphy admits. “But I realised that is the way the business will progress. It’s much easier for a chef to make one phone call.”
The firm already works with MBMG to produce some of the best chips in the business. “We felt that no one was doing
chips properly and we wanted to change that,” says Murphy. “The correct temperature for potato storage is 9°C but, in most markets, they are just left out in temperatures as low as -3°C, and the cold makes the starch turn to sugar, which means they won’t chip well.”
Murphy refused to settle for anything other than top-notch chips and, after installing two 9°C storage areas, with an investment of £160,000, and opening an on-site preparation kitchen, at a cost of £31,000, he is confident that his customers are getting the best possible product.
Chef’s Connection can track its chips from the field to the fork. “We can trace the potatoes from the day they were planted, through to lifting, storing, preparing and delivering the product,” says Murphy.
The supplier delivers all over London and as far out as the Essex coast, Exeter, Bath and Cardiff. Murphy is reluctant to operate Chef’s Connection on a national level, as he is concerned that it could compromise the quality of its service,
but the firm ties up with Bolton-based supplier Oliver Kay, which delivers to customers from Manchester to Scotland,
to make sure national clients are catered for.
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