Food and hospitality are essential to the wellbeing of those working offshore or in remote locations.
In this blog, Tony Spencer shares his passion for cooking, reflects on the realities of life away from home, and highlights his deep appreciation for Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Tony has lived in the North-east of Scotland since he was just five years old, having relocated from Yorkshire in the mid-1970s.
He initially worked as a chef at a local hotel in Stonehaven, and quickly found his passion for the food side of things. It was a lovely hotel with high standards, which enabled Tony to become accustomed to high-quality food and service delivery from the get-go.
When he was around 20 years old, his Dad paid for him to do his survival training to go offshore, and after applying for a few different jobs, he was employed by ARA Services (now Aramark) in 1990 as a galley steward.
Tony then transferred across to Kelvin Catering and went back onshore to work in restaurants and hotels, and latterly in contract catering in Aberdeen. It wasn’t until one day he was working in contract catering for Mobil Oil, he was looking out the window to the sun outside and realised that he missed working offshore and the down time back home that these shift rotations offer.
It was this turning point in his career that Tony received a call from Aramark to go back offshore 29 years ago… and the rest is history!
Tony has worked on BP’s Andrew platform for around two years, then moved to its Magnus platform as Head Chef for 18 years, progressing up to Chef Manager. BP sold the Magnus platform so Tony has now worked on the Etap platform for four years, where he feels there has been solid progression collectively as a team with the food and service provision.
When asked what he enjoys most, Tony said: “I love the variety of what we do – I like thinking about what I can do to add to our service, although I have been told that I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to how things look.
“As a team, we’re always looking for improvements, and I enjoy bringing people along on that same journey.
“I think because food trends are always adapting, we are never standing still and we’re always trying to be more modern. For example, it’s been exciting to use Eat Curious products and recently we’ve been looking at creating new poke bowls.”
As someone who enjoys going on holiday with his family, food plays an important factor during his trips: “London is one of our favourite destinations, with all the food options and different markets to go to.
“We’re also going to Japan in May, so we’ll be looking for all the good food spots here too. To be honest, as a family, we love going out for food and travelling to different food markets.”
Even in his downtime at home, Tony enjoys cooking at home and is very fond of Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. He said: “Being at home is the best thing ever! I love cooking for friends and putting on a spread of small plates.
“My wife Laura is a good cook too – she is the Catering Manager at BP and has a degree in hospitality management, although she doesn’t have to think about cooking when I’m at home!
“I love watching cooking shows, reading cooking magazines, and watching the latest TikTok recipe trends.
“I am also very proud of where we stay and I like to look at Aberdeen in a different light. We went to SugarBird Wines recently and really appreciated the views into Union Terrace Gardens.”
Find out more about Aramark Global Energy on its website here.