About

My name is René Chapman and I am a catering consultant with more than 35 years in hospitality, based near Newport in South Wales. I work with all kinds of operator, from small cafés through to large central production kitchens, helping them get the best out of their kitchen and the way it runs. That goes from a kitchen audit through to a structured plan built around profitability.

I work across South Wales and the South West, from Newport to Swansea and Gloucester to Bristol, and UK-wide on the right project.

The questions people ask before they hire me

Rather than write a page about myself, here are the questions I actually get asked, and the honest answers to them.

You have spent more than 35 years in this industry. Where did it start?

I went to catering college in the early nineties, in the last year that the City and Guilds accreditation was awarded. From there I worked in France for a period, then came back to my home town to work in a boutique hotel, before moving to Bristol to take on a head chef role.

Since then I have worked back of house and front of house, and on the other side of the counter as well, in food and drink marketing and in equipment sales, consulting with all types of business. My last ten years were spent at Rational UK Ltd as a regional sales manager and development chef.

I established On The Pass Consultancy in September 2025.

You have worked in kitchens, front of house and in buying and selling. What does seeing all three sides give you?

Having spent most of my career inside the sector, I can relate to the challenges of running a modern hospitality business. Empathy and understanding matter, but so does strategic planning. I have met most catering problems at first hand at some point, and that is what I bring with me when I walk into a customer’s kitchen.

A quick look over the operation and I can pick out the pinch points, equipment that is not needed, or a process that could be changed to make prep and service run better.

I offer operational audits to see how the kitchen performs during a quiet period, for prep and service, and then again during a peak period. That gives me a conclusive answer on where the operational challenges are.

What is the most expensive mistake you see a catering business make?

Specifying the wrong equipment, or over-specifying it. That is a huge cost to a business that is just starting out.

The other is training. Not only giving people the skills, but giving them the motivation to see a career through. Regular training matters to the employee and to the operator, because it is what gives a business longevity.

The worst of the lot is a start-up that has not done the planning or the dry runs, and has nothing in place to hold on to its staff. New people drop off after a month and you are straight back into recruiting. The right structures stop that happening.

You spent ten years at Rational. Does that mean you will just sell me a Rational?

No. Ten years there means I know that equipment inside out, and I know exactly what it does well. It also means I know what it costs. Rational is expensive, and there are other products on the market that will do the job perfectly well, depending on your budget.

I am not brand-led. I specify what suits the site and what suits the money available.

What I actually do

Catering consultant means different things to different people. What do you actually do?

I look at the business and how it genuinely operates. How it is run, how it is staffed, when the peaks are and where the quiet periods sit.

Then kitchen efficiency. Equipment left running through the day when it only needs to be on for service.

Then the menu. Menu planning and menu engineering, to get to the right gross profit. That is a moving target in this market, with wholesale prices changing the way they do.

Which of your services do people come to you for most often?

The most popular are kitchen equipment audits, and menu implementation and costing.

I also carry out EHO pre-inspection audits. Some kitchen managers and head chefs do not enjoy that kind of paperwork, and with labour short it is time-consuming enough that it quietly lapses.

Who is a typical client?

I work with all types of client. That might be a quick install for a small café with a few menu tweaks, through to pubs, bars and restaurants, education, volume catering and central production kitchens, and everything in between.

Having worked across all styles of hospitality, I can relate to most of the challenges a customer brings me. I only specify what I believe suits the site, and the client’s budget.

How I work

What happens between getting in touch and work starting?

I always start with a casual first conversation, free of charge. What are the challenges, and where do you want to get to? It is usually not a quick fix, and it needs a plan that runs all the way through to the end goal.

I consult, I do not sell. Listening to a client’s challenges is a skill in its own right. I am not there to push my own agenda, or a particular piece of kitchen equipment. I choose what is right for that client’s requirements and their budget.

What do you need from a client, and what makes a project stall?

It helps to have a base of client information and a specification from the outset. Changes happen and budgets move, and I understand that.

What matters most is communication. One point of contact throughout the process, because without it a project can stall and end up delayed.

You use AI in your training work. What does that mean on the ground?

I build bespoke AI training plans and operational reporting.

It starts with a conversation about how comfortable the team actually is with using them, and where the staff would get real traction from them. Used properly, AI tools in hospitality are there to make an operation more efficient, not to replace what a good team already knows.

I also build custom tools. Not the gimmicky end of it, but proper software and dashboards built around what a particular operation actually needs. The point of it is hours handed back to the team, not another admin job for somebody to stay on top of.

Making a start

I know my kitchen has a problem but I cannot put my finger on it. What should I do first?

It starts with a conversation. Operators who have been working long hours in their own business can get blinkered about what the real issue is.

Others know exactly what it is. Usually that is several things at once, labour cost, energy cost and food cost all rising together, eating into gross profit and putting pressure on the business.

If the menu offering is right but it is not profitable, then menu engineering is where to start.

What does the free consultation cover, and what does it cost?

The free consultation only really costs you your time.

I approach it by asking the key strategic and operational questions, so that I understand what the challenges actually are. Honesty in that conversation matters, because I need to evaluate properly what has to be done to get you where you want to be.

From there, and depending on budget, we work as a collaboration inside the business to get things moving and up to standard. That might be slight tweaks, or it might be major operational change across infrastructure, staff and equipment.

The first conversation is free and it costs you nothing but the time. If something in your kitchen is not working the way it should, get in touch and let us talk it through.