People

Paul Edwards

From the seaside town of Weston-super-Mare, near Bristol in the west of England, Edwards studied at the celebrated Westminster Catering College before finding work with Cunard, working in the galleys of the company's great ocean liners, the Queen Mary and both the Queen Elizabeth I and II. In 1974, however, he was appointed executive chef at the exclusive Sandy Lane Hotel in Barbados.

It was there that he started his involvement in motor racing, driving a Datsun in local races at the Bushy Park circuit. Two years later he was lured back to England to be the private chef for millionaire Peter Dixon - who was sponsoring Howden Ganley and Tim Schenken at the time. Edwards cooked not only at Dixon's house in London but also on his yacht in the Mediterranean. When he had time to spare Paul began a career as a hillclimb competitor.

In 1980 he decided to get serious about the sport and established his own delicatessen - called Chef d'Equipe - in London's exclusive Kensington district. At weekends he raced in Britain's hillclimbs and sprints, initially with a Brabham BT38 acquired from Ganley but later with a March Formula 5000 car and an ex-Hans Stuck March F1. Ultimately he acquired a March 79B and with it won the 1988 British Sprint Championship, a success which enabled him to buy a Pilbeam-DFL and find backing from Q8 Petroleum. The Gulf War in 1991 ended that deal and that same year he decided to close the delicatessen and concentrate on a racing catering business he had started, by accident, in 1987 when racer Gordon Spice asked to rent Edward's motor home at hillclimb events. The company grew quickly and in the late 1980s was even sponsoring a hillclimb series!

In 1991 Edwards Catering began work with Paul Stewart Racing in both Formula 3 and F3000. Paul later expanded into the burgeoning British touring car series with several motorhomes in addition to the Williams F1 and touring car teams.

Expansion has continued and he now runs a very successful catering business but he is never happier than when he is cooking...