Chef/Owner of Andrew Spurgin™ brings his diverse skill sets to create bespoke events from concept, styling, menu design, catering & vendor brokering, among other services. Aside from offering food styling services he also is a consultant to caterers, chefs, restaurants & hotels.

 

Andrew believes in sound community care & often acts as host or culinary chair for numerous charitable events.

 

Andrew has designed over 9,000 parties & menus during his career, has overseen the production of events honoring dignitaries & glitterati for the past three decades. He has cooked for former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev, three US presidents, Charles, Prince of Wales, Martha Stewart & Lady Jane Goodall, among others, as well as at the James Beard House in New York City.

 

He grew up in London, working in his relative’s restaurant & butcher shop. His aunts introduced him early to the bounty of local purveyors at London’s historic Borough Market. His family moved to San Diego in 1974. He was chef & baker of one of California’s first handcrafted, on-premise bakery/restaurants. He was director of catering at Southern California’s celebrated Piret’s & several other respected catering firms. Andrew has consulted & cooked with London’s Mustard Catering Ltd., has been tutored by the cheesemongers at Neal’s Yard Dairy, also in London.

 

He has produced & designed menus and events throughout the United States, Canada, England & México. He lectures regularly on sustainability, cooking, event design, catering, culinary responsibility & entertaining in general.

 

Andrew was an honorary recipient of the Roger Revelle Award for his work on sustainable seafood practices. He was inducted into the Chefs Hall of Fame by San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine, & named among The 50 People to Watch by San Diego Magazine. He received the annual Catersource Achievement in Catering Excellence (ACE) Award as Best Caterer in the West, as well as the Spotlight Award as National Caterer of the Year. He and his team consistently won “Best Of” accolades from a host of local & national magazines & media.

 

Andrew is a co-founder of Passionfish.org & Cooks Confab. He is an Associate Board Member of the Slow Food Urban San Diego convivial. He is an International Caterers Association (ICA) Educational Foundation Trustee & former Director the ICA. He also has sat on the Advisory Boards of Catering Magazine and Event Solutions Magazine. He is a past member of the Director’s Cabinet for Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) & is an SIO E.W. Scripps Associate. Andrew also helped develop Blue Ocean Institute’s “Green Chefs Blue Ocean” program, a national curriculum addressing sustainable seafood education for culinary students & continuing education for chefs.