The co-owner of a Beaconsfield restaurant has been named a Master of Culinary Arts (MCA) becoming one of 25 people to have ever achieved the accolade in the UK.

Daniel Crump, 33, co-owner of the Greyhound, was presented the MCA award for service at Claridge’s hotel in London on Friday, October 28.

Launched in 1987 and held every four years, the MCA recognises outstanding craftsmanship in hospitality. 

As part of the MCA, hospitality professionals are taken through a rigorous assessment process and must prove extremely advanced skills and abilities in their field.

The award presentation was in front of more than 300 high-profile individuals from across the hospitality sector, including Michel Roux Jr, Alain Roux, and Raymond Blanc.

Crump said: “I could not be prouder to have been named a Master of Culinary Arts. It’s something so many hospitality professionals arrive to achieve throughout their whole careers and for me to get it now is quite incredible.  

"This, along with opening the Greyhound, is definitely one of the proudest moments of my career to date.”

Crump grew up in Torbay, Devon, and, at the age of 14, took a part-time job as a kitchen porter, washing dishes at Orestone Manor. 

The young would-be restaurateur was inspired to open his own café in the family garage, selling hot drinks and snacks to local schoolchildren, although the council closed the business due to its lack of appropriate licences or certificates.

He went on to train at Michelin-starred London establishments including Gordon Ramsay’s Pétrus and Trinity, as well as the Oxford Blue in Old Windsor.

He worked as head waiter at Gordon Ramsay’s three-Michelin-starred London restaurant aged just 24.

He opened the Greyhound in 2019, which he co-owns with wife, Margriet Vandezande-Crump.

The establishment has since won the 2021 ‘One to Watch’ in the UK’s Top 50 Gastropubs and was ranked no.54 in the Top 100 Gastropubs in the UK.

It has also been ranked no. 22 in the SquareMeal Top 100 Restaurant Awards, won the 2021 Muddy Stilettos Award for Best Restaurant Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire and was named among The Times ‘18 best beer gardens in the UK’.