Paul Lee
A Yorkshire man, born and bred, Paul trained at the Thomas Danby College in Leeds, which has sharpened the talent of some renowned British chefs. Having travelled the length and breadth of the UK, working in various high profile establishments, including the Plough and Harrow in Birmingham, the Bloomsbury Crest Hotel and The Dorchester in London, Paul’s always returned to Yorkshire.
The 1990s saw Paul settling into the multi award-winning David Woolley’s restaurant in Burley-in-Wharfedale, where Paul spent more than seven years attaining the restaurant’s first entry in the Michelin Guide. During the first internet boom of 2001, Paul could see the huge potential of utilising the nascent web for business and he designed and ran the Culinary Resource Centre: the UK’s first culinary website dedicated to chefs and all things culinary. As the world wasn’t quite ready for ‘web v 0.1’ at this time, Paul was appointed Regional Head Chef for Whitbread PLC in 2001, where he oversaw an enormous range and number of sites across the region.
In 2003, Paul joined Yorkshire’s Dine Events as Executive Chef, moving onto the Group Executive Chef. During his time with Dine, Paul twice served Her Majesty The Queen, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as well as a host of various VIPs and worldwide dignitaries. Paul’s no stranger to catering a society wedding, either!
In 2014 Paul made the leap to create his own company and set up CUX Culinary Company as a resource to the hospitality industry, offering a vast array of varied experience across a number of different industry sectors. Since this time, CUX has added some impressive private and commercial clients, and has catered some very prestigious events. One of the highlights was planning and delivering for the Duncombe Park Charity Shoot Event, in May 2018, for more than 600 of Yorkshire’s rich and famous.
CUX is proud to have supported international Dutch dairy company Friesland Campina, working at their development Headquarters in the Netherlands and also becoming one of their UK Ambassadors representing them at Hotelympia London and the Universal Cookery Food Festival.
When not cooking up a storm, Paul is a specialist chef recruiter for the Recruitment Room, which has placed many chefs within companies throughout the UK.
Bridget Lee
Bridget, Paul’s wife, trained at Kelsterton Catering College in North Wales. Finishing college with distinctions, Bridget attained Student of the Year and went on to work in some very prestigious hotels in the North West: including the Mollington Banastre and Llyndir Hall. Bridget then moved to Guernsey to advance her career to a higher level in new surroundings.Leaving Guernsey to take up a senior front of house role at a popular York restaurant, the Bonding Warehouse, Bridget met Paul, who was Head Chef at the time, and then the couple settled in Paul’s hometown of Leeds. Bridget went into contract catering, and is no stranger to busy kitchen environments: she has worked in senior catering roles for Compass, Eurest, O2 and British Telecom.
After leaving contract catering, Bridget took a position as the Alwoodley Primary School Kitchen Manager and here she has made some serious head roads in improving the children’s nutrition. Bridget was brought in to completely overhaul the food service and delivery for the whole school. The school food offering had previously been provided by Leeds City Council but on Bridget’s commencement of employment, the school became a ‘DIY school’ where all the food was totally prepared on site using only fresh produce.
During her time at the school, Bridget has totally transformed all aspects of the kitchen development and the training of junior staff to work alongside nutritionists to provide one of the very best offerings to primary-aged pupils in Yorkshire.
“When I took over, we were serving only 100 pupils a day; we now do more than 300 to the very highest of standards.
This has been a very rewarding and challenging position but one I have thoroughly enjoyed and am very proud of what I have achieved with my team. We have achieved both local and national recognition for our efforts,” says Bridget.
Bridget also takes a very active role in running CUX.
Jordan Lee
Jordan, Paul’s eldest son, has literally grown up in kitchens – but despite working alongside his dad since his early teens, he was never destined for kitchen roles. Jordan excels front of house and in event management.
Before going off to university in Manchester, where he gained a degree in International Business and Marketing, Jordan worked as a senior part-time member of service staff for Yorkshire’s Dine Events. Jordan’s first ever event for Dine was for more than 800 people, and he once personally served the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (he still has their name cards!).
Before Jordan graduated, he was offered a very prestigious role as an Assistant Event Manager for Box Tree Events, in West Yorkshire, working mainly at Denton Hall and also at the famous Michelin-starred Box Tree Restaurant in Ilkley.
After some time spent travelling in Asia, Jordan is now settled as the Sales and Events Manager for The Woodman, in Thunderbridge, where he has built up the events side of the business to an incredible level and leads the field in the vicinity.
Joshua Lee
Josh, Paul’s youngest son, is an exceptionally gifted chef and he started assisting in kitchens at the tender age of 15. One of Josh’s first professional jobs saw him working, at 15, on a very high profile event for more than 700 people and as part of a team of 15 chefs. He held his own and decided that this was the trade for him!
Despite studying (and excelling) at Leeds City College, Josh decide to get his knowledge and experience by working hand-on: he worked part-time at Leeds’ iconic Ira B’s and the Black Swan in York.
Not even aged 20, Josh made the brave move into the world of Michelin kitchens (not many teenagers can say that!), spending a year at the Box Tree in Ilkley before moving to Darlington’s two-starred Raby Hunt.
Josh relocated to Edinburgh, where he is part of award-winning Tom Kitchin’s newest venture, the Bonnie Badger, in the East Lothian village of Gullane.
Outside of the kitchen, Josh a passion for history and is a keen walker: he’s the second youngest person to ever complete the Yorkshire 3 Peaks.
