The Judges

Restaurant of the Year

Sponsored by: Colchester Institute

Kati Vardon

Kati is the marketing manager at Colchester Institute and has overall responsibility for corporate marketing of this educational establishment across its sites in Essex. Prior to joining the College in 2002, Kati was Marketing Director of a computer software company, a business she jointly set up in the 1980s.

She holds a BA (Hons) degree in Business Administration with Marketing and the Chartered Institute of Marketing postgraduate Diploma in Marketing. She has also completed photographic modules from the BA (Hons) in Art and Design. All completed at Colchester Institute.

Kati has had a genuine love of food, gained from watching her mother cook and studying cookery, then Food and Nutrition, at high school. From age fourteen to twenty+, Kati worked part-time in restaurants, hotels and bars with some truly creative chefs. She is currently indulging her passion for food by studying for the City & Guilds Certificate in Culinary Skills.

Neil Rippington

Neil Rippington grew up in Bournemouth where working in hotels, whilst at school and college, gave him a taste for the catering industry at an early age. Following a chefs' programme at The Bournemouth and Poole College, Neil went on to work in a Michelin starred restaurant in France and in London's Capital Hotel in Knightsbridge. He then went to work in the USA for two years before returning to the UK to take up the position of head chef in a country house hotel in the New Forest.

In 1994, Neil was presented with the opportunity to return to education as a chef lecturer at South East Essex College. After five years, he moved on to Redbridge College as a Programme Manager for Hospitality and Catering, later taking up the post as Quality Manager for the College.

In 2003, Neil took the position of Head of Centre for Hospitality and Food Studies at Colchester Institute. In November 2006, the Centre was awarded Grade 1, by Ofsted, for outstanding provision. In 2008, the Balkerne Restaurant at Colchester Institute was crowned as the UK College Restaurant of the Year by Restaurant Magazine.