Chef set for Saltburn Food Festival after touring with Beyoncé

Kim Moody, from Loftus, east Cleveland, almost became a chef by accident after stepping into the kitchen at a care home in Saltburn where she worked as a mental health nurse when the chef didn’t turn up one day.

But Kim enjoyed cooking so much that she trained at Middlesbrough College, graduating in 2015, and assisted college tutor Richard Ingram at the festival back in 2016.

She quickly built a good reputation working at top hotels and restaurants across Teesside, but the contacts she made at Saltburn Food Festival came in very handy when the music industry came calling last summer.

And one simple phone call saw Kim spend the last six months of 2022 touring as a chef with music legends including Elton John, Robbie Williams and George Ezra.

She's continued her musical cooking adventures into this year, touring with 90s indie legends James, Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, and also cooking for local crews at a sprinkling of dates by The Arctic Monkeys – including Middlesbrough’s Riverside stadium earlier this summer.

Even more recently, she has just finished touring with Beyoncé on the European leg of her record-breaking Renaissance world tour – a job that meant turning down gigs with Pink and Bruce Springsteen due to her busy diary.

Festival chef Kim Moody (wearing red) and festival director Lorna Jackson (light blue top) look forward to Saltburn Food Festival

“I was headhunted by a chef I’d initially met at Saltburn Food Festival,” said Kim. “We kept in touch and I got a call completely out of the blue one day last summer. Three days later I was cooking for Elton John and his crew in Frankfurt. It was an incredible turn of events really.”

A whirlwind year has seen Kim visit 12 countries throughout Europe, cooking at 98 shows in 62 major cities including London, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Amsterdam and Barcelona.

A typical day on tour could see Kim working as part of a six-to-12 strong team of chefs, cooking lunch and dinner for anywhere between 25-400 people, including the major headliners, support acts and all the technical crew.

“It’s a huge operation,” said Kim. “We transport and build our own kitchen everywhere, and the gigs themselves are incredible. I never realised what was involved before I became part of it. When you see people sometimes complain about the price of tickets, I’m not sure they realise the scale of putting a huge show on the road.”

A patisserie specialist, Kim highlighted choux pastry eclairs and profiteroles as her signature dish – a skill that provided one of Kim’s biggest highlights of the last 12 months.

Festival chef Kim Moody (wearing red) and festival director Lorna Jackson (light blue top) look forward to Saltburn Food Festival

“I was asked to make Andrea Bocelli’s birthday cake and we presented it to him in his dressing room during the interval of a gig in Belfast,” said Kim. “Everyone sang happy birthday and it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”

Asked if she had any advice for aspiring chefs, Kim said: “Love what you do. Fully immerse yourself into it. Try good restaurants if you can, find out the food you like, and look for people who are going to inspire you along the way. Go for it!”

Now, after a hectic touring schedule, Kim is enjoying a summer break before being back on the road in the autumn – but is looking forward to cooking up a treat at Saltburn Food Festival’s outdoor food theatre on Sunday, July 30.

“I’ve always been a huge fan and I’ve been to every single festival so far,” said Kim. “It’s very exciting to see something like this in our area. And if you love food it’s absolutely the place to be. I’ve kept in touch with the festival organisers for the last few years and it was absolutely fantastic to be asked to be part of things this year – especially with such a great line-up of other chefs on the big day itself.”

Saltburn Food Festival director Lorna Jackson said: “Kim made a huge impression on us when she was here to help Richard Ingram at the food theatre in 2016. Her passion and obvious love of cooking was there for all to see and I knew she was going to have a fantastic future.

“I love the fact that Kim fell into catering almost by accident. She found herself cooking one day and discovered a real passion.”

Kim joins a tasty festival food theatre line-up that also includes Ian Munro (owner/chef, The Velveteen Rabbit, Great Ayton), Jason Moore (head chef, The G&T House, Great Ayton), Martyn Hyde (chef/owner, Eat Me Café at Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), Jon Appleby (head chef, The Feversham Arms, Helmsley) and Gareth Bottomley (head chef, The Station Cafe/Bar, The Station, Richmond).

Saltburn Food Festival: Sunday, July 30, 10am-6pm with free admission.