Jump to content
Home > Meet The Chefs > Brend Hotels

Dez Turland

GROUP DEVELOPMENT CHEF, BREND HOTELS

Dez-Turland-638×967

Overlooking Saunton Sands, one of Devon’s most spectacular beaches, the Saunton Sands Hotel boasts unprecedented views of this stunning 3 mile stretch of beach. Offering luxury accommodation and award-winning food, the Saunton Sands Hotel is also home to the popular Sands on the Beach restaurant, offering an array of rustic culinary delights.

Dez Turland, Group Development Chef for Brend Hotels, has been with the company for over 20 years and oversees all 11 of their hotels as well as the 70 chefs that work for the company throughout the South West. With a menu that changes daily, Dez relies heavily on high quality ingredients such as Tilda Rice, blending them seamlessly with local produce to ensure tourists get a true taste of the West country;

“Supporting local suppliers is extremely important to me as a chef. Our lobster comes from just across the bay and our beef just fifteen miles up the road. Mixing such local delights with high quality ingredients such as Tilda’s means we always give our customers the best. Tilda’s fair play credentials also play a huge part in our reason for using its products in our hotels. As a chef I make a conscious effort to support the local farmers, and it’s reassuring that Tilda does the same at its end too. Not only does the company provide the best quality rice around, it looks after those that harvest it.”

Serving over 250 covers a day, Dez and his team are extremely busy creating new dishes to excite their customers and therefore look for ingredients they know will deliver every time. Tilda’s Easy Cook Basmati & Wild Rice is one such ingredient which he has worked with throughout his career and which has never let him down;

“It’s incredibly important that we always have the right products available to work with in our kitchen. Tilda has been a constant in my kitchen for years as it gives me piece of mind knowing that all of my chefs are using an outstanding product.”

He continues “I love using Tilda Rice, not only does it taste fantastic, but its texture is superb and it holds really well when served. Our customers are extremely food-savvy these days, so they know when they’re being served the best. Tilda ensures that I am doing just that.”

If you’d like to find out how you can replicate Dez’s mouth-watering Smoked Haddock Kedgeree with Basmati & Wild, then watch the video below!