Creative, hardworking and result oriented, Tom Rutherford has remained a leader in his field, producing pioneering, market leading cuisine in corporate events and food businesses for 30 years. Tom is known to push the boundaries of creativity and operational success in food and beverage, restaurants and events consistently delivering avant-garde event and business outcomes.

Starting out at Le Gavroche, London the flagship restaurant of the Roux brothers, Tom honed his craft as a restaurateur under six years of expert personal tutelage of Albert Roux himself.
In 1987, Tom created the Truffle Group Catering Company through which he produced innovative special events including a decade of Cointreau Balls, the Sydney Children’s Hospital Gold and Silver dinners, hundreds of incentive groups and launches for Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, Banque Nationale de Paris and Alan Jones.

The Truffle Group presented Australian cuisine for Heads of State at both the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games and the 1998 Winter Games in Nagano and was the caterer at the Sydney 2000 Sponsor Hospitality Centre, the Nike Athlete Centre and the Samsung Rendezvous Centre. He also presented the official welcome dinner for 5000 of the world’s media in Centennial Park.

Tom was approached to create a restaurant for the Super Yacht Marina in Rozelle Bay and in turn created Liquidity Restaurant, Bar and Marquee. The operation was a finalist in the 2001 Restaurant of the Year awards. Between 1999 and 2002 Tom worked on the Sydney Football Stadium and Sydney Cricket Ground contracts and later secured the jewel in the Sydney venue crown - the Sydney Opera House.

After 17 years Tom passed on the mantle of the Truffle Group and bought one of Sydney’s great joys, Beach Road, revitalising it with a new look and menu. Beach Road won the RC&A’s Best New Restaurant award in the first year of operation and Best Restaurant with Entertainment the following year.

Tom became known as Mr FnB.

In 2008, fnb – a boutique food and management agency for events and businesses was launched to work with event producers, restaurant owners, clubs and corporations. Tom’s unique blend of innovation, vision and hands-on approach means he just doesn’t have the ideas - he puts them to the test – himself.

The fnb management approach sees Tom articulately analysing, strategising and inspiring businesses through a food and beverage transformation, with an innate ability to increase retail sales, while engaging with the client through presentation and a value for money eye for detail. His quality approach gets results – quickly and effectively for long term profitability and success.

Toms Clients include Foxtel, where he introduced a new caterer and catering model which has doubled the turnover and satisfaction of the staff cafe, Panther Group, where he has bought clarity to the food and beverage operations increasing the turnovers significantly in Penrith and Newcastle, Sydney Ferries with tender plan for a new caterer, Toyoya for all of their National Dealer meetings and now with Mounties on designing, resoursing and implementing a strategic plan for already successful operation

Since starting fnb, Tom has been a Senior Judge for the National Awards Program and a Mentor in a new program designed to assist newcomers to the Meeting and Events industry. He has spoken as an industry expert in Melbourne at AIME, has spoken at RSVP, Sydney and Melbourne and the Annual Club Managers Conference in September as a Key Note Speaker.

In recognition of his reputation for creativity and his ability to drive sales and profitability, Tom was approached by Harrods (London) to take up the roll of Creative Director of Food and Beverage for 30 restaurants, 5 World renowned Food Halls and expensive catering