Most jobs have perks. Pensions, private health insurance, gym membership. If you’re a politician: a second home… Staff here at Abel & Cole get organic veg , have baskets of fruit to nibble from, a tuck box full of bars from The Chocolate Alchemist, and a chef. Yes, a chef.

Paul Freestone lays on luscious lunches for hungry staff each day – and there is a real flurry of anticipation as we await the daily announcement of each day’s feast.

It’s a bit of wrench if any of us have to be out of the office – it’s frustrating to miss a day of Paul’s culinary excellence. His background includes work as a raw-food chef in Amsterdam and serving fancy dishes in Ibiza. Watch out Jamie Oliver; this chef has talent.

Paul started in January. In his first week he converted legume sceptics with spicy yellow split pea burgers, he introduced ‘Juicy Tuesdays’ a means to energise staff and use up surplus fruit and veg, and he smoked beetroots over a bed of rosemary.  (See these pics of Paul’s beef and 5 root veg stew, and the potato and fennel gratin with smoked beetroots).

Having a chef and having staff eating the veg we sell is important. For one, it keeps us healthy and inspires us with ideas on how to eat up tricky veg like swede.

In Paul’s two months he’s come up with some great ideas with the hearty root. A favourite was swede curry with chickpeas, saffron rice, cabbage with garlic and ginger and coriander oil (made using up herby stalks that would otherwise go into the compost).

Having such a creative chef on board is really helping us tackle waste. “If I get a crate of over-ripe tomatoes, I just pick out the bad bits and I’ll then make chutney and salsa.” He’s even turned nub ends of beetroot (leftover from grating them for a salad) into a beetroot coulis, which he drizzled over canapes leftover from Christmas (we had them in the freezer). They were served at the launch of our little restaurant last week. It even has a name (thanks to Rhiannon in Customer Services): Ladle & Bowl.

With a grandfatherly, war-time spirit, Paul says, “I just go with the food flow, and I love it. I’ve never worked anywhere with an ethos like this and it feels good.”