Like many professional people who truly enjoy what they do, Graham Redford fell into tourism during the first phase of his career.

Currently, the 42-year-old is enjoying his role as managing director of Total Marketing & Communications (TMC), the marketing arm of local outsourced business support services company Total Management Group. TMC is staging the upcoming Bermuda Culinary Festival, which will bring celebrity chefs from the US and UK here from November 11 to 16 for a lively programme of food-themed activities and demonstrations. Hollywood actress Sigourney Weaver will also make a special appearance at the event.

For Mr. Redford, the Festival is not just a business opportunity for his company, but it's also a way to contribute to the recovery of the industry that gave him his professional start in life. He remembers the early days of his career with fondness.

"I was at the University of Western Ontario studying for a degree in computer science and I started bartending during the holidays just to make some money to get me through school," he recalls.

"The summer of 1981 led to an opportunity to work as a steward on a large motor yacht for the season. It belonged to a former Italian prime minister and I was fairly busy doing all kinds of general things on the boat as well as serving food and drinks," says Mr. Redford.

"Then the chef got fired and I thought 'I can do that' so I volunteered to step in, not letting the fact that I had no culinary experience get in the way of course!"

The rest, as they say, is history. He came into contact with a variety of people within the tourism sector and enjoyed his work so much that he decided to switch his focus to the hospitality industry and pursued studies in the Hotel Management programme at the Bermuda College.

"It was the early '80s, tourism was still in its heyday and it was a great programme that was turning out really good people," he says. "The industry was booming and I wanted to be part of that."

After completing his studies he left Bermuda in 1985 to work for the Marriott Hotel Group at their property in Hilton Head. A year later he was back home and, in an unexpected twist, developing the catering and kitchen department for Miles Market. It seems food was destined to be a part of his career: "We did everything from small private dinner parties to large weddings and special events; it was great," says Mr. Redford.

Fast forward seven years and, even though he says he loved his time with Miles, it was time for a major change.

"I always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit and it was time to go out on my own," he says. "I started consulting, mainly kitchen design and layouts for commercial clients, restaurants and such."

That apparently kept him happy until 1997 when Viv Redford, his brother and one of the other three partners in TMG (Rick Correia and Steve Marklow complete the foursome), approached him about developing a new company.

"The concept was to establish a one-stop shop for outsourced business support services," says Mr. Redford.

"At the time my brother and his partner were revamping a company called Software and Accounting Services and looking to separate those two functions within the new concept."

From that base concept the Total Group of companies was formed: Total Office Management, Total Software Solutions and later on Total Marketing & Communications. According to Mr. Redford the companies have grown steadily over the last seven years, and the group now has a team of 18 people. Their clients include a cross-section of the local private and public sector, from law firms to investment companies to exempt insurance companies and quangos.

"And we're probably the largest research provider on the Island now," he says. "Finally people are understanding the importance of good research in Bermuda, and that's taken some time."

Mr. Redford initially worked on the business recovery side of the business within Total Office Management and moved over to head up TMC in 2001. He has been spearheading the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival for TMC "from day one pretty much", ever since the company successfully bid to coordinate the logistics and running of the event locally.

"It's really a labour of love for me, and we and the Department of Tourism have had quite a ride putting it all together," he says. "Although the Festival is now in its fourth year this will only be the second event to actually take place."

He's referring to the two occasions that the Festival had to be cancelled: the inaugural event was scratched in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and the effects of Hurricane Fabian led to it being called off again last year.

"But out of bad comes good and the downtime between the first one in 2002 and this year has enabled us to step back, strip the event down and make adjustments as needed," he says. "For example one of the new things we've introduced this year is the online reservation system so that booking is easy for both locals and visitors, together with more flexible packages and ticket options."

He adds there is also even more emphasis on giving Bermuda's chefs, whether already established or young Bermudian apprentices, the opportunity for professional development during the event this year, which also supports the on going goal of raising culinary standards here.

"The Escoffier Cup competition gets the Island's chefs to compete under international standards before a discerning audience during the Festival," said Mr. Redford. "We'll be flying in an international judge from the American Culinary Federation (ACF) for the finals, and the entire competition will be judged under amended international rules approved by lead judges within the ACF.

"It's a great opportunity for our local chefs, made possible by the kind generosity of our sponsors, and the added benefit is that the money raised in ticket sales for all stages of the Escoffier Cup contest will benefit the Bermuda Culinary Arts Festival Scholarship Fund," he adds. "This charity assists Bermudian apprentices and students interested in furthering their career in the culinary arts."

The winner of the competition will be crowned Bermuda's Chef of the Year and will fly off to Lyons, France next year to observe the world's most prominent cooking competition, the Bocuse D'Or.

As well as seeing continued growth for the Total Group as he and his partners seek to move the company towards greater success ? "I'm really proud of what we've done as a group to grow the business; it's a great team effort and we're still having fun doing it" - he would also like to see the Festival expand to support Bermuda's revival as a tourism destination.

"The Culinary Festival has strong potential, I'd like to see it grow to be a two-week event," he says. "And we're definitely on the right track with this event; our exit research with visitors who attended the last time showed that it absolutely worked from their perspective. I'm glad that we're able to make this kind of contribution within the hospitality area. The field of culinary tourism is a fast-growing trend which is gaining even more momentum and which in my opinion can really work for Bermuda."