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Peter takes RFA’s top chef title thanks to his devotion, skill and support for fellow cooks
6 November 2025
Dedication over eight months to ensure shipmates received the best possible meals and junior chefs were nurtured earned Peter Thornton the title of ‘RFA Chef of the Year’ – and a date with royalty.
His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh presented the chief petty officer with his title – and the glass trophy which goes with it – when he joined Royal Fleet Auxiliary sailors and veterans at their 120th birthday celebrations in Portsmouth earlier this month.
Peter, who hails from South Shields, has spent 34 years in the RFA, the crucial pillar of Royal Navy operations worldwide, providing fuel, food, supplies and other assistance needed to sustain front-line warships on their missions.
The senior rating was singled out for his efforts aboard aviation training/medical support ship RFA Argus last year.
Typically, RFA personnel complete three or four-month drafts before returning home for three months off… and then it’s back to sea.
The senior rating completed back-to-back stints in the galley on the aviation support ship on its 2024 Littoral Response Group (South) deployment all the way out to Australia, then on the return leg to the UK via West Africa.
Throughout his eight months onboard Peter demonstrated both superb leadership skills and the ability to keep 400 sailors and Royal Marines well fed with a varied and balanced diet.
What particularly impressed his superiors was his mentoring. With a sizeable number of relatively inexperienced chefs aboard Argus, Peter took them under his wing and following the mantra of ‘EDIP’ (Explain, Demonstrate, Imitate and Practise) he helped to bring out their skills and enhance their confidence.
The net result was over a short period commis chefs were confidently rotated around Chef de Partie stations, delivering dishes which boosted morale given the long, mundane periods at sea.
In the words of his citation, “Peter is the epitome of the modern approach to food production at sea”.
The chef says the Royal Fleet Auxiliary has given him a career, “a way of seeing the world, so to speak” – he’s served in the Caribbean several times, Croatia, Middle East, Australia – and a decent wage, particularly when starting out as pay for young chefs in the early 90s was low.
Best of all, it’s given the Tynesider two families: “a sea family – but I also my met my wife, Michaela, aboard ship; at the time she was one of the first females to join the RFA.”
He added: “It was good to receive the award from the Worshipful Company of cooks as its shows recognition for the hard work I and my team put in every day whilst serving onboard RFA vessels, as does the fact that the citations were put in by my peers which ultimately resulted in me receiving the award.
“To receive the award from His Royal Highness was an added bonus.”