Workplace chefs on parade

8th February 2010, 2:04pm

Staff feeding is a specialised area with its own particular challenges – menu fatigue and High Street competition to name but two – and chefs from leading contract caterers will offer demos showcasing the work they do.

Staff catering is a huge part of the catering market in the UK, with contract caterers and self-operated staff restaurants between them achieving sales worth more than £4 billion a year.

The dedicated business and industry (B&I) day in the Cost Sector Catering Live timetable is an opportunity for some of the best operators in the sector to showcase the talents of the large catering workforce that feeds the UK's working staff.

The environment they have to work in requires them to turn over vast numbers of meals within very short timescales.

Not only that but the food has to be of a high standard that can compete with the High Street or operators know their customers will simply walk out the door at lunchtime and find a sandwich shop, deli or pub to eat in.

It goes without saying that all food has to be prepared to meet the demands of a variety of dietary requirements.

In addition, in the middle of the difficult economic times we are currently enduring, budgets are tight. And if that was not bad enough, the situation is made more challenging by clients who are demanding environmental compliance in line with their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies.

It is part of a move that is seeing CSR policies and, in particular, all the issues surrounding sustainability, moving firmly to the forefront of the hospitality industry agenda.

Come and see how the chefs cope with these demands to produce food their customers want, a service their clients like and make money for the contractors themselves.

Details were still being finalised at the time of going to press, but Craft Guild of Chefs (CGoC) chairman Nick Vadis, the Compass UK & Ireland's executive chef, has promised involvement from members of his team, with other contractors arranging to send key staff members as well.

* This year Cost Sector Catering has got together with the exhibition organisers to create a series of events to appeal to Public Sector Caterers – 'CSC live' will run for all five days of the show covering the key areas of Public Sector Catering.

The countdown is continuing to the start of Hotelympia, the UK's leading foodservice exhibition. Held every two years at the ExCeL centre in London's Docklands, the exhibition has established itself as the must attend event for restaurateurs, hoteliers and contract caterers.