Recently in catering Category

Bizarre job titles are made more traditional at Berkshire based contract caterer Artizian after it lost faith in the title 'minister'.

The firm said the "negative slant and connotation" now associated with the title 'minister' prompted the change.

"Whereas in the past it was regarded as an esteemed position and one to look up to, due to our government this appears no longer to be the case," it added.

New job titles, taking into account the "need for greater clarity on the roles", have been announced.

• Pauline Vallance, previously minister of calm, is now senior manager - HR & team player insight
• Martin Dibben, previously minister of excellence, is now senior manager - food & procurement insight
• Kenny Tranquille, previously nutritional therapist, is now simply a nutritionist
• Judith Owen previously consultant minister of fun & development, is now training partner

This Kitchen Rat can't help thinking that Judith must have been disappointed by the change.

Who wouldn't want to be the minister of fun?

If you're going to have a Lean & Green campaign, as in the case of caterer Harbour & Jones (H&J), it goes without saying that you have to walk-the-walk and not just talk (a lot).

To this end Kevin Harrison, H&J's ever so slightly scarily-named compliance director, has e-mailed all staff to inform them they will be receiving their very own pedometers.

H&J staff are being challenged to record each mode of transport they use in their working week, and to see if they can get anywhere near a recommended 10,000 steps a day, which should make them both healthier and "greener", albeit in quite a few steps.

Although there's a quarterly prize to be won, Kitchen Rat has not yet confirmed if it is indeed a night out with H&J co-founder Nathan Jones, or whether the runner-up gets two nights out with Jones for their troubles.

However, Harrison does warn in his e-mail that anyone caught cheating by shaking their pedometers, getting creative with cab reciepts or doctoring other people's scores, will, without doubt, win three nights out with Jones. Consider yourself warned.

Harbour & Jones adds to management team>>

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Harbour & Jones scoops advertising agency deal>> 

Elior development chef Mark Crowe has admitted to having nightmares after seeing the contestants on The Apprentice attempt last week's catering challenge.

Certainly it turned into a bad dream for boys' team leader and hospitality worker Rocky Andrews owner of Fatso's Filling Station, who was fired as a result of his team's efforts.

Crowe told Kitchen Rat: "As a development chef for Avenance, we have many prestigious City companies as our clients and the challenges facing the The Apprentice contestants in last night's episode were very familiar.

"Our City clients demand and rightly expect the very best standards of food and service when entertaining their guests. Last week's programme highlighted just why this should be left to the professionals. I am still having nightmares about the second-rate canapés the teams served, and I certainly won't be using any of them on my new summer hospitality menus!"

Nor will Sir Alan Sugar, one suspects.

The Apprentice Catering challenge>>

Hospitality hopefulls escape the boardroom in the first Apprentice>>

It's Wednesday night and what does that mean? Yes, The Apprentice is back on our TV screens. And tonight's episode sees the young contestants faced with a particularly interesting challenge: catering.

Sir Alan Sugar will challenge both the male and female teams to set up a catering service for busy professionals in the City. They'll be pitching for lunchtime business and creating menus for a canapé reception, and as well as sourcing the ingredients, they must make, deliver and serve all the food themselves.

"A recipe for disaster," I hear you say? Oh yes!

One of the catering companies involved in the challenge was Red Snapper Events, which lent its kitchens to the male team. Managing director Damian Clarkson told Kitchen Rat "they were hopeless".

"One of their ideas was to serve a peanut butter sandwich on brown bread in a brown box. That's way too much brown and miles off what anyone wants," he said.

Kitchen Rat tried to find out who hosted the girls team, which no doubt had some equally insightful ideas, but The Apprentice PR declined to give out their details.

"Thanks for your request, but I'm afraid we do not give out this sort of information," she said.

It is MI5 stuff so if you know anything, please get in touch. We won't give you up, promise.

Hospitality hopefuls escape the boardroom in the first Apprentice

Kitchen Rat fears contract caterer Harbour & Jones may be making the most of an unfair, other-worldly, advantage over rivals when it comes to picking up new business.

A recent visit to London landmark St Paul's Cathedral to meet some of the new Harbour & Jones team, suggested something more than a strong offer and charisma might have come into play when the caterer was competing for the contract.

Apparently when H&J was invited to pitch for the deal last year they arrived at St Paul's only to be told that one of their rivals was running late.

The knock-on effect was that the caterer was asked to present in a chamber away from the main dining area of the Crypt.

This, H&J co-founder Patrick Harbour conceded, suited his team down to the ground as they had a "Best of British" selection of produce with them to showcase, which they were then able to arrange fetchingly on a stone shelf inside.

This was all good, but better still, as the cathedral's top brass walked in to hear the pitch, a shaft of golden sunlight, as if on demand, shone through from the window above, illuminating the produce and creating a bucolic harvest scene. Divine intervention?

It's hard to say, but H&J co-founder Nathan Jones was apparently sighted later in the cathedral lighting a candle, which one imagines was in reverence but could have been in gratitude.

Well, in these tough times it pays to keep the supreme being on side, after all.

Harbour & Jones wins £5m St Paul's Cathedral deal>> 

H&J scoops advertising agency deal>> 

Lunch on the 31st floor of the Canary Wharf Barclay's Bank building, with a snow-covered scene spread out via London docks, the winding path of the Thames, and the hills of Kent in the distance. Drink: 2002 premier cru St Emilion, with a fillet of rare breed beef, and surrounded by £8 million-worth of art.

The image of contract catering can for some be one of hospital slops and turkey twizlers, but that's not the reality in every single one of the foodservice sites.

Baxter Storey, for example, has this Barclays bank contract - and yes there are still employees there after the recent culls. And they can offer their employees the chance to work in the outstanding directors' rooms on the 31st floor, or at the Benugo outlet part-way up the tower.

The company also operates at Slaughter & May, the lawyers, where a team of ex-restaurant chefs work in the kitchen, serving up home-made pies and Scotch eggs, along with a range of modern British dishes for partners

Cooking for foodservice has more of a 9-5 lifestyle, few split shifts - and even some glamour.

Baxter Storey's Mike Smith to step down from managing director role >>

Baxter Storey loses senior Holroyd Howe director >>

Start-up caterer-cum-retailer Gold & Brown has started the year with reason for cheer (sorry), netting new business worth more than £1.5m.

Having revealed the inspiration for the company name to Kitchen Rat in November, the caterer is to launch at three new sites in 2009, taking its locations to a grand total of five since being established by Simon Elliot and Andrea Walwyn in April 2008. Not bad going given all the doom and gloom abound at the moment.

Gold & Brown is being somewhat coy about where the new sites are but did reveal that one of them is at an arts centre in the North-east, the 2nd is at a Horticultural venue on the south side of Harrogate (!) and the 3rd is a business and industry site in Rutland.

Taking on these new sites and the company's exisiting oulets at The Academy Health Club and Spa in Harrogate and Holden Wood in Lancashire is Helen Tesseyman.

Tesseyman joins as executive business manager from the Michelin-starred Devonshire Arms hotel at Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire.

Gold & Brown one of the winners at Caterersearch web awards>>

Gold & Brown online store>>

Contract catering round-up>>

Take a peek at this new design for a conference centre in Utrecht. Wall-to-wall carpets, fake brass fittings and mock oak panelling it is not.

The look is from architecture and design consultancy 123DV, and is part of the Jaarbeurs complex in Holland, with eight meeting rooms, plus a main congress hall that holds 800 people. The roof there is transparent, so it feels like you're meeting under the wide open sky. Oh, the romance of it all as you scribble notes on management change strategy.

Principal Hotels rebrands after Hayley Conference Centres buy >>

Compass Group retains contract with the Wellcome Trust >>

Timing being everything in comedy, at Kitchen Rat we couldn't help but smile when the Food Standards Agency (FSA) sent through a new press release singing the praises of its Simplification Plan.

Published by all government departments and bodies as part of the much publicized better regulation push, the FSA is understandably proud of the cost savings it has achieved by cutting nasty old red-tape.

For example, the lithe (one imagines) Safer Food, Better Business initiative has meant caterers have had to spend out a mere £28m to remain compliant with the relentless march of food legislation. The FSA says that if left to their own devices the bill would have been £66m and yes you're supposed to rejoice at that bit, caterers.

News reaches Kitchen Rat that former Everson Hewett boss Stuart Everson has returned to the world of contract catering after a break by accepting the role of chairman at Jill Bartlett.

His arrival is timely as Jill Bartlett is mobilising one of its most prestigious contracts yet, the feeding of staff at the Guardian News and Media's new headquarters at King's Place in London's King's Cross.

Everson Hewett, created by former Compass employees Stuart Everson and Jon Hewett, was, rather neatly, bought by Compass Group in Febraury 2004 as part of its fine dining operation.

Everson went on to run Compass's Baxter & Platts business before leaving Compass last year.

Everson Hewett as a brand, like Baxter & Platts, have subsequently been phased out by Compass, which unified its fine dinning activities under its Restaurant Associates brand. 

Stuart's input will no doubt be useful in a year that has seen Jill Bartlett step up a gear with deals to cater at magazine publisher Emap on top of an extention at law firm Shearman & Sterling.

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Contract caterers feeling the pinch>>