Kitchen Rat

What does James Bond have for breakfast? Kippers? Frosties? Lucky charms? A Russian dissident with a lousy shot? Pussy Galore?

The answer is: we'll never know. Nor will we ever find out what brand of muesli Moneypenny brunches on, how Q likes his eggs or if M ever sneaks through two bread rolls with his soup.

According to Compass-held caterers Everson Hewett, details of their contract in London's MI6 Building are, in a line KR assumes was lifted straight from The Rock, on a "need to know basis", and discussing it would be breaking the official secrets act.

Venue-Elior was introduced ahead of its launch later this month to a crowd of event bookers at Lloyds of London last week.

Headed by the unlikely sounding Scot, Raymond Santamaria, the service will offer 40 prestigious venues to event bookers to hire, such as Kempton Park, with catering provided by incumbent Elior UK.

But Kitchen Rat hears Santamaria, now UK marketing manager for Venue-Elior, has taken an even more unlikely career path to reach his current position than his unusual surname suggests.

Kitchen Rat was interested to see that the "Iron chancellor" Gordon Brown elected to kick off his challenge for the Labour Party leadership at the Imagination Gallery in London with the catchphrase "new ideas and vision". Nice.

Whether Gordon will successfully cater to the party faithful's needs only time will tell but the choice of venue was neat as the feeding duties are handled by contract caterer Vacherin whose director of business development Phil Roker is competing in this year's Frankfurt Iron Man on 1 July.

Although contract caterers could be forgiven for thinking their role is to serve good food at keen prices in attractive environments it appears in the spirit of "the client is always right" a certain operational flexibility is always useful.

Yes having puzzled over Atkins, endured the cabbage diet (pooey) and got our heads around GI, a new "revolutionary" diet aid has arrived in the City and could be on the menu at a firm near you soon.

ReSet is a weight loss programme that claims to do-what-it-says-on the-tin and reset the function of your pancreas, reducing acidity to a neutral PH to reprogramme appetite and reduce hunger and cravings with the use of an apparently patented technology called Viscofiber plus Whey Protein (yes, that's the science part).

Midlands contract caterer Olive Catering Services, which was set up by some former Catering Alliance bods and a PwC accountant three years ago, has grown the business to more than 50 contracts and £6m-plus of turnover off the back of a no-compromises commitment to excellent food, in the main locally sourced.

Although based on premises at a working farm in Ratcliffe Culey, Warwickshire, efforts to impress upon clients that Olive's focus on quality ingredients is a sincere one, at a time when everyman and his food-miles friendly hound seems to have hopped on the locally sourced bandwagon, must be hard work.

Last week contract caterer Elior UK leant its support to Across the Line, a sports themed event held at the home of cricket, Lord's in North-west London, to raise funds for development agency Plan.

Guest stars included rower Ed Coode, Badmington's Gail Emms, former England cricket star Alec Stewart and champion jockey Richard Dunwoody.

After dinner and a desperate attempt by the now slightly addled guests to complete a sports quiz, a charity auction commenced and the real fun began.

House wifes' favourite and former 400m Great Britain star Roger Black was on hand at last week's Association of Catering Excellence conference in London as a motivational speaker.

Kitchen Rat hears that the taller and leaner than you might think Mr Black, who has a couple of Olympic silver medals and a team relay gold from the 1991 World Championships, was there to deliver a pep-talk to delegates on achieving your full potential.

Kitchen Rat salutes Phil Roker the business development director at City caterer Vacherin.

If you think your day has been hard spare a thought for the insane Roker who completed - no mean feat in itself - the Frankfurt Ironman on the 1 July raising, to date, £2,000 for charities Hospitality Action and Debra.

Roker put himself through a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride and a what-the-hell-I-can-still-stand marathon (the full 26.2 miles).

It seems 2007 is turning out to be a very good year for contract caterer Aramark.

Kitchen Rat hears the caterer has pulled off a second major business and industry catering win following its estimated £15m a year BBC contract.

Aramark’s credit must be high as the caterer has taken over the complete running of banking giant HBOS’s catering, thought to be around 25 sites nationwide. A major coup!

The feeding duties were previously split between Aramark and Sodexho and although the value of the deal has not been officially confirmed industry sources believe it to be multi-million. Estimates run from £8m in annual turnover up, so that should keep the bank manager from the door.

Wembley, Wembley – er, keep it down please, you’ll upset the neighbours.

According to a piece in the Evening Standard (ES) fans are being too noisy at the nation’s recently opened football stadium centrepiece but they’re of the extractor variety rather than scarf wearing, lager quaffing sort.

Yes, it seems the much delayed stadium is unluckier than a visiting team at Old Trafford and following multiple delays in construction, a soaring bill that pretty much bankrupted construction firm Multiplex and trouble finding an executive chef, residents have now complained that the 500 fans used to expel air from the stadium’s impressive assortment of catering outlets sound like jet engines.

That’s the look, the look, the look of love sang ABC in the eighties but it seems few things change if you’re a contract caterer pitching for business.

Apparently one London caterer didn’t get past go and certainly didn’t collect £200 when they pitched up at the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, earlier this year for a tender without – dare we say it – ties!

Although that’s so media, darling, and increasingly acceptable in the business world generally it’s fair to say the academy, which was founded in 1660 overlooking the Mall and St James’ Park, prefers a certain gravitas to its affairs.

Dedicated to promoting excellence in science in the UK and commonwealth no less and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, the Society has the likes of Professor Stephen Hawking as a fellow. Channel 4 it is not.

Apparently as soon as these open neck types arrived an immediate look passed between the clients and “that was it for them. They could have walked on water but it wouldn’t of mattered”. Quite.

Well if the face fits.

The advent of the web has been a wonderful thing.

It means you can stay up-to-date with the latest hospitality news courtesy of Caterersearch and do things like your banking and shopping at the sort of irregular hours that suit hardworking hospitality types.

Of course criminals have been quick to make the most of this new opportunity as well. An unprotected computer is easy prey for viruses and hackers so it makes sense to get the correct software to protect your personal details.

Although the mention of Apple in this context may suggest a certain Californian company that sells computers and expensive phones, it is in fact contract caterer Blue Apple Catering that is the focus of this hi-tech tale.

If you’re pitching for an ad. agency in central London, full no doubt of spiky-haired types in sharp suits, you’d better make sure your sell is up to scratch.

Although it’s true everyone has to eat, the likes of JWT, now part of WPP the largest agency of its type in the world and home to clients including Vodafone, Ford and HSBC, are always on the lookout for that extra certain something.

Boutique caterer Harbour & Jones obviously has just that ingredient having nicked the £1m annual deal off Compass Group’s “dinner lady” attired team from fine dining arm Restaurant Associates, Kitchen Rat hears.

The annual Christmas party can be a tedious affair especially when you’re holding it for clients.

Determined to make their client event memorable, one London caterer put on their creative elf hats recently and decided an evening of burlesque would fit the bill.

With the theme set the managing and business development directors found a suitable venue, which promised no less than the Welsh Dita Von Tesse (or Samantha as she turned out to be known) in a pantomime based on Cinderella.

It is at this point it’s worth recommending that if you are taking out a group of VIPs that are essentially paying your wages it is wise to check out the performance beforehand.

The eighties. A decade of excess, of Thatcher and the sort of conspicuous consumption only Russian oligarchs and US R&B stars truly go in for these days.

One managing director of a small but perfectly formed catering company was recently reminiscing about those halcyon days that taste forgot.

At the time he was overseeing the catering and hospitality at Barings, the oldest merchant bank in London until its collapse in 1995 thanks to Nick Leeson.

He had a good relationship with the client at the bank and always made sure he did the very best he could to deliver top service, holding regular meetings with him to discuss how the hospitality operation was running.

Ahead of one such briefing the caterer took it on himself to examine how the contract was running.

After a thorough investigation he identified several areas where a number of cost savings could be made through simple efficiencies, thinking the bank’s masters would be delighted.

On the face of it Aramark had a darn good 2007 with a number of high profile contract wins including the BBC and HBOS.

It also opened a fancy new innovation centre at the London Underwriting Centre, getting Gordon Ramsay, no less, along on launch night to endorse it.

Aramark’s Innovation Centre is a collection of its "high street" offerings, technology and a demonstration kitchen, put in place to showcase the range of options it has to offer customers.

So it was probably with a few choice oaths that the news Aramark has been replaced to cater for underwriter Catlin, one of the LUC's larger tenants, was received at its headquarters at Millbank Tower, London.

There may be trouble ahead (for the economy), but skipping the music and dance bit, being thrifty is always nifty if you’re a caterer.

Yes operating on wafer thin margins is tricky at the best of times and with rampant food inflation at the moment the business of feeding people isn’t getting any easier (or cheaper).

Still, a recently uncovered initiative by a multi-million pound contract caterer straight from the school of every-little-helps managed to raise an eye brow or two on Kitchen Rat.

A request for a mug shot to illustrate an appointment story – the not unusual news of a chef moving from one caterer to another – was declined. In itself this is not unusual, the Caterer journalist in question simply thinking it was to do with sensitivity or politics around the move. Not so.

“It’s a large file and they only send those out after seven pm as it’s cheaper,” an incredulous sounding contact at the smaller caterer reported back to the journalist.

Presumably for hard copies you now have to send in a self addressed envelope and it’s a case of bring your own ketchup in the staff canteen and share tea bags.

How much sugar's in your tea?

With small, privately owned caterers ten-a-penny these days and the industry frighteningly incestuous, rumours of imminent takeovers reach Kitchen Rat on an almost daily basis.

Ignoring the fact that Charlton House, according to industry gossips has been up for sale seemingly since Robyn Jones founded it, one slightly more credible whisper doing the rounds recently was that City caterer In House was being offered for sale.

The rumour seems to have grown out of the fact that joint managing director Andrew Merret has this month left to pursue other interests.

However, a bit of digging and a chat with a source close to the company reveals Merret wasn’t a shareholder and the story with In House is something different.

With a healthy conference and event business combined with executive dining services the company, which was launched in 1995 and has around 100 staff and 22 contracts turning over around £7m, is doing nicely enough for its three major investors.

So much so that chairman Gary Hall is apparently considering a move into the concessions market. It appears he is pursuing the recruitment of a bright young thing or things to have a shot at running it almost as their own business under the In House umbrella, keeping things very much in house.

Contract catering news round up>>

In House Catering>>

Contract catering's big five in push for healthier school meals>>

So Sodexho Alliance has become Sodexo.

At Kitchen Rat we’re all for simplicity and it’s hard to argue with this bit of American English style revisionism.

We’ll even accept the new company tagline, “making every day a better day”. It certainly shows ambition.

However, full disclosure of the thinking behind such a change as the company reinforces its image as a facilities management firm not just a caterer, isn’t always best.

For example, in its press release an earnest Sodexo explains the pesky h in its name has been dropped because “h is often associated with the hotel and foodservices business, particularly in Europe”. Really?

It’s also apparently easier to pronounce than, one supposes, something such as L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon or Leicester Square (if you’re American).

Still, people get paid a lot of money to come up with this sort of stuff, not least the bunch that justified the amalgamation of Sodexo’s five stars into one on the new corporate logo thus:

“The single star symbolizes the performance and energy of Sodexho teams directed toward a common objective. This star differs from other stars, just as Sodexo stands out from its competitors”. So now you know.

Sodexo wins major army contract>>

While the industry giants such as Compass and Sodexo have teams dedicated to marketing it's not so easy for the smaller contract caterers to make their voices heard.

Being the alternative is no alternative at all if no one knows who you are.

Luckily Nathan Jones, the other half of boutique caterer Harbour & Jones (H&J), isn’t too proud and has adapted guerrilla tactics in a low-tech approach to viral marketing.

Curious to know if Jones has passed through the airport or train station you’re at?

Well it’s easy enough to find out. Find the nearest public internet terminal and if you’re unexpectedly confronted with the H&J home page then you’ve had a visit from the firm’s marketing fairy in chief.

Does it work? Well H&J recently took a random, but charming, Californian foodie along on their regular client trips around London’s Borough market after she saw the site at an airport and couldn’t keep her curiosity in check.

No doubt it will snowball from here on in. Watch out Compass!

Harbour & Jones gets top Compass chef>>

It’s time to drop the H bomb>>

Vodka revolution wins Harbour & Jones new deal>>

Silver screen service>>

Contract caterers are generally an honourable bunch (aside from the occasional bout of well-humoured bitching about each other).

However, it’s also a given that caterers phone each other’s clients to keep in touch and “see how it’s going”.

Still, Kitchen Rat was mightily amused to hear that as one well known foodservice consultancy hammers out a code of conduct for the industry, which has popular support, one cheeky business is, shall we say, up to its old tricks of stretching the truth.

Misinformation may be a useful tactic but it’s not entirely professional.

Unsurprisingly, we hear Bartlett Mitchell (BM) co-founder Wendy Bartlett is on the warpath after it emerged that the contract caterer in question has had its sales team telling potential clients that BM is about to be sold.

Very naughty.

Apparently the very same contract caterer was last year putting a similar rumour out in the marketplace about Midlands based Catermasters.

Sometimes it's important to communicate your vision. On other occasions knowing when to keep it to the point is priceless.

Exciting things are happening at Birmingham’s NEC, not least £10m of investment in its catering, and what better way to illustrate this improvement than with food itself.

As part of this it was the turn of the group’s outside event catering arm Amadeus to take its turn in the spotlight last week.

Clients and associates were invited to a swanky dinner at picturesque Stoneleigh Abbey in Warwickshire.

Keen no doubt to tuck in and enjoy the perfectly matched wines courtesy of wine merchant Bibendum, NEC Group executive Paul Thandi cut to the chase in his pre-dinner welcome.

“18 months ago we set ourselves a strategy for the company, which was to be the market leader in catering. As part of this we today relaunch Amadeus. Some will tell you it’s all about sweating group assets but I believe it’s simply about bloody, good food.”

[Which it was].

Holroyd Howe is dead! Long live Holroyd Howe! Actually despite the December takeover by BaxterStorey Kitchen Rat hears talk in the industry that the demise of the Holroyd Howe name is premature and it's set to live on.

Word is Holroyd Howe is going to become a brand catering exclusively for independent schools leaving the state sector to the group's CaterLink run by Tony McKenna.

Cater Link wins Islington school meals contract>>

No honour amongst thieves?

Kitchen Rat has learnt that contract caterer Aramark has won a deal to cater for business information publisher Bloomberg at its Finsbury Square offices in London from next month.

The multi-million pound contract, previously run by Elior's Avenance, is operated with a heavy subsidy from the employer with staff able to help themselves to free refreshments and food.

It's a huge boon for the caterer, which last July won a mammoth £15m a year deal to cater for the BBC in London.

Aramark to cater at all HBOS sites>>

They really are dancing for joy at contract caterer Bartlett Mitchell (BM).

Having won Caterer’s Best Places to Work in Hospitality title in their sector last week, the team at BM have also landed the Royal Thames Yacht Club in salubrious Knightsbridge as a client.

Reputed to be the oldest club of its type in the UK, the London base has two bars, reading rooms, a restaurant called the Coffee Room and “cabins” for those needing a place to weather any storm (or simply sleep).

This recent tide of success has had such a profound effect on BM creative director David James – a past UK champion Irish dancer no less – that he hasn’t been able to still his dancing feet since.

Kitchen Rat hears that the “King of the Step” even took part in an Irish Cahlie at a recent BM bash, showing his talents lie not just within catering but in Michael Flattery’s arena.

No confirmation as yet whether the routine will become part of all future tenders by the caterer, although it certainly sounds more fun then sitting through yet another PowerPoint presentation.

Malmaison and Hotel du Vin scoops two Best Places to Work awards>>

Wendy Bartlett, director, Bartlett Mitchell: My life in hospitality>>

Bartlett Mitchell scoops £2.5m City contract>>

Bartlett Mitchell website>>

Sodexo has finally given the beleaguered populace of Newcastle something to smile about, helping take Geordies’ minds off Kevin Keegan and the hostile takeover of local brewer Scottish & Newcastle.

The caterer and facilities management company has started a £250,000 initial one-year deal to feed Newcastle Building Society staff at Cobalt Business Park.

The deal also includes cleaning and gym services (!). Sodexo will initially be feeding 150 building society staff but the number is set to rise to 500 later this year as more are moved into the recently built site.

However, there could be considerably more mouths than even this to feed as Personnel Today reports that disenfranchised workers at the now nationalised Northern Rock are looking to work at rival Newcastle Building Society.

So smiles all round then, just don’t mention the Magpies or the fact that Madonna has bought a Scottish & Newcastle pub (she hasn’t).

Sodexho Alliance renamed Sodexo>>

Sodexho: It’s time to drop the H bomb>>

Scottish & Newcastle takeover deadline extended>>

So, plans to get contract caterers to sign up to a code of conduct to stop school-yard shenanigans between them at handover time have taken another step closer to realisation.

A meeting of the great and good in the sector has been arranged for next month in London’s Canary Wharf business district to hammer out the details.

Apparently it's not unheard of for out going caterers to delete records of bookings, sabotage equipment and bad mouth the incoming party.

But wait.

Although news that the ex-HR director at Gate Gourmet during the horror show that was the Heathrow staff dispute of 2005 is dishing out advice to Acas – itself a conciliation service – is certainly delicious, Kitchen Rat can go one better in regards to the code of conduct.

With the Formula 1 season upon us and questions as to whether Lewis Hamilton can win it, BaxterStorey has beaten the pack to win Honda.

The contract caterer is providing services to the Honda racing team, which with Jenson Button had a season to forget in 2007, at its base of operations near the Silverstone race circuit in Brackley, Northamptonshire.

The BaxterStorey boys are feeding up to 700 staff and already cater for Honda rival the Red Bull Racing team.

As both BaxterStorey chief executive Alastair Storey and deputy chief executive William Baxter are self-confessed petrol heads it’s no doubt a bit of additional business and pleasure.

Nice to see after last year's takeover of Holroyd Howe that BaxterStorey hasn't taken its foot of the gas.

Official Formual 1 website>>

Joy to the World: Honda F1 ditches globe livery>>

BaxterStorey swoops for caterer Holroyd Howe>>

William Baxter and Alastair Storey on the making of a marvellous merger>>

Having won Ready Steady Cook! last year contract caterer Vacherin has got one up on it’s rivals again with victory in the annual Ace pub quiz.

The Caterer Adopted Business took top honours at Imperial College last night beating double winner Bartlett Mitchell to the title.

However, considering Ace is the Association of Catering Excellence and its membership consists heavily of contract caterers, it was worrying to hear that one of the rounds that tripped contestants up was the one on food.

There are plum City contracts for contract caterers and then there are the likes of investment bank Goldman Sachs, run by Compass Group.

Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s oldest investment banks and was founded in 1869 long before the expression credit crunch came into vogue.

However Kitchen Rat hears the re-tendering exercise currently being conducted at the firm isn’t going as smoothly as perhaps envisioned.

Are you being served? by Graysons Restaurants the contract caterer backed by ex Compass chairman Sir Francis Mackay.

Well staff at chemical and forensic analysis firm LGC in South London now are in what is Graysons first contract-catering deal.

As mentioned Sir Francis is backing the new contract caterer but the Compass Group link doesn’t stop there.

The problem with doing the right thing is that everyone thinks it’s a marvellous idea until they realise it might actually apply to them.

Tired of “school boy” style pranks at handover time the Stern Consultancy and a number of contract caterers have got the ball rolling on a voluntary code of conduct for handover to a new supplier.

As ever time has flown by and the meeting is set for next week at McGraw Hill at Canary Wharf , which was won last year by Bartlett Mitchell one of the early supporters of the charter.

There’s always been a question of authenticity attached to Disneyland Resort Paris (DRP) – a suspicion that American and French culture weren’t obvious bedfellows.

Still, for their part, it seems the former top brass at the resort – then Euro Disney - really did live and breathe life in the Enchanted Kingdom and were happy to lead by example.

Back when Sir Francis Mackay, now at Graysons, was chief executive of Compass Group, the firm landed the staff feeding deal at the Paris resort.

Mackay was invited over to France to officially sign the deal behind closed doors with the then DRP boss Gilles Pélisson, now head of hotel company Accor.

After a dinner at American diner Walt’s, the executives retired to sign the papers. At this point, none other than Mickey Mouse himself appeared and kept proffering the document to a taken aback Mackay.

Puzzlement became stunned disbelief as the French execs present happily chatted to the six-foot mouse as if he was indeed Mickey and this was a completely ordinary day-to-day occurrence.

However Mackay was not to be fooled, confiding that he became suspicious of Mickey’s authenticity as he refused to speak a single high-pitched word throughout the meeting.

Graysons Ltd brings in more Compass talent>>

Graysons lands first contract at chemical labs>>

Being one of Caterer's Adopted Businesses is an honour not bestowed lightly.

It's better to be talked about than not at all, after all and there's a lot of associated credit to go with a regular feature in the hospitality magazine.

Although Caterer's reach is well established with a number of ex-pats. on the subscription list, one tale from current Adopted Business Vacherin still managed to surprise.

With all publicity being good publicity, it appears Caterer's coverage of City caterer Vacherin has permeated the world wide web and has been picked up as far away as Africa.

Pol Roger is one of the few remaining family-owned champagne houses in France.

Although not as large and therefore well known a producer as the likes of Moet & Chandon or Veuve Clicquot (who have between them almost half the market), the house, which was founded in 1849, is highly regarded within the wine trade.

Suitably bespoke city caterer Vacherin called in recently at Pol Roger's Epernay base, which is situated in a splendid manor house, with a mix of directors, managers and clients on an educational trip organised via Laytons wine merchants.

Pol Roger's Hubert de Billy, director of sales and marketing for France, was on hand to give an extremely entertaining tour of the adjacent production facility and cellars.

It seems with demand for the fizzy stuff being fuelled by emerging markets such as China and India, Champagne is already struggling to meet this unquenchable global demand and finding enough grapes for production is much more difficult than finding customers.

It seems Raffles the gentleman thief may be on the prowl again if a break-in at top-end caterer Vacherin is anything to go by.

The directors, back from their trip to Champagne and after the long bank holiday weekend, returned to their Bedford Row offices in London to find them ransacked.

Although entry (a kicked down door) wasn't very elegant that's probably simply the fact that Vacherin's office doesn't have a tempting skylight to lower one's self through.

The Caterer Adopted Business's computers were untouched and although some cash was taken ("for expenses and sundries") it seemed at first that an old laptop and a projector were the only other casualties.

However, on closer inspection the true nature of the crime became apparent.

It seems Cater Link has impressed the good people at Camden Council in London as it's set for an an extention to its initial three-year school meals contract.

The caterer, which is part of the same stable that owns business and industr