EVENTS | VENUES | RESTAURANTS | CAFÉS | INFLIGHT | PERFORMANCE SPORTS
about
ABSOLUTE TASTE Since its very beginning, Absolute Taste has provided fabulous food and great service. Absolute Taste operates all over the world with an amazing list of high profile clients. The diverse set of businesses includes outside catering and event design, private aviation, motorsport, restaurants and cafés. Absolute Taste was formed in 1997 by Lyndy Redding and Ron Dennis. We have since grown from providing hospitality for the McLaren Formula 1 Team to being one of the leading catering and event design companies. As a result of our continued success and exposure we now operate globally within a broad spectrum of sporting and hospitality sectors including motorsports, sailing, golf, tennis and one-off major sporting events. Professionalism and proven know-how has awarded Absolute Taste with coveted events such as the 2012 Olympic Stratford Westfield hospitality contract, Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday party, regular events serving the Queen and Centrepoint’s Winter Whites Gala at Kensington Palace, hosted by HRH Duke of Cambridge. Managing Director Lyndy Redding remains at the heart of Absolute Taste’s success. Passionate and dedicated to food, service and her fabulous staff, Lyndy has built an organisation that still retains its core values.
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The freshest ingredients, The freshest ingredients, perfectly combined perfectly combined
about
LYNDY REDDING Born in Yorkshire, Lyndy began her career training as a chef at the prestigious Tante Marie School of Cookery. It was always her dream to build a successful catering business. Lyndy worked around the world as a private chef at exclusive ski chalets, a chateau in the South of France, shooting lodges in Scotland and on a luxury yacht in the Seychelles. She returned to London to work at a small, privately owned catering business, which further inspired her business dream. As a chef at the F1 races and Moto GPs for Marlboro, Lyndy continued to cook her way around the world. At the same time, her dream of having her own business was taking shape and she would prepare food in the evenings from her tiny flat and dash all over London to cook for clients and friends. Having met Ron Dennis, Executive Chairman of McLaren Automotive whilst in the motor racing world, Lyndy’s dream of owning a catering company came true. Together they formed Absolute Taste to provide the hospitality for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes at the races and tests. When McLaren moved to their Foster + Partners designed premises in Surrey, Absolute Taste took over the front of house facilities as well as all of the catering and hospitality for the staff, partners and VIP guests. The Tante Marie School of Cookery remains close to Lyndy’s heart and she now part owns the school alongside Gordon Ramsay and the school’s Principal. Collectively, they believe in their responsibilities to train young chefs with the most relevant, expert industry knowledge. “I’m just so passionate about the Tante Marie”, says Lyndy, “it gave me the life I have today”. Lyndy lives in London with her husband, son and dog Truffle. She takes every opportunity on her many travels to experience new restaurants and discover new food and design trends in every country she visits. She brings back inspirational flavours and styling ideas to Absolute Taste, enriching their creative events and catering.
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OUR FOOD
CELEBRITY CHEFS
Fabulous handmade food is the most important thing we do. Our bespoke approach means our menus are perfectly suited to our clients. We are committed to preparing delicious food using only the freshest ingredients from our trusted suppliers.
Absolute Taste is proud to work with a number of exceptional high profile chefs to add an exclusive addition to an event or hospitality experience. Our experience means we can create a fitting environment where their famous food can be offered outside of their world renowned restaurants.
When we say all our food is homemade we really mean it! The principle that guides our decisions is simple; all of our food is freshly produced by our chefs using only the freshest, seasonal, highest quality ingredients. We have built relationships with fantastic suppliers ensuring we cherry pick the best produce from the market. Our chefs’ skills and creativity ensures that our menus are well-balanced and delicious, whether they are preparing a sophisticated three-course dinner, creative canapés or all day hospitality.
We are attuned to the individual styles of our celebrity chefs and have nurtured inspiring collaborative relationships with them. Below is a list of some country’s most celebrated chefs who we have worked with:
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Gordon Ramsay
Mark Sargeant
Marcus Wareing
Rainer Becker
Mark Askew
Pierre Koffmann
Jason Atherton
Locanda Locatelli
Nuno Mendes
Angela Hartnett
Tom Aikens
Andrew Pern
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Every cake, pudding and pastry is homemade by our chefs
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THE TEAM First impressions are lasting impressions! Absolute Taste staff are carefully selected for their enthusiasm and professionalism so that we can guarantee both our front and back of house teams deliver our fabulous food with style, paying close attention to the finer details at every event. Every team member is fully briefed and trained on our excellent standards of customer service, client care, health and safety, equipment use and presentation, whether they are working at one of our restaurants, private parties or travelling the world with our race team.
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OUR BUSINESS Absolute Taste has expanded into a number of areas, all of which resonate and embrace our values and ethos. In all parts of our business, Absolute Taste has a unique style that is never over complicated but is always uncompromising on quality and consistency.
EVENTS | VENUES | RESTAURANTS & CAFÉS | INFLIGHT | PERFORMANCE SPORTS
EVENTS
VENUES
RESTAURANTS & CAFES
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INFLIGHT
PERFORMANCE SPORT
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EVENTS
Absolute Taste is one of the leading catering and event design companies. Our impressive portfolio of national and international clients has rewarded us with a wealth of experience designing events all over the world. This has been achieved through a team who are renowned for their professionalism, creativity and attention to detail. This is what we draw upon to keep our approach fresh and exciting, capturing and setting emerging trends.
Private Parties
Weddings
Corporate Events
Children’s Parties
Pop-ups
Outdoor Events
Our team can deliver every element of an event – bespoke menus, stylish settings, glamorous venues, glittering entertainment – and manage every meticulous logistical detail. Every year our events get better and better with repeat corporate clients and new business from the worlds of sport, automotive, aviation, beauty, property and interior design. Our much valued private clients choose us to create inspired events with a personal touch, from intimate Cornish weddings to a vintage style party in a beautifully decorated barn. We love bespoke events when we can work alongside our clients to recreate their wildest dreams. Whether planning a dinner for 6, or an event for 1,000, we perfectly interpret individual style into to unique experiences. Private Parties | Weddings | Corporate Events | Children’s Parties Pop-ups | Outdoor Events
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Our planners can deliver every element of an event – amazing entertainment, creative styling and fabulous food
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WEDDINGS We love organising weddings and working closely with the bride and groom, so much so that our wedding clients often become friends for life! Our personal approach and wealth of experience means we can help with every aspect of organising a wedding. We will find the perfect venue, send out save the dates, design and create invitations and plan the table settings. For those extra special touches, we work with carefully selected suppliers and can arrange the wedding car, creative photographers and even supply the marquee, lighting and entertainment. We understand the little details that make the day special. Our planners can help at every stage to create the perfect day. Every wedding we work on is created especially for our client’s individual requirements ensuring we offer unique and bespoke experiences each and every time.
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UNIQUE PROJECTS Absolute Taste is renowned for our approach to treat every event, whether intimate or on a huge global scale, as a bespoke project. Our events have taken us around the world to a dynamic range of environments, the glamour of the Amalfi Coast, the buzz of Las Vegas, the creativity of stylish city pop-ups, to a secret party in the middle of the Abu Dhabi dessert. Meticulous planning, inimitable experience and exacting attention to detail enables us to take on seemingly impossible challenges. These are some of our highlights: 2012 OLYMPICS STRATFORD WESTFIELD EXCLUSIVE HOSPITALITY Absolute Taste had an exclusive hospitality contract for Stratford Westfield as part of the 2012 London Olympics (in partnership with ISS). This epic task demanded the best – our skills in planning, our dedication to consistent service and our delivery of fabulous, fresh food. Over the course of the event, we brought together 120 chefs, 1000 front of house staff, played host to a array of adorned Olympiads and glittering celebrities. Impressively, we managed over 19 venues a day for hospitality, broadcast and corporate clients.
QUINTESSENTIALLY SOHO - POP-UP MEMBERS’ CLUB Absolute Taste created London’s must-visit pop up private members club at the House of St Barnabas, a stunning Georgian building in Soho. Having been successfully appointed to work alongside one of the most regarded concierge companies, we completed the project in just 5 weeks: Full team recruitment, venue and kitchen fit out with full but flexible bar and restaurant functionality. The venue hosted a series of inspiring and entertaining events and parties. Members of Quintessentially Soho had access to the lounge from 11am until late, Monday to Saturday. Due to the phenomenal success and interest, the pop up club remained open for 15 months.
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BADA ART FAIR - RESTAURANT, BRASSERIE AND HOSPITALITY Absolute Taste has provided the catering and hospitality for The BADA Antiques and Fine Art Fair for the past two years. Throughout the course of the fair, we operated a number of offers, including The Cellini Restaurant for more formal dining and afternoon tea, The Brasserie which serves breakfast, light lunches and homemade cakes, as well as a luxury champagne bar in collaboration with Taittinger and an exhibitors lounge. Each year we have managed additional events for the international crowd of buyers, sellers and exhibitors including charity dinners and drinks receptions.
Olympics, Stratford, 2012
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EVENT VENUES We are delighted to be listed at some of Europe’s top event venues. Below is a list of venues that we are privileged to have accredited supplier status or work regularly. Unfortunately we cannot list all of the venues, so please visit our website for the full list. 45 Millbank
Kensington Palace
Altitude 360
Mall Galleries
Aynhoe Park
One Whitehall Place
Blenheim Palace
Royal Ballet School
Bloomsbury Ballroom
Saatchi Gallery
Burghley House
The Chelsea Gardener
Chelsea Physic Gardens
The Clubhouse
Dorney Court
The Roundhouse
Farnborough Five
The Royal Albert Hall
Burghley House
Dorney Court
Roundhouse
Saatchi Gallery
Mall Galleries
Aynhoe Park
Jet Studios
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FIXED SITE VENUES
Absolute Taste operates a number of fixed site contracts where we are exclusively responsible for all catering facilities, including volume hospitality, employee service, vending and additional services such as post room and receptions. We have a dedicated management team who look after this part of our business. They ensure that the day to day operational standards are given their complete focus. This is a diverse set of sites that includes restaurants, retail, employee dining and events. This affords us the opportunity to keep creativity and variety in this business. Our fixed site contracts include: McLaren Technology Centre, Woking Mercedes-Benz World, Brookwood Burghley House, Stamford
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RESTAURANTS & CAFÉS Absolute Taste operate a number of Café and restaurant spaces at destination venues across the UK, from stately homes to cutting edge design centres. Many of these thriving outlets have grown from our relationships and reputation with existing our clients. Absolute Taste’s restaurants and Cafés offer a range of dining experiences and delicious food, including breakfasts, lunches, afternoon teas and sophisticated three-course meals. The Terrace, Fenwick (opened October 2013) The Gullwing Bistro, Mercedes Benz World Café 1886, Mercedes Benz World Dome Café, Chelsea Design Centre Design Café, Chelsea Design Centre The Orangery Restaurant, Burghley House Garden Café, Burghley House Apron Café, TAG Farnborough Airport
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INFLIGHT Absolute Taste offers a totally bespoke catering service for the private and business aviation sector. As with all our food, our chefs buy only the best products on the market. All ingredients are sourced from a handful of carefully selected suppliers to guarantee our menus are always freshly made to order and full of flavour. The Inflight operations team ensure every need is met, guiding clients through menu choice and delivering bespoke orders from our central kitchen, located just 4 miles from the heart of London. The team have fantastic relationships with many of the best restaurants and stores and can source a special wine, collect a gift or pick client’s favourite products from a favourite boutique. The Inflight menus offer an impressive array of traditional and internationally inspired dishes, from champagne and canapÊs to sophisticated dinners and afternoon teas. The award winning Squairmeal package combines innovative design, style and beautifully balanced meals delicious at any time of day. All of the Inflight packaging has been carefully selected and designed for easy storage and use on board the aircraft. Every item is clearly labelled with reheating and preparation instructions. Inflight catering for corporate and private business jets is available from all UK airports. From our Swiss office, we now cater to private jets departing from Geneva airport.
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PERFORMANCE SPORTS This is a key part of our heritage of which we are very proud. Our reputation and success is built on providing hospitality for McLaren Honda, their partners and sponsors around the world. Through the global reach that Formula 1 provides, Absolute Taste Performance Sports has more recently undertaken catering contracts for further sporting events such as the worldwide Extreme Sailing Series, the 505s, several domestic race series plus a number of other sporting events.
We are skilled at working in a fast past environment throughout the world and this is what makes us able to adapt and deliver in an energetic, diverse and continually changing, environment such as performance sports. Whether it be a motor race, golf tournament, sailing series or enjoying corporate hospitality at Wimbledon we will work closely with you to maximise the experience for your team, guests and sponsors.
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“I’ll keep coming back to McLaren to have lunch and dinner at their hospitality because the food is great there.” - Lewis Hamilton, November 2012
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PRESS
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HOUSE & GARDEN PROMOTION
absolutely delicious Leading caterer and event organiser Lyndy Redding creates a Christmas tea, shares her tips on entertaining and offers recipe ideas for home-made gifts
PHOTOGRAPHS by JON DAy
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yndy Redding is a culinary dynamo. Whether she is organising friends over to share the excitement of Christmas.’ events for the Queen, refuelling the likes of Lewis Hamilton and The savoury canapés on offer at Lyndy’s tea include smoked salmon the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes race team, or simply putting on stack sandwiches, turkey, sage and prosciutto skewers with orange and a Christmas tea at home, her delicious and beautifully presented menus cranberry compote, and the lightest Stilton tartlets, which melt at the first have ensured she is one of London’s busiest and most sought-after bite. The sweet treats on offer include cinnamon-dusted doughnuts, toffee caterers and event designers. Lyndy’s company, Absolute Taste, was and almond popcorn, a gingerbread family, cupcakes and blueberry and launched in 1997 in conjunction with McLaren boss Ron Dennis and lemon teacakes. ‘At Absolute Taste, we have been catering for a lot of teas is renowned as much for its professional expertise at planning, event lately. They are a popular choice for celebrating weddings and christenings.’ production and chic room- and table-dressing as it is for its fabulous food. It is important to Lyndy that the food she serves, whether at home, or through As well as the party and event side of the business, Lyndy looks after two Absolute Taste, looks as good as it tastes and that the table is beautifully Absolute Taste cafés – one decorated. Here she has situated in Harvey Nichols created a contemporary in Knightsbridge and the Christmas theme using other at Design Centre white linen, glassware, gold Chelsea Harbour – plus and silver. The beaded Absolute Taste’s in-flight baubles were bought back catering service. The from her recent trip to South company has also recently Africa. ‘They are made by won the contract for all the local women and sold for catering at Burghley House, charity. I couldn’t resist them.’ in Stamford, Lincolnshire, Lyndy has also made along with a permanent snowflake biscuits dusted café, The Orangery, which is with sugar that hang from a great place for events too. the ceiling with ribbon – an She is rarely in one place for inexpensive and delightful long and has just returned touch. ‘For a special tea like from South Africa on a site this, I would put all the food visit for a Gary Player on the table at once so it Invitational golf tournament. looks generous, like a feast, Having had huge success with so many delicious looking after one of its things that guests don’t tournaments last year, it know where to start.’ has now become another At this time of year, Lyndy regular client. also makes sweets to give To find Lyndy at home, as gifts. ‘Giving something therefore, is rare. And you you have made yourself, and would think that here at presenting it in a pretty tin or least, she might put her box can mean so much feet up. But no: ‘I love more than a shop-bought cooking at home,’ she present,’ she says. This year’s laughs. ‘Because here I lucky recipients will be can do things in my own unwrapping luxury nut time and I don’t have to brittle, toffee and almond stick to a tight schedule. popcorn, marshmallow I can also play around with chocolate swirl and recipe ideas. This lavender chocolate drops – Christmas is extra special beautiful to look at and as my son, Joshua, is now utterly delicious – I am nearly two and able to crossing my fingers that I appreciate it more. I love am on her Christmas list. entertaining at home and CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT An innovative table setting. Cinnamon-dusted doughnuts. this year will be inviting A gingerbread family. Turkey, sage and prosciutto skewers with cranberry and orange compote
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EVENTS | VENUES | RESTAURANTS | CAFÉS | INFLIGHT | MOTORSPORT
14 Edgel Street, London, SW18 1SR T: +44 (0) 208 870 5151 F: +44 (0) 208 875 4090 W: absolutetaste.com