Hotel & Catering Review - Issue 2 2018

ISSUE 2 2018

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ISSUE 2 2018

Go to hotelandcatering review.ie for the online edition

ISSUE 2 2018

Waste Not, Want Not Food HEROES CELEBRATING IRISH PRODUCE

Sintered STYLE

NEOLITH’S MODERN STONE

#TRENDING RESTAURANT PRICING HOSPITALITY TECH BOOKSHELF

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13/03/2018 13:42

CONTENTS IN THIS ISSUE

COVER STORY

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HOW CAN HOSPITALITY REDUCE FOOD WASTE?

[It’s] the equivalent of €150,000 on average for each hotel in Ireland that they’re just throwing away.

It’s a substantial amount of money.”

James Hogan, Green Business Programme

REGULARS

04

20

INTERIOR

27

HOSPITALITY

31 BOOK

NEWS DESIRE TECH SHELF

10 16

Could a different pricing approach prove useful for Irish restaurants?

Food Heroes

Sligo’s Anthony Gray on making the most of Irish food.

24 28

Business Matters Fáilte Ireland is targeting major growth with its new food and drink strategy.

Culinary Rock ‘N’ Roll An Italian chef has made good use of sintered stone slabs in Milan.

32 A Quick Chat With Paul Flynn

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The Pricing Problem

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Editorial & Production Manager: Mary Connaughton Art Director: Alan McArthur Design Assistant: James Moore Creative Director: Jane Matthews Photography: Kepak, St Giles Hotels, Guido Antonelli, Neolith, Iveagh Garden Hotel Stock Photography: Thinkstock.com Infographics: www.flaticon.com Production: Nicole Ennis Sales Director: Paul Clemenson Managing Director: Gerry Tynan Chairman: Diarmaid Lennon

Published by: Ashville Media, Unit 55 Park West Road, Park West Industrial Estate, Dublin 12.

Tel: (01) 432 2200 ISSN: 0332-4400 All rights reserved. Every care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this magazine is accurate. The publishers cannot, however, accept responsibility for errors or omissions. Reproduction by any means in whole or in part without the permission of the publisher is prohibited. © Ashville Media Group 2018. All discounts, promotions and competitions contained in this magazine are run independently of Hotel & Catering Review. The promoter/advertiser is responsible for honouring the prize.

Editor’s

VIEW W

elcome to our second issue of Hotel & Catering Review, filled with the latest industry news.

Irish food and drink is on the up and up, with the potential to grow tourism revenue by as much as €400 million over the next five years. But is the hospitality sector making enough of what’s on offer? Anthony Gray, Sligo chef and chair of Sligo Food Trails, offers his perspective. We’ve also got an interview with Paul Keeley, Director of Commercial Development at Fáilte Ireland, on their new strategy for Irish food and drink.

In our cover story, I take a look at the issue of food waste within the industry. Hotels are significant generators of food waste in Ireland, throwing away an average of €150,000 of food every year. James Hogan from Cork’s Clean Technology Centre explains the measures being taken to reduce these startling figures, and offers some advice on how hospitality businesses can prevent needless waste.

Finding the right colours, design and materials can be instrumental in a restaurant’s success. Among the interesting materials restaurateurs can avail of is Neolith’s sintered stone, high-tech slabs that can be used in projects from bartops to bathrooms. We take a look at how Italian chef Alessandro Borghese put it to good use in his Milan restaurant.

Elsewhere, we catch up with Paul Flynn, owner of the Tannery in Dungarvan, pick out some interesting technological developments within the sector, and examine a new pricing model employed by highend London restaurant Bob Bob Ricard.

HOTEL

Email: conor.forrest@ ashvillemediagroup.com

Enjoy the read,

Conor Forrest www.hotelandcateringreview.ie @HC_Review

2

Editor: Conor Forrest

@

info@hotelandcateringreview.ie

www.facebook.com/hotelandcateringreview

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Commercial

PROFILE

Flahavan’s – NOT YOUR RUN OF THE MILL OATS! A NEW ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN BY FLAHAVAN’S GIVES VIEWERS AN INSIGHT INTO THEIR MILLING PROCESS.

T

he Flahavan’s brand is Ireland’s favourite porridge, with over two million servings consumed each week in Ireland. And for the first time ever, in a new TV commercial, we gave our loyal fans a glimpse inside the family mill in Kilmacthomas Co. Waterford.

John Flahavan explained: “Our family has been milling the finest Irish porridge oats at the family mill in

Kilmacthomas across seven generations, we are delighted to feature the mill in our latest advertising campaign, we are very proud of our home here in Kilmacthomas, and very proud of the fact that our company’s famous Progress Oatlets are sourced from local farmers within a 60-mile radius of the mill, some of whom have been supplying the mill for many generations.”

Driving an increase in consumer demand will also

serve to increase demand for Flahavan’s in foodservice outlets nationwide. With our bespoke foodservice range of 4kg resealable tubs of Porridge Oats, Organic Oats, Muesli and Granola, plus our ‘On the Go’ pots and single serve flapjacks, we are delighted to be able to provide foodservice outlets across the country with the opportunity to bring Ireland’s favourite porridge brand to their customers.

For more information contact Shane O‘Hanrahan, Foodservice Business Development Manager.

Office: (051) 294107 Mobile: (087) 254 3297.

HotelCatering_foodservice_ad_fa.pdf

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Contact: Shane O’Hanrahan Foodservice Business Development Manager Mobile: 087-2543297 Email: sohanrahan@flahavans.com 244449_2L_Flahavans_JM_H&C.indd 1

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NEWS KEPAK LAUNCHES SLOW COOKED RANGE Paul Brown, BOL, and Abigail Tan-Giroud.

CATERING FOR VEGAN VISITORS

Leading meat supplier Kepak has partnered with Guinness to create a new slowcooked range for the hospitality industry. Showcased at the recent Hospitality Expo 2018 in Dublin, the range was created after Kepak conducted an independent review of bars in the greater Dublin area, revealing that pub owners believe that food is the second most profitable aspect of their business. Pubs hold 17 per cent of the foodservice market in Ireland according to Euromonitor International 2017.

The range includes Guinness braised beef steak and onions, minted lamb shank, pork belly, Guinness and beef casserole, and a variety of platter options. “The face of the Irish bar sector has changed dramatically in recent years, and as a result, licensees have had to evolve and adapt their offering to keep up with everchanging consumer demands and the evolution of eating and drinking habits out of home,” said Bláthnaid Ni Fhátharta, Marketing Director for Kepak Foodservice & Corporate Communications. “This range was specifically developed with the publican in mind, this will allow them to offer world-class menu items without the hassle. In combining the brand pull of Guinness with a range of traditional, favourite dishes, Kepak have produced a unique offering that’s perfect for the licensed trade.”

UK-based St Giles Hotels and BOL Foods have joined forces to allow travellers in London to order plant-based foods to their rooms. It’s a first for the UK, resulting from news that one in ten UK adults wants to go vegan in 2018, while a lack of vegan food options was a top complaint according to The Good Hotel Guide.

BOL foods include veg pots, salad jars and soups, filled with protein and under 400 calories. Food for thought for Irish businesses. “The partnership with BOL is a result of a growing trend in hotel guests looking to keep up their healthy habits when travelling abroad, especially on business,” said Abigail Tan-Giroud, CEO of St Giles Hotels.

LITFEST COMES TO AN END In some rather sad news, Litfest is no more. The food festival, held every year at Ballymaloe, was originally set to take a break in 2018. However it has since been axed in the face of funding challenges and difficulties sourcing speakers in a world “awash with food festivals”, according to The Irish Times.

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€1.13BN APPROX. VALUE OF DOMESTIC TOURISM MARKET

JDM PHOTOGRAPHY.

TOURISM IRELAND TARGETS CANADA

Castlemartyr Resort receiving one of their two awards.

WEDDINGSONLINE RECOGNISES IRELAND’S TOP WEDDING VENUES Following voting by more than 25,000 couples, this year’s weddingsonline Awards took place on February 19th, with a number of hotels and restaurants around the country recognised for their high standards. Castlemartyr Resort was one of the big winners on the night, named Overall Venue of the Year.

Among the other successful entries was Clontarf Castle, which took home the award for Castle Venue of the Year, Rathsallagh Country House, which received Exclusive Venue of the Year, while Restaurant Venue of the Year went to Medley on Dublin’s Fleet Street. Four winners were also chosen for each of the provinces – Radisson Blu Hotel and Spa, Sligo (Connaught), Clanard Court Hotel (Leinster), Castlemartyr Resort (Munster) and Silver Tassle Hotel & Spa (Ulster).

“The annual weddingsonline Awards, which are now in their 9th year, have become the industry standard, rewarding the dedication, professionalism and exceptional service given by the Irish wedding industry,” said Peter Bryans, MD of weddingsonline. “I know that all involved, both nominees and winners alike, are honoured that their commitment and hard work has been acknowledged by couples all over the country. It’s a wonderful achievement.”

Tourism Ireland has been taking measures to boost visitor numbers from Canada. A sales blitz was held in February, targeting the cities of Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria and Toronto. Workshops in each city involved opportunities to network with influential Canadian travel professionals, highlighting the many opportunities in Ireland.

DIT ANNOUNCES NEW CERTIFICATE DIT’s School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology has announced a new Higher Certificate in Bar and Restaurant Management, due to commence in September 2018. The programme is designed to prepare graduates for a diverse range of opportunities within the food and beverage industry, while students who complete the certificate can pursue further degree-level qualifications within the college.

HEALTH AND FITNESS AWARDS LAUNCH The inaugural Nutramino Health & Fitness Awards are now open for entry, recognising outstanding contributions and innovations from Ireland’s top health and fitness professionals, facilities and initiatives. Hotels around the country were invited to seek nomination for the Best Hotel Facility Award, with the awards ceremony taking place at The Mansion House on Friday April 20th 2018. For more see healthandfitnessawards.com.

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CHEF SALARIES REMAIN SHORT OF INDUSTRIAL WAGE

Sodexo Ireland has been appointed as Trinity College Dublin’s new catering partner. The €1 million contract will include a complete refurbishment of the Arts Building Café with a ‘bespoke café concept’ in the form of The Perch, focusing on new food offers and expanded seating in a bid to develop a new social hub for students on campus. “Sodexo has a strong reputation for providing innovative food offers to our clients in Ireland. We are confident we can bring together strong sector and local knowledge to provide a superbly-executed and innovative café concept,” said Margot Slattery, Sodexo Ireland country president. Slattery was recently presented with the 2018 FM Leader of the Year Award at the fifth annual Facilities Management Awards, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the growth of the sector in Ireland.

Geraldine Ruane, Chief Operating Officer, Trinity College Dublin and Margot Slattery, Country President, Sodexo Ireland.

€30K

AVERAGE WAGE FOR A CHEF DE PARTIE

SILVER IMAGE.

SODEXO WINS TRINITY CONTRACT

Pay rates for chefs are on the rise once more, but still fall short of the average industrial wage (€36,000). According to Excel Recruitment’s 2018 Salary Survey, a chef de partie can expect to earn an average of €30,000 per year, or €35,000 for a junior sous chef. At the higher end of the scale, a hotel’s head chef can earn between €65,000 – €70,000 plus bonuses, while an executive chef can expect €75,000 – €82,000. The figures come as the chef crisis dominates discussion within the hospitality sector, with recruitment issues set to continue in 2018. A number of solutions have been suggested, including the recent apprenticeship training programme, though the issue of pay rates has also been to the fore. “Chef pay rates are again going up but they are still well short of the average industrial wage,” said Shane McLave, General Manager of Excel. “In most establishments, chefs have to manoeuvre themselves into a senior management position in order to achieve that salary.”

FÁILTE IRELAND ENCOURAGES SHORT ‘STAYCATIONS’ A Fáilte Ireland ad campaign for Ireland’s Ancient East is encouraging tourists to take short breaks at home this spring. The campaign emphasises unforgettable holiday experiences and what’s waiting to be discovered across Ireland’s Ancient East, across television, radio, outdoor and social media channels. The domestic market is an important one for the tourism sector, generating around €1.13 billion annually.

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IVEAGH GARDEN HOTEL OPENS The four-star Iveagh Garden Hotel has opened on Dublin’s Harcourt Street, with an official launch planned for April 11th.

The latest addition to hoteliers Brian and Sally McGill’s portfolio, the city’s newest hotel includes 152 bedrooms, a spacious ground floor bar and bistro, a seasonal menu designed by head chef Darren O’Brien, and Downstairs At The Iveagh – a versatile function room that accommodates up to 300 people standing.

Located at 72-74 Harcourt Street, the existing four-storey buildings occupying a space of 56,000 square feet have been completely renovated. Two new floors have been added, while the buildings’ Georgian façade was carefully restored. One of the more interesting features is the hotel’s low energy system. Energy from an underground river 90m below the hotel is used as a reserve to heat and cool the building and reduce its carbon footprint.

A white paper co-authored by SiteMinder and IDeaS Revenue Solutions has found that while hoteliers are fearful of a future where hotels are run by robots, they also believe that artificial intelligence (AI) could prove key in delivering guest personalisation. Hotel guests’ preferences have become increasingly sophisticated over the years as technology continues to grow at a rapid pace. Hoteliers have suggested that AI could enhance the guest experience through the use of features including face recognition and 24/7 customer service. The study noted that the hospitality sector’s future should combine the human touch with technology to create the most authentic and enjoyable experience possible.

“There is a clearly identifiable trend within the hospitality sector of leveraging technology to maximise both performance and the guest experience,” said Fabian Specht, EMEA managing director at IDeaS. “While inevitably there will be IT challenges that will need to be addressed, artificial intelligence will play an ever-increasing role in delivering bespoke services to guests – just as it does in other consumerfacing industries.”

KIP CARROLL

HOTELIERS LOOK TO THE FUTURE

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Commercial

PROFILE

FÁILTE IRELAND

SPRINGS INTO ACTION FÁILTE IRELAND HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN A NUMBER OF INITIATIVES THROUGHOUT THE SPRING, RANGING FROM CUSTOMER CARE IMPROVEMENTS TO CAPITALISING ON OPPORTUNITIES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.

GETTING GDPR READY

Pictured at the launch of Get GDPR Ready were Helen McDaid, Fáilte Ireland; Maeve Kingston, Dalkey Castle; Mark O’Géaráin, the National Leprechaun Museum and Valerie Lyons, BH Consulting.

Photo: Chris Bellew/Fennell Photography.

A series of workshops on GDPR requirements targeting owners and managers of visitor attractions and activity-based tourism businesses were held recently. The purpose of the workshops was to provide clarity around GDPR and the practical steps that can be taken by tourism businesses to ensure compliance.

Speaking at a workshop, Helen McDaid, National Enterprise & Hospitality Development Manager at Fáilte Ireland said that the training was targeted at smaller businesses and offered impartial advice on the issue of GDPR compliance. “We are holding the workshops in order to provide practical information on how GDPR affects marketing activities, associated data risks and how to implement policies and procedures to meet GDPR requirements. Workshops were held in Dublin and Galway with a further workshop planned for Donegal on the 10th April next.”

FÁILTE IRELAND LAUNCHES

SPRING CAMPAIGNS

N

ew 2018 spring advertising campaigns for the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East have both been launched recently. Both campaigns will include advertising across national and local radio as well as advertising across outdoor and social media channels.

The Wild Atlantic Way campaign centres on a key theme – ‘Embrace the Wild Atlantic Way of Life’ – and emphasises the opportunity for people to discover the west coast and truly get away from it all and benefit from a break along the world’s longest defined coastal route. The campaign for Ireland’s Ancient East builds on the ‘Great Stories Stay With You Forever’ creative previously rolled out by Fáilte Ireland and emphasises the unforgettable holiday experiences and stories waiting to be discovered in Ireland’s Ancient East.

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TOURISM BUSINESSES TO CAPITALISE

ON SOCIAL MEDIA BOOST

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illarney and Limerick hosted a series of workshops recently with the aim of helping tourism businesses to capitalise on an expected upswing in social media searches following Pictured at a recent Fáilte Ireland workshop in Killarney were Miriam Kennedy, Tourism Ireland’s Head of Fáilte Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way; Tim Schofield, TripAdvisor; Finola spring campaigns O’Mahony, Tourism Ireland, Europe; Justin Reid, TripAdvisor; and Josephine for the British and O’Driscoll, Fáilte Ireland. Photo: Valerie O’Sullivan.

German markets, which will feature the Wild Atlantic Way and will run for four weeks. The workshops, facilitated jointly with Tourism Ireland and TripAdvisor, were held to outline the campaign details and highlight ways to engage with the TripAdvisor social media platforms.

Paul Keeley, Director of Commercial Development at Fáilte Ireland, said that working towards market diversification is an important strand of Fáilte Ireland’s ‘Get Brexit Ready’ programme and events such as these workshops are aimed at ensuring that tourism businesses are in a position to capitalise fully on the social media and advertising campaigns that Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland are undertaking.

NEW PROGRAMME TO IMPROVE CUSTOMER CARE A new industry training programme to train front-line staff across all sectors of a tourism business to maximise their potential in customer relationships and satisfaction was recently launched by Fáilte Ireland.

The Accredited Service Excellence Programme aims to help businesses reduce and better handle complaints, Pictured at the launch of the programme were Joe Dolan, introduce new standards and former President IHF; Joyce Cullen, Louis Fitzgerald efficiencies, and increase sales through Group; Martina Bromley, Fáilte Ireland and Sophie up-selling and cross-selling techniques.

Finglas, Skylon Hotel Dublin. Photo: Chris Bellew/Fennells.

There will also be a new interactive online learning option available to increase participation and ease of access for those who cannot attend the training programme in person. The Accredited Service Excellence Programme is suitable for all management and front-facing staff in a tourism-related business who come into contact with visitors.

NEW MARKETING DIRECTOR

ANNOUNCED

Niall Tracey.

Photo: Chris Bellew/Fennells.

F

áilte Ireland has appointed Niall Tracey as its new Director of Marketing and member of its senior management team. Niall is a Commerce graduate from UCD and worked with Jefferson Smurfit before moving to Chicago and joining the DDB Needham advertising agency. On his return to Ireland he worked with Bell Advertising and then Diageo where he was Head of Lagers. More recently, he has worked as a consultant for a number of leading domestic and international companies across a wide range of sectors.

In welcoming the appointment, Fáilte Ireland CEO Paul Kelly noted that Niall brings a depth of marketing experience to the organisation and he is very pleased to have such an experienced and accomplished professional join the Fáilte Ireland team.

Further information on the course can be found at www.failteireland.ie.

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FINANCE

THE

PRICING PROBLEM

In the wake of an interesting pricing strategy used by London’s Bob Bob Ricard, we take a look at whether it might be applicable in Ireland.

L

ondon restaurant Bob Bob Ricard hit the hospitality headlines in January when it announced changes to its pricing model. The iconic Soho restaurant has implemented a system of surge pricing, similar to the likes of Uber or virtually any airline or hotel around the world. But, while customers of the popular ride-sharing company might see prices soar during certain times, Bob Bob Ricard is going the other way – a 25 per cent discount during off-peak and a 15 per cent drop for mid-peak times on their à la carte menu. For example, their lobster macaroni and cheese dish is usually £26.50 but drops to £20.50 outside of their busier times. Perhaps lunch on a Monday might be a more tempting proposition in the absence of Saturday night prices.

“The idea just came from looking at how the rest of the world functions,” owner and founder Leonid Shutov told Fortune magazine recently. “Airlines wouldn’t be able to exist, the business

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model wouldn’t work unless you could balance supply and demand. Everything that we have taken that is widely accepted in the modern economy and applied to restaurants, seems to have worked.”

The concept isn’t exactly revolutionary and many other restaurants may well be using similar methods with significantly less fanfare. Bob Bob Ricard is attempting to entice diners who don’t normally splash out on regular meals in expensive restaurants – it’s a venue where people tend to come on special occasions rather than everyday dining (in most cases).

“We’re a special-occasion restaurant, so people don’t come to us because they’re hungry. People come to us because they’re looking to celebrate,” Shutov noted in an interview with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson on Boston radio station WBUR. “We’re saying on days when there’s less demand generally for high-end luxury restaurants, we’ll give you a reason to consider coming to us on those times.”

Businesses in the US are apparently considering their own version of Bob Bob Ricard’s pricing model, but could

it translate across the Irish Sea? “I don’t know of any Irish restaurants that have jumped to copy it,” says Blathnaid Bergin from The Business of Food, which offers business courses and consultancy services for people looking to open hotels, restaurants, pubs and cafés. “I don’t think people are going to change their habits. I can’t see Monday night becoming the night out, because we’re all working. That’s why weekends are popular, because we’re off. I don’t see that that is going to shift to the beginning of the week rather than the end of the week. So if restaurants are hoping to fill up on a Monday night I’m not sure that adopting a different pricing model is going to make that happen.”

There are other issues. What works for a restaurant where diners regularly spend £100 might not necessarily work in others where the cost is substantially lower.

Once labour and other overheads are met, profit margins can be tight enough for many establishments without considering further reductions in price. Some have raised concerns over the potential reaction

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FINANCE

Bob Bob Ricard

from the public, worried that it could turn customers off or lead to accusations of gimmickry. Adrian Cummins, Chief Executive of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, is among those who don’t believe that a similar model should be pursued by restaurant owners here.

“I don’t think a pricing structure like this will be relevant to the Irish market because restaurant pricing in Ireland is already competitive and we wouldn’t feel the need to alter prices based on peak times or upcoming events,” he told Hotel & Catering Review. “This is not a structure that the Restaurants Association would advise among its members.”

There are other things restaurateurs can look at if they want to increase their profits. Bergin points to menu engineering, a concept that involves studying the popularity and profitability of certain menu items and how they contribute to profits. It’s a scientific approach that can have a major impact on your balance sheet and allows owners and managers

to take a proactive approach to recipe design and customer pricing.

Improving the quality of service is another solution that may be overlooked – the impact of the menu could be boosted by the ambience or even a simple friendly greeting.

“I think Irish restaurants still have an awful long way to go on the service end of things. [There is] something in making people feel special, making people feel that they are valued, saying goodbye to people. It’s really quite basic stuff,” says Bergin. “I think that people can sometimes be fixated on prices to the detriment of simple service, things that can make customers feel valued. It’s difficult – it’s a tricky enough business to make money in as we all know. So costs have to be right and prices have to be right, but you can have your costs right and you can have your food right and if your service is terrible people will find somewhere else to go.”

#onthe money

IS THE PRICE RIGHT? The restaurant market is one that is very competitive, and getting prices right can be the difference between success and failure. It’s a difficult line to tread, between charging enough to make a solid margin and avoiding overcharging which can turn people off. “Usually people would be looking for about 75 per cent gross margin and from that then labour and overheads would be paid,” says Bergin.

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COVER STORY

Food waste is an important and expensive issue for those in the foodservice sector. Conor Forrest takes a look at the sources of food waste in Ireland and how hotels and restaurants can cut down on their food bills and prevent needless waste.

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COVER STORY

O

f all food produced for human consumption across the globe, one-third (around 1.3 billion tonnes) is wasted. It’s a startling statistic. Consider the journey that food goes on – sown in the ground by hard-working farmers, grown, fertilised, harvested, packed and distributed across the world – not to mention the attendant investment of time, energy and other resources. And one-third is simply dumped, discarded or left to rot.

In the world’s developing countries, food waste generally occurs during the early stages of the food value chain – farmers with economic or technical constraints – according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization. In medium and highincome countries, however, this materialises during the latter stages of the supply chain (processing, distribution and consumption). Overall, food waste accounts for around $680bn each year in industrial nations.

In the face of massive economic waste and, more importantly, millions of people going hungry across the globe, it’s a serious economic, environmental and social issue. Unfortunately, Ireland is no exception. As a whole we generate approximately 1.1 million tonnes of food waste every year – 40 per cent from food production and 34 per cent in the commercial sector. Hotels are among the country’s significant food waste producing businesses, as well as others including food retail and restaurants and bars.

Thankfully, moves are well underway to reduce this shameful trend. Take the Savour Food initiative, a recently launched waste reduction campaign that sees East Cork businesses moving towards a zero food waste strategy, lowering their environmental impact, reducing costs, and improving profits and sustainability. That initiative is driven by the Clean Technology Centre (CTC) at Cork Institute of Technology, a notfor-profit organisation that identifies and implements resource-efficient options across a wide range of sectors and scenarios through projects including Green Business, Stop Food Waste and, in the past, the Green Hospitality

Programme. While around 40 per cent of food waste is unavoidable, they say, 60 per cent can be dealt with.

“I think there’s a huge potential there for the hospitality industry to reduce costs by tackling food waste. Through our research we have seen that the amount of food waste produced on average per annum is 50 tonnes per hotel in Ireland,” explains James Hogan, Green Business Programme Manager at the CTC. “When you consider the cost of food waste, we estimate that – in terms of buying the food, cooking and preparing it – it’s about €3 per kilogram or €3,000 per tonne.

So that’s the equivalent of €150,000 on average for each hotel in Ireland that they’re just throwing away. It’s a substantial amount of money.”

This waste is usually generated quite simply. Take a jug of milk placed on a table at breakfast. If it’s not used it has to be thrown out within two or three hours. That might not sound significant, but if you have 50 jugs of milk it all adds up when ti comes to your bottom line. Dips like garlic or chilli sauce, which can be expensive to purchase, can’t be reused for other diners – they have to be binned. Portion sizes may be too large for the majority of your customers, meaning that a substantial number of plates coming back to the kitchen feature wasted food.

“A lot of it is just communication between the people cleaning the plates and the chefs preparing the food,” explains Sarah Broderick, a CTC researcher. As part of an ongoing research project, Broderick is one

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COVER STORY

I THINK THERE’S A HUGE POTENTIAL THERE FOR THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY TO REDUCE COSTS BY TACKLING FOOD WASTE. THROUGH OUR RESEARCH WE HAVE SEEN THAT THE AMOUNT OF FOOD WASTE PRODUCED ON AVERAGE PER ANNUM IS 50 TONNES PER HOTEL IN IRELAND.

FROM TOP: Members of CTC, SECAD and Taste Cork with Minister Creed at the launch of Savour Food; Isabelle and Oran Furey from Tivoli and Jessica Hogan from Midleton at the launch of the Savour Food campaign launch in East Cork. Photo: Miki Barlok.

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of a number of researchers visiting hotels and restaurants to chart the amount of food currently being wasted. In one restaurant she witnessed 3.5kg of coleslaw returned to the kitchen in just one day.

“The second the chef saw it he knew he had to change how they serve coleslaw,” she notes. “He had never seen it before so I don’t know how long that level of waste had been going on.”

And there are environmental aspects to consider too. While food waste should be going into compost bins and sent away for composting as per the relevant legislation, in reality this doesn’t always happen. Hogan notes that a certain amount of food waste is still going into landfill, where it degrades and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.

So how exactly can hospitality businesses start reducing the amount of food wasted on a daily basis? “There are a lot of different ways you can tackle it, not just one way,” Hogan advises. “It’s a whole process that has to be viewed, the whole food production line has to be looked at in many different steps.”

The first port of call is procurement – ensuring that you don’t over-order food, keeping an eye on deliveries, and using a short lead and storage time to keep waste down. Once food arrives it should be labelled with dates and stored appropriately. Vacuum packing and reusable airtight containers will help to prevent spoilage and extend food life.

The kitchen is a large source of waste and careful consideration should be taken here.

Over-trimming should be avoided while preparing bulk meats and whole vegetables, and the focus should be on preparing food to order where possible for a more accurate preparation process. Pre-portioned meat is one option to avoid binning unused meat trimmings, while cooking smaller quantities of pre-prepared staple foods like pasta and potatoes should also reduce the amount of excess food.

Staff members can play a key role. Service staff can inform the kitchen whether certain foods are regularly left over (and thus if your portion sizes should be re-examined), and can provide clear meal descriptions and sizes to customers when taking their

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COVER STORY orders. Other options include offering halfportions or seconds for those with smaller appetites, using refillable bottles or dishes for condiments instead of single-use packaging, placing a bowl of vegetables on the centre of the table to allow customers to decide their own portions, using smaller plates at buffet and salad bars, and planning your menus with the seasons in mind – there’s no need for a huge serving of soup during the summer months.

On the far side of the cooking process, cooked meats should be sliced when chilling for reuse and food storage temperatures should be monitored at least twice a day.

Leftover vegetables and meat offcuts can be used for soup stock, for example, and menus should take leftover food or items approaching the use-by date into account.

And consider donating the excess to local charities – it needs to be in an acceptable condition and within date. One organisation doing great work to make sure excess food in the retail sector goes to a worthy cause is FoodCloud, a third-party social enterprise that connects those in the food industry with charities around the country. Food outlets can upload a description of the food they can’t sell using a scanner or the FoodCloud app and a charity receives a notification that food is available for collection. Not only can food businesses reduce the amount of wasted food, it’s an opportunity to contribute to their community in a tangible way. “Our partner charities, from breakfast clubs to homeless hostels to family support services, benefit through making savings on their food costs. This allows them to relocate their funding towards their core service and support their underlying mission,” FoodCloud states.

In the years ahead, it might also be possible to use waste food to bolster your energy consumption. A study published last summer by researchers from Cornell

HOTELS ARE THE LARGEST FOOD WASTE PRODUCING BUSINESSES IN THE COUNTRY, FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY FOOD RETAIL AND RESTAURANTS AND BARS.

University in the US outlines a new way to turn food waste into biofuel. The remainder is broken down into methane which is used to produce electricity and heat. “Food waste should have a high value,” said the study’s lead author Roy Posmanik. “We’re treating it as a resource, and we’re making marketable products out of it.”

Work is being done on a broader level to help the sector improve its use of food.

Alongside the likes of the Savour Food initiative in East Cork, the CTC is currently carrying out a research project on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Reducing Commercial Food Waste in Ireland will drill into the issue, identifying the main sources, best practices, and innovative solutions. Businesses who take part in the project receive a report detailing the type and quantity of their food waste and, in some cases, recommendations on how to reduce it.

“Its main focus is gathering data. At the moment there’s very little information about the actual types of food that are being wasted. Businesses can access figures on their overall food waste from their waste bills but almost nobody has information as to what ends up in the food bins,” says Broderick. “We’re going into foodservice and food retail businesses and spending one full working day measuring out all of the food that is diverted towards waste and separating it according to food types such as potatoes, meat, vegetables et cetera.

Also, we’re gathering tips and good practice from across the sectors while we’re in each business. By the end of the project we’ll have benchmark figures so that businesses can see how they compare to the average.”

There’s no doubt that food waste is an important issue facing Irish businesses in 2018. Apart from the environmental benefits to reducing the amount of wasted food, the economic advantages alone are worth exploring – how much additional investment in facilities, services, staff or expansion might the average hotel make with an extra six figures of disposable income every year?

Sufficient effort in overhauling your use of food is key – foodservice businesses need to properly examine their processes from start to finish, identify issues and implement training and development programmes where necessary. There are challenges in balancing the need for choice and quality on menus with reducing food waste, but the latter is undoubtedly a win-win for business owners. While help is available from the likes of the Clean Technology Centre and

the various programmes it operates, in many cases the businesses themselves will discover the most promising areas for improvement.

“Most of the time it’s the people working with it every day who come up with the best solutions. It differs depending on each business. What we always say to people is to start measuring it. Most of the time you’ll have your own solutions,” Broderick explains. “From a lot of the businesses we’ve been in, there is definitely room for improvement. There’s yet to be a business that I’ve gone into that hasn’t had the potential to save food waste and reduce costs. But food waste is complicated, it depends on the business. There are so many other factors – it’s not neat and tidy, it’s not like changing a lightbulb, done and dusted, money saved. There’s a little bit more to it than that. But there is massive potential to save money.”

#reduce waste

AVOID OVER-ORDERING FOOD – Keep an eye on stock levels and deliveries and buy food locally where possible.

CLEVER MENU PLANNING – Plan menus with the seasons and use up meat and vegetable offcuts for soups and stocks or get creative with specials.

REVIEW PORTION SIZES – If food is regularly returning, consider a reduction.

TRAIN STAFF – Personnel can provide descriptions of meal sizes or suggest smaller meal choices.

DONATE EXCESS FOOD SUPPLIES – Worthy causes can make good use of leftover packaged foods within date.

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FOOD HEROES

Celebrating

food IRISH

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DONAL HACKETT.

Anthony and chef Joe at Hooked.

There’s great potential for growth in Ireland’s food and drink, but is the hospitality industry making the most of what’s on offer? Sligo Chef and Sligo Food Trails Chair Anthony Gray offers his perspective.

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FOOD HEROES

should. I don’t think that – across the restaurant board and across the food scene – that we are shouting from the pulpit enough about how good Irish food is.”

When it comes to this topic, Gray knows a thing or two. His family owned a local butcher shop in the heart of Sligo town, where he worked from the age of 11 to 18, making black and white pudding, curing hams, and producing a range of award-winning sausages. “That’s where my grá for food came from,” he remarks.

After a stint as a PGA golf professional, his first restaurant (Tra Ban) opened in Sligo in the middle of the recession in 2009. Two years later, Eala Bhán entered the marketplace and, while Tra Ban is no more, it has since been replaced by Hooked. “It’s going from strength to strength, supplying local, using local producers, keeping the local economy [going] and keeping local jobs in Sligo,” says Gray.

He certainly practices what he preaches.

Described elsewhere as a tireless campaigner for all things relating to Sligo, his menus reflect a desire to use both local and Irish food where possible. Take Hooked, which features treats like Feeney’s streaky bacon from Kintogher, Ballysadare free-range eggs, and corn bread from the neighbouring Le

IRELAND IS ONE OF THE FINEST FOOD DESTINATIONS IN THE WORLD, WE JUST HAVE TO TELL OUR STORY BETTER.

JULIA DUNIN

he stock of Irish food and drink is undoubtedly on the rise. According to Fáilte Ireland, the country is home to 16 whiskey distilleries, over 7,000 pubs, more than 2,400 restaurants (12 with Michelin stars), 160 farmers markets, 40 cookery schools and over 60 micro-breweries. Customers are increasingly interested in the provenance of their food and drink – whether that be local, organic, free-range, gluten-free and so on.

Tourism in particular can benefit from this continued growth – the new Food and Drink Development Strategy 2018 – 2023 developed by Fáilte Ireland claims that Irish food could help grow tourism revenue by as much as €400 million in the next five years.

But is the hospitality industry making the most of it? If you ask Anthony Gray, Sligo restaurateur, Chair of Sligo Food Trail and a former President of the Restaurant Association of Ireland (RAI), the answer is not so clear.

“We’re not good at selling ourselves, we’re not good at selling our story, we’re not good at talking up Irish food,” he says. “We’re a nation where, if you do something right and do something really good, sometimes you don’t portray it in the way that you

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Fournil bakery. Eala Bhán uses Sligo lamb from Sherlocks of Tubbercurry and fresh lobsters from Mullaghmore. These suppliers and producers are highlighted on the menus, something Gray feels is important in boosting a restaurant’s reputation and tapping into the trend of diners wanting to know where their food comes from.

“I see my customers’ eyes light up when I tell them that I was out at the market buying edible flowers or where my cheese is from and who makes my bread. If we all do that we are on the right track to showcase, not just Sligo, but Ireland as a food destination. Ireland is one of the finest food destinations in the world, we just have to tell our story better,” he explains, adding that one of the stumbling blocks to achieving that goal is a lack of knowledge out there regarding the depth and breadth of Irish produce. “I suppose one of the biggest issues [we face] is that we have to really showcase local produce and showcase Ireland as a food destination. [We are] a world-class destination and [we need to] get away from the images of corn beef and cabbage and stuff like that.

We’re an island and we need to promote our fish more, but we also need to promote across the board through dairy, through meat, through cheese. We have luscious lands, we have the coldest waters. Not all people grasp the local aspect of it and [the importance of ] keeping

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it local and trying to promote local produce and artisan produce as much as you can.”

For Gray, the work in promoting food and drink produced in the north-west and beyond is very much a labour of love. As Chair of Sligo Food Trail he’s well aware of the potential Irish producers have in growing their reach and reputation for quality food and great tastes, not just in their localities but beyond our borders. His contention is that if we don’t support local and shout loudly about the potential of our produce, we can’t expect to reap the benefits ahead.

“The days of limited ingredients and cremated meat are gone. Today, chefs have a choice of outstanding produce and the skill to transform it into consistently excellent dishes. It’s time to hold our heads high, declare provenance and make big claims for Irish food,” says Gray. “I think Irish food is on a crest of a Wild Atlantic wave at the moment. I think we’ve never been in a better position to promote it... you see it every day, popping up through Galway, through Sligo, through Donegal. Through shellfish, through our wild salmon, our beef.

It’s just fantastic. I just think we need to say it loud and say it proud and really push it out there and get us known for the fantastic food that we produce on this little island.”

WE HAVE LUSCIOUS LANDS, WE HAVE THE COLDEST WATERS. NOT ALL PEOPLE GRASP THE LOCAL ASPECT OF IT AND [THE IMPORTANCE OF] KEEPING IT LOCAL AND TRYING TO PROMOTE LOCAL PRODUCE AND ARTISAN PRODUCE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.

JULIA DUNIN

SHANE SMITH

FOOD HEROES

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Commercial

PROFILE

The SMART OPTION SMARTBOX ARE CREATING A NEW REVENUE STREAM FOR IRELAND’S HOTELS.

S

martbox Gift Experience is Europe’s leading experience gift marketing company.

They create and sell experience gifts as a marketing service for over 40,000 hotels, restaurants, spas and activity providers across Europe. A Smartbox gift experience box is purchased every five seconds online and in more than 12,000 retail and department stores across the continent, and they have sold more than 30 million

experiences over the last 10 years.

Over the next few months, they are aiming to partner with 2,000 experience providers across hotels, restaurants, spa and activity sectors in Ireland. They will roll out 24 premium-themed gift boxes for the Irish market.

Smartbox offers a low-cost marketing solution to acquire new customers. Their marketing service is 100 per cent success fee-based – there is no upfront fee, no annual fee, and you only

pay a fee when a new customer comes to your venue for the first time. After that, the customer is yours and you can then turn these customers into loyal ambassadors for your business.

Don’t just take our word for it, join the Irish partners who are already taking advantage!

HOTELS: • Royal Marine Hotel, Dún Laoghaire • Gresham Riu Hotel, Dublin • Aberdeen Lodge Dublin

• • • • •

Dublin Central Inn Castle Hotel Dublin Waterside House Hotel Haddington Hotel Slaney Manor

RESTAURANTS: • La Maison • Mehek • Les Petit Pois • Bobo’s Burgers • The Purty Kitchen • Ramen • Le Bon Crubeen Restaurant • Le Petit Breton Restaurant

For more information, get in touch directly on 01 691 7198 or by email: partnercare@smartbox.com

Meet the Coffee People Our partners join Java Republic because we make Ireland’s best hand-roasted coffee – and we make it incredibly simple to serve it well to their staff, guests and customers.

Our people bring unparalleled experience, knowledge and dedication to every aspect of the process. We are always willing to go further, to dig deeper and to aim higher.

It’s our business to help your business.

Fancy a coffee with the Coffee People?

Call our expert team on 01 880 9300 or email info@javarepublic.com to arrange a time that suits you.

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INTERIOR TRENDS

La Fougère

Interior DESIRE

SPARKLE SEQUIN CUSHION €27.99 LITTLEWOODS.IE

Emma Minish talks to Hotel & Catering Review about the elegant transformation of La Fougère at Knockranny House Hotel.

Westport’s Knockranny House Hotel recently unveiled a sophisticated makeover of its La Fougère restaurant (three dining spaces, reception and service areas), spearheaded by designer Emma Minish. Her brief was the creation of a more intimate and CARA DECANTER (PLUS 2 GLASSES) elegant dining experience worthy of a four-star hotel, allowing for €234 a permanent breakfast buffet area, increased and flexible seating EMERALD CRYSTAL arrangements, and more natural light. The space was completely stripped back, with a central walkway, steps, pillars and half walls installed to create rooms within the room. Curved half walls mirror the round bay window, giving a focal point to the stunning views of Croagh Patrick and Clew Bay. A blend of textures are featured within – wood panelling, patterned carpet, brass railings and stone counters. “My inspiration came from a Parisian restaurant I visited 20 years ago. It was a period building with elaborate decorative elements – a large, elegant space that retained an intimate feel. I also took inspiration from a light fitting I had spotted at a design show in London,” she explains.

“This project was exciting from beginning to end. My clients wanted an elegant, timeless feel befitting the Knockranny House Hotel and they recognised the importance of using quality materials and good design. This is what CEILING ROSE made a success of it.”

NIMBUS LAMPSHADE FROM A SELECTION AT CTOLIGHTING.CO.UK

THE WHEEL PENDANT LIGHT €231.70 HICKEN LIGHTING

FELICE ARMCHAIR €549.00, MICHAEL MURPHY HOME FURNISHING

ROSE GOLD AND WHITE PLATE £3.99 HOMESENSE.CO.UK

FROM A SELECTION, KH MOULDINGS

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Partners in Food

PROFILE

Ian Connolly, Executive Chef, The Legal Eagle.

Photos: Silver Image Photography.

Retro Food, The Legal Eagle’s executive chef Ian Connolly talks traditional food, inspirational produce, and their plans for the future.

Menu

Starter: Irish potato flatbreads with a variety of toppings.

Main: White dover sole with smoked almonds, sea herbs, grapes, brown butter, herby spuds and bitter greens.

Dessert: Homemade treacle tart with sea-salt ice-cream.

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Q: What style of food is on the menu at The Legal Eagle?

A: It’s an old pub, one of Dublin’s oldest pubs, so first and foremost we wanted to do pub food. We’re very influenced by the old English pub, the nose-to-tail element and chefs like Fergus Henderson in St. John’s in London. It’s historic food – we do a pork tongue and cheek suet pudding, monkfish liver, oxtail flatbread, lots of experimenting with slow braising. We’re known for food that has been around for hundreds of years but has just gone out of fashion.

Q: What’s on tap?

A: Sean is our sommelier, he’s got over 200 wines on offer. But craft beer is a real force to be reckoned with at the moment – that’s a real priority for The Legal Eagle. We have a woodburning oven and we do lots of flatbreads and other items that go really well with Guinness and different craft beers, and we have a number of beer evenings, things like that.

Q: How important is local food and drink, and can you tell us about some of your suppliers?

A: You can’t do anything without suppliers, and most of our inspiration comes from producers. If you’ve got a good product, it’s easy to do things with it. Charcuterie has become very popular so we decided to do more cold cuts like ham etc. We have a meat platter with five meats on it – we use a spiced beef from Tom Durkan, hay-smoked ham from Pigs on the Green, Mick Bermingham’s corned mutton and Kate Mac’s Irish pastrami.

Another popular item is the snails we get from Co Carlow; we clean them up for a roasted bone marrow dish. We source wild rabbits from Wicklow through Wild Irish Game and smoked scamorza cheese

from Toons Bridge Dairy in Macroom, fresh fruit from Keelings and Iona Farm in Naul – they do spring radish, nettles etc., while we get asparagus from Co Louth and organic spuds from Oliver Kelly in Wicklow. We do loads of interesting things with veg, it’s not overlooked.

Q: What sets The Legal Eagle apart from the crowd?

A: We’re tapping into the history of food and we’re going back so far that it seems new and exciting. For example, we have a cucumber ketchup on the menu that seems quite trendy but the recipe is 200 years old! It’s just that it’s been forgotten about. That’s what sets us apart – it’s old-school but because it’s so old nobody else is doing it.

Q: What’s in store for 2018?

A: Just before Christmas we did a couple nose-to-tail evenings on a Monday and Tuesday night and we’re hoping to start doing those at least once a month. We just want to keep making it better and find a place in people’s hearts.

About The Legal Eagle A gastropub on Chancery Place beside the Four Courts, The Legal Eagle features retro English pub-style dishes with a seasoning of Irish innovation. The style of food is rooted in the nose-to-tail world of dining (using every bit of the animal) alongside a celebration of Irish produce.

Dublin: +353 (0) 1 556 5000

Web: www.keelings.ie/corporate

Email: freshorders@keelings.com

Keelings Market, 15 Little Green St. Dublin 7

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Commercial

PROFILE

FOOD WITH Real Flavour KC PEACHES IS WORKING TO CHANGE THE WAY DUBLINERS THINK ABOUT FOOD THROUGH A WIDE VARIETY OF SIMPLE YET SOPHISTICATED ALL-NATURAL DISHES.

K

C Peaches was founded infounded in 2006 by Katie Cantwell & Vincent Carroll after she discovered a notable absence of healthy, affordable fast food in Dublin. Working long days and late nights in corporate consulting, she found herself hard-pressed to eat as she did in her native Pacific Northwest with a focus on all-natural, preservative-free fare. With a passion for food cultivated in her native Seattle and nurtured in France, she yearned to bring the fresh, flavoursome food she prepared for herself when time allowed to the masses – and she’s done just that.

Our dynamic team provides the highest quality. We pride ourselves on our customer relationships and service.

We see our stores as our shop window for the other parts of our business and have secured numerous corporate clients because of their in-store experiences.

Our self-service ‘pay for your plate’ model, for example, has captured the imagination of our clientele.

EXPANSION We opened our first store and central production facility in Pearse Street in Dublin in 2006 and over the next 13 years have opened stores in Nassau Street (2011), Stephen’s Green and Dame Street (both 2013). At the same time our corporate catering business has grown

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Katie Cantwell, Managing Director, KC Peaches

as clients look to a more premium and nutritional solution for their needs.

We pride ourselves on our wholefoods ethos and a dedication to quality and flavour. All our food is cooked from scratch and without any preservatives or additives.

This ethos appeals greatly to our corporate catering partners who want to deliver a premium, innovative food experience to their workforce.

Our central production facility in Pearse street operates seven days per

week. We are lucky to have an in-house pastry section run by our head pastry chef Loic Hombecq, who can be found in the kitchen every morning from 4am baking that day’s pastries, cakes and treats for dispatch to our stores, catering clients and wholesale clients throughout the day.

In conjunction with our pastry section, our savoury kitchen dispatches over 4,000 meals per day to our stores, catering clients and private clients. These meals comprise of our seasonal hot food

selection, constantly changing salads, sandwiches, soups, canapés, and platters. Our scale and versatility means that we are well-equipped to cover all manner of catering requirements ranging from corporate boardroom breakfasts to on-site event catering and large-scale onsite preparation.

Our corporate catering solutions mean that clients with no on-site cooking facilities can deliver a premium and varied food experience to their workforce. We appreciate

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Commercial

PROFILE

that every client is different and wants different things from a catering provider. We pride ourselves on being able to adapt and flex our model to cater for customers’ bespoke needs, often at very short notice. These are the challenges we love the most!

FRESH FOOD By delivering nature’s freshest flavours in an accessible and affordable manner, KC Peaches serves as a healthy oasis in an urban setting providing healthy, fresh, all-natural

food free from additives, preservatives, artificial flavours or colours. From sandwich and pastry platters to salads, canapés and hot buffets, the catering team carefully considers quality and taste to ensure that their food is full of flavour and suits a variety of dietary needs. We strive to impart as much wholesome goodness as possible into every bite – providing true nourishment from nature. This healthy eating philosophy has had a significant part to play in the success of our corporate

catering relationships and the development of on-site food programmes. Our catering menu highlights local producers and seasonal ingredients, all the while keeping one eye on the latest food trends and delivering on what our customers want.

This year will be an exciting time for KC Peaches as we work on some interesting and innovative projects which we hope to bring to market. Coupled with the development of our catering and events business, we see 2018 as being a year of great opportunity for KC Peaches.

Healthy Ethos We subscribe to the notion that what we consume plays a large role in our physical and mental well-being. Given this philosophy, it is important to us that we serve only all-natural food – free from additives, preservatives, artificial flavours or colours. Our ingredients are delivered fresh every morning and then baked, roasted, chopped and sautéed into what is served on your plate.

To join us on our wholesome food journey or to learn more about the services we provide, phone 01 677 0333, email thekitchen@kcpeaches.com, or visit www.kcpeaches.com.

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BUSINESS MATTERS

Ireland’s

FOOD Story

Fáilte Ireland’s Paul Keeley talks about the company’s new five-year strategy for Irish food and drink and how it can impact on growth within the tourism sector.

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BUSINESS MATTERS

I

LESSONS The process won’t be easy, but there are a number of benchmarks for success. Keeley points to the likes of Australia and the Netherlands who shared the same issue as Ireland – a disconnect between the quality of food and drink available and the perception of their cuisine across the globe. Australia, he explains, has placed its food front and centre across their worldwide marketing initiatives, pitching the country as the world’s greatest restaurant with a unique range of food and wine experiences, confounding food stereotypes and more. The Dutch, meanwhile, identified seven key pillars of their culture, intertwining food with each one and pitching food as an essential part of their country’s culture.

Tourism Boost

Paul Keeley.

HOW CAN THE HOSPITALITY SECTOR HELP BOOST TOURISM REVENUE THROUGH FOOD AND DRINK? FOOD PAIRING Match craft beers or spirits with dishes for an authentic and enjoyable visitor experience.

Iain White/Fennell Photography.

n 2017, overseas and domestic holidaymakers spent around €2 billion on food and drink in Ireland – 35 per cent of total tourism revenue and not including consumption in hotels or B&Bs. It’s an increasingly important factor not just in terms of value to the Irish economy but as something that benefits the overall holiday experience.

It’s understandable, then, why Fáilte Ireland has got food and drink in its sights, having recently developed a new five-year strategy to take advantage of the opportunities that lie ahead. Ireland’s food and drink offering has expanded significantly in recent years, thanks in part to Fáilte Ireland’s Food Strategy 2014-2016 which kicked off the process of transforming the reputation and perception of Irish cuisine, giving rise to a variety of innovative food and drink initiatives across the country, including the Boyne Valley Food Series and the Burren Food Trail. But despite best efforts, our reputation still has room to catch up with the reality and quality of what’s on the menu here – at the moment it comes as a pleasant surprise rather than a compelling reason to visit.

The latest strategy aims to provide a boost to that reputation in the face of strong international competition, providing a connected outlook that will allow for a consistent message to be put out across the board. It sets out a promising vision between now and 2023 – fast forward five years and the plan is to have vastly broadened the availability of high-quality culinary experiences across every county and time of day, increased the capabilities of food and drink operators to deliver a consistently world-class product, and heightened the prominence of Ireland’s food and drink within the tourism industry’s collective marketing endeavours. The story will focus on four key points – quality, authenticity, innovation and value for money. If all goes to plan, food and drink will contribute 2.4bn to the tourism industry’s coffers in 2023.

“We want to increase the visitors’ probability of happening upon a great food experience right across the country, across every day-part, and making sure that no matter where you are, no matter what your budget, no matter what time of the day it is, we’ve got great, interesting food offers that will enhance your holiday experience,” explains Paul Keeley, Director of Commercial Development with Fáilte Ireland. “Of course, that is delivered through businesses so it’s about making sure that we have enough businesses interested in doing new things with food and that we’re supporting them in terms of capability building, supporting them in sourcing local and using seasonal produce. Part of the process is demonstrating that good food is good business, that it is profitable and allows you to build a sustainable business. The final piece is really starting to work hard in terms of our domestic and international marketing, making sure that we’re providing great content to the marketing teams both in Fáilte Ireland and in Tourism Ireland.”

COLLABORATE Highlight local attractions and hidden gems for visitors to explore in your area.

SUPPORT Engage with development plans or get in touch with Fáilte Ireland for business support.

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FROM LEFT: Fáilte Ireland Food Champions Chris Molloy, the Lemon Tree Restaurant, Letterkenny; Sinead Hennessy, Fáilte Ireland; Niall Sabongi, Klaw Restaurant, Dublin; Seaneen Sullivan, L. Mulligan Grocer and Mark Murphy, Dingle Cookery School, Kerry at the launch of the strategy; The strategy launch in January.

Both are successfully closing the perception gap and those, and other lessons learned, have informed the development of Fáilte Ireland’s new strategy.

“That Dutch approach of food as a touch point for your culture and food as an expression of your culture is something that we’re going to try to work through. I think that makes a lot of sense for us because the single biggest market that we go after internationally, in conjunction with our

Value in numbers

FOOD & DRINK VALUE: IN NUMBERS 2BN Food and drink spend by overseas and domestic visitors in 2017 (35 per cent of total spend). 255 Average spend by visitors from North America on food and beverage. 2.4BN The level of spend on Irish cuisine that Fáilte Ireland hopes to achieve by 2023.

77% Holidaymakers who were satisfied or very satisfied with Irish food in 2016.

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colleagues in Tourism Ireland, is the culturally curious,” says Keeley. “For them, one of the things they want is to get under the skin of your history, your heritage, your culture, and to look for these really immersive, authentic experiences. We think that food, particularly if it is linked to local producers, restaurants telling their stories, producers telling their stories, really dials up the value of the overall dining experience.”

There’s plenty of work to be done between now and 2023 as the strategic focus shifts from a small cohort of passionate and innovative food enthusiasts to an increasing number of people who deliver great food experiences across Ireland. There are challenges to surmount – convincing potential visitors about the range of food and drink available, securing adequate numbers of staff with the necessary skills and retaining them for a lot longer, as well as generating an appreciation among Irish businesses of the opportunity in food. Brexit too will play a key role – so much about what will happen is still unknown. But there is plenty to be positive about too, including a world-class industry, food and drink products that stack up well against the competition, growing regional brand areas in the Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland’s Ancient East and others, food tourism networks brimming with passion and energy, not to mention Ireland’s x-factor in the form of the quality of our welcome and hospitality.

As well as government assistance, buy-in from the hospitality sector is key to bypassing those challenges and capitalising on the positives. It’s very much in the interests of hotels, restaurants, pubs, cafés and others to get onboard – more visitors means a greater slice of the global tourism pie. It’s a matter of recognising the ability of consistently high-

quality food to attract visitors and help boost our nation’s reputation one visit at a time. It’s also a case of linking in with other businesses in their area, engaging with food networks or the various experience development plans, or even developing innovative initiatives of their own. Take Dublin’s Trinity City Hotel, which has joined forces with Vintage Tea Tours to provide a unique sightseeing experience in the capital, offering visitors the chance to travel across the city onboard a vintage 1960s doubledecker bus. You could introduce a slow-cooked range, expand your offering of craft beers and pair them with particular dishes, or highlight the provenance of your food on the menus.

Fáilte Ireland is doing its part too, getting the message out to key trade associations and working to create visitor experience development plans that package the best that Ireland has to offer in a bid to stand out from the crowd while retaining that vital sense of authenticity. A programme of work has already begun to develop the food and drink offering at key tourist attractions in advance of the high season. Three new food networks are in the pipeline, increasing the quality and range of pub food is also on the cards, while later this year they’ll focus on the group tour business, seeking a healthy balance between price points and variety.

“Our enterprise development team can get in behind those businesses who do want to work with us in terms of putting in the right kind of business supports, whether it’s on the customer service side or on the operational excellence side,” Keeley says, adding that getting involved with food networks can be a great way to develop a richer experience for tourists. “If you can get people doing interesting things with food, cross-promoting and cross-selling each other’s activities, running festivals – all of that supports the work we’re trying to do in terms of the overall visitor experience. When we’re chatting to buyers, they’re always looking for news. From our perspective, being able to sell them the total experience makes life a whole lot easier for the buyer and gives them a greater degree of confidence that if they put their client in, they’re not leaving it to chance in terms of the food offerings they happen upon. Irish food operators are doing something right – now it’s time to start telling the world about it.”

DOWNLOAD PDF copies of the Fáilte Ireland Food and Drink Development Strategy 2018 – 2023 are available from www.failteireland.ie.

PHOTOS: CHRIS BELLEW/FENNELL PHOTOGRAPHY.

BUSINESS MATTERS

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HOSPITALITY TECH

HOSPITALITY

TECH ESSENTIAL PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE

FREEWIRE

CHARGE ON THE GO

CUP CLUB

SUSTAINABLE COFFEE The backlash against single-use plastics is growing as the extent of the damage caused to the planet is revealed. Single-use cups, for example, are a huge problem, with billions thrown out every year across Europe and the US. Thankfully there are a number of solutions, including Cup Club, which launched in London in 2018. The brainchild of Safia Qureshi, it’s a plant-based plastic cup powered by the Internet of Things and accessed on a subscription basis, allowing businesses to remove single-use plastics from their supply chain. Customers can avail of the smart cups for free at participating coffee shops and can drop them off at other locations. “Food tech is really exciting – there is so much potential for growth, innovation and collaboration. Cup Club is an efficient way for food and beverage retailers to achieve zero waste,” Qureshi told Yfood. “Cups are available for free at participating coffee shops. Consumers drop them off at convenient return points. After washing, Cup Club returns the cups to the coffee retailers. Think a city bike rental scheme but for coffee cups.”

To discover more, check out www.cup-club.co.uk.

Oil and gas company BP has invested a cool $5 million in FreeWire’s mobile rapid charging systems for electric vehicles (EVs). The US-based company will be rolling out mobile units at a number of BP retail sites in the UK and Europe throughout 2018 – the technology could come in handy for pop-up businesses or event managers who wish to cater for their more environmentallyconscious motorists.

To discover more, check out www.bp.com.

PREODAY

PICK UP THE PHONE

NISSAN

SELF-PARKING SLIPPERS The ProPILOT Park Ryokan in Yokohoma looks like an ordinary, traditional Japanese inn, with slippers lined up in the foyer for use when guests remove their shoes. However, the slippers (as well as the tables and floor cushions) can return themselves to the reception area at the push of a button. The system is based on the ProPILOT Park technology developed by Nissan, which uses image processing technology and sensors placed around a car to safely and autonomously guide it into a parking spot.

To discover more, check out www.nissan-global.com.

While the world is increasingly going digital, some customers prefer the ‘older’ methods, like picking up the phone to order from a restaurant or café rather than heading online. That’s the idea behind Preoday’s new Hotline product – customers phone an operator who inputs their order into a digital system. All orders are then captured on one platform with kitchen staff receiving everything via the same interface. Alongside a greater degree of accuracy, businesses can capture the same level of data as they would from customers ordering through a mobile or web app. “Hotline will help restaurants bring their customer orders together, whether orders come from voice calls, or their mobile and web apps,” said Nick Hucker, CEO of Preoday. “Businesses will benefit from being able to gather more customer data, and the resulting operational and marketing benefits that brings.

We’re looking forward to our clients embracing this new facet of our service.”

To discover more, check out www.preoday.com.

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SUPPLY LINE

Culinary

Rock & Roll PHOTOS: GUIDO ANTOLELLI.

Sintered stone is an interesting, modern, yet classic choice with a wide range of uses for the hospitality sector.

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SUPPLY LINE

#Meet the Chef

T

he use of colour, materials and design can be instrumental in creating a restaurant’s atmosphere. Bare concrete will create a colder, more spartan feeling than rich oak; bright pink accents may be quirky but orange, yellow or green will be more likely to stimulate appetites. Marble and granite can imbue a location with a sense of class, though using large amounts of either can take its toll on your budget. Enter sintered stone.

Sintering has risen to prominence over the last few years, an extension of a natural process that exposes minerals and other raw materials to high pressure and heat, similar to the way stone naturally forms (albeit over thousands of years rather than hours). The result is material with strength and durability and is virtually non-porous – hygienic, stain, scratch and heat resistant, not to mention easy to clean and resistant to chemicals. Scrapes or paint that might damage natural surfaces can be easily removed.

One of the companies working within this sphere is TheSize, a Spanish company headquartered in Spain and founded in 2009 to create new materials for use in interior and exterior construction.

The company’s Neolith (‘new stone’) brand was launched in 2011, the result of several years of research. A combination of raw materials and the latest technology is used to create high-tech stone slabs that are lightweight and easy to install, lending their use to projects both inside and outside – walls, counter-tops, staircases, floors, bathrooms and much more. The raw materials consist of clays, silica, feldspar and natural mineral oxides and are completely recyclable.

“A restaurant’s interior forms part of the wider dining experience.

Neolith is proving popular with cookery schools through to highend restaurants and casual dining outlets for its clever combination of durability and deluxe elegance of its finish,” says Neolith’s Mar Esteve Cortes. “Flowing from kitchen through to table, Neolith can create a harmonious finish, especially where the kitchen and chefs are on show to diners. It really adds to the overall theatre of eating out. We’re proud to bring our ‘know-how’ to the sector with our innovative and versatile surface.”

Last year, the brand partnered with pioneering Italian chef Alessandro Borghese for his new restaurant in Milan. Borghese was looking for originality and something aesthetically pleasing; the result is a mix of tones and contrasts used across the 700 square

A COMBINATION OF RAW MATERIALS AND THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY IS USED TO CREATE HIGHTECH STONE SLABS THAT ARE LIGHTWEIGHT AND EASY TO INSTALL.

Alessandro Borghese.

Alongside his work as a chef, Alessandro Borghese is an entrepreneur and TV presenter. A self-taught chef with experience in kitchens across the globe, his style is described as ‘the luxury of simplicity’.

“I had in mind two or three other jobs. When I was a kid, the idea of staying all day and all my life behind a desk scared me. And my dad, from Naples, loved homecooked meals and used to cook every Sunday for our family. He used to make ragu, meat with sauces, rices. Every Sunday morning, when I woke up, there were amazing smells coming out from the kitchen. My dad used to say: ‘The ragu has to think, it needs time’,” he said in an interview with Neolith. “And ultimately, Sunday after Sunday, I became passionate about the colours, smells, noises from the kitchen. So I followed my own path and my first job was on a cruise ship and started working in the kitchen and from then I never stopped cooking.”

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SUPPLY LINE

metre restaurant, which has been described as resembling “the golden age of the 1930s transatlantic cruise liner with a signature Borghese twist”. Quite the look.

“This decision reflects a greater appetite amongst hospitality designers for stone which mimics natural materials whilst also using opposing surface textures in conjunction to create a multi-sensory experience,” Neolith explains.

The Borghese project also reflects the broad use of sintered slabs. The bar worktops (as well as the restaurant walls, bathroom vanities and the stairs) feature Neolith’s Calacatta Silk slabs, which they describe as an increasingly popular choice among chefs in terms of its aesthetics and practicalities.

Smaller bespoke cut pieces are used as plates for tapas dishes which have gone down well with customers – diners enjoy the combination of high-quality food on an elegant backdrop.

“Cooking is definitely the new rock ‘n’ roll.

A glamorous industry with universal appeal where accomplished performance is essential to success,” said Borghese. “The cooking might be exceptional but the restaurant and what goes into it needs to reflect the high standards of the cuisine. I was attracted to Neolith for its variety of sublime colours and patterns as well as an admiration of the skill and care behind its production.”

There are practical applications too.

According to Alfredo Canelli, who designed the restaurant’s interiors to Borghese’s specifications, the wide range of colours used through the space provides each area with its own identity. In the kitchen, Borghese can work directly on the surface using oils, vegetables, fish, meats and more – no stains, no smells and no scratches.

“I have chosen Neolith because I have

SMALLER BESPOKE CUT PIECES ARE USED AS PLATES FOR TAPAS DISHES WHICH HAVE GONE DOWN VERY WELL WITH CUSTOMERS – DINERS ENJOY THE COMBINATION OF HIGHQUALITY FOOD ON AN ELEGANT BACKDROP. fallen in love with the product and the company’s philosophy,” Borghese added. “I first discovered Neolith when I was looking on the internet for the right surfaces for my new restaurant which would fit my various personalities – rock, eclectic, innovative. I was looking for something different other than what is usually used in kitchens.”

Regardless of your background, inspiration, aspirations or design focus, a restaurant’s interior can be make or break with the customers who keep your doors open. Choosing a distinctive interior design

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can help you stand out from the crowd, sends out a statement about your establishment, can help create a positive atmosphere, and ultimately keep the punters coming back.

“In the hospitality industry, reputation is everything. This is especially true in today’s connected world where online reviews can easily make or break a business,” says Mar Esteve Cortes. “Outdated restaurant interiors in need of a refresh can jeopardise the customer experience and ultimately its reputation. Customer feedback can keep you up to speed with what diners actually want.”

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BOOKSHELF

SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW

Authors: Publisher: RRP: Available:

Wendy Mitchell Bloomsbury £16.99 ( 19) Easons.com

Diagnosed with dementia at the age of 58, Wendy Mitchell faced a devastating future, one in which her memories would slip away and the faces of those she loved become unrecognisable. Now 61, the former NHS manager has described her first-hand experiences of the disease’s early stages in Somebody I Used to Know, of coming to terms with the road ahead, using post-it notes to keep track of everyday tasks like locking the front door, and finding a new purpose in life. A captivating chronicle of one woman’s struggle to make sense of a changing world, the book is a moving, illuminating, insightful and inspirational read that unravels some of the mysteries behind a cruel disease.

Book SHELF We take a look at several interesting additions to your bookcase.

SLOW AT WORK

Authors: Aoife McElwain Publisher: Gill Books RRP: 12.99 Available: Easons.com

Work can often be an irksome place, filled with stress, procrastination, and anxiety. Boundaries between work and life (they’re not always the same thing) are very much blurred these days with many employees expected to always be on – a lot of us will know the dread of our phones buzzing after hours. If you feel like you’re already burning out, pick up a copy of food writer and event planner Aoife McElwain’s new book Slow at Work, which offers some useful advice on how to beat the stress with tips including enjoying proper lunchbreaks or taking up a craft to help relax your mind.

A TASTE OF SALAMANCA Authors:

Salamanca Tapas Bar & Restaurant RRP: 16.99 Available: Salamanca.ie

Salamanca Tapas Bar & Restaurant was one of Ireland’s first tapas bars in 2002, recently celebrating its 15th anniversary. To coincide, they’ve launched A Taste of Salamanca, which walks you through the creation of some delicious Spanish foods like salads, dips and sauces, chicken and chorizo paella, not to mention a few tasty desserts. Featuring the essential ingredients for a Spanish-inspired larder, menu suggestions from managing director Caroline Boyle, recipes by head chef Aleksandar Dimitrov, and photography by Agnes Chvojka, it’s the perfect book for tapas enthusiasts.

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A QUICK CHAT

“Food has become cerebral. And that’s a really important thing but it’s cerebral with no pleasure. It’s got to taste good.”

WHAT’S ON THE MENU? SEASONAL FOOD

It’s very seasonal – it’s imperative to me to cook by the seasons. In the cold weather months there’s always long, slow dishes like beef rib. Whereas in the summertime I lighten it up and start using more olive oil.

LOCAL FOOD KEEP IT CLOSE

PAUL FLYNN

You try, absolutely, as much as possible to use food as close as possible. For me it’s important to get the good ingredients to do something really great with them. And if you can’t get it in the locality you have to just go further.

Hotel & Catering Review caught up with Paul Flynn, owner of the Tannery in Dungarvan, Co Waterford.

“Food has become more egalitarian, you can get really good food in way more places than you used to be able to do 20 years ago.” “[The Greenway] is the best thing that ever happened to County Waterford. It really is a case that if you build it they will come.

There is so much yet to happen – it is very exciting.”

I IGNORE …

FOOD TRENDS

I don’t pay attention to food trends. None, zero. I spend all my time just making sure that what we do, what is produced in the kitchen, is good and it tastes lovely.

It’s not something that preoccupies me.

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COOKING ETHOS AMBITION

SHANE O’NEILL

“I encourage creativity in the kitchen because I think that’s what will make the restaurant better and make the individual chef better.”

I like to think we’re an ambitious kitchen, not in breaking new ground but we’re always trying to do new things, [we] are excited by new ingredients and try to always keep the menu evolving and flowing.

CATERING REVIEW | ISSUE 2 2018

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