Close but no hoorah!

of London, before going into business for myself and buying a derelict Little Chef in the remote highland village of Tyndrum where I set up The Real Food Café in 2005, now a hugely busy and award winning road side diner with Fish & Chips at the heart of its menu.

By Sarah Heward Co-Owner Real Food Cafe

It was great to bump into John and Grainne Laverty from Fish City Glasgow in the crowd. They won a coveted Catey in 2022 and John was a 2023 judge. Our table was made up of our ‘home’ team and some of our campaign sponsors and potential future sponsors including Goldensheaf batter, T Quality Food service and McWhinney’s Sausages.

The £500 a ticket event was attended by 1000 guests and catered for by 100 chefs from The Grosvenor House in partnership with The Ritz. The banqueting was phenomenal and absolutely faultless, which was just as well as it was the hospitality industry showcasing the hospitality industry!

My entire career has been in hospitality, working my way up to Managing Director of Corney & Barrow Wine Bars in the City

I live and breathe hospitality and love being part of the Fish & Chip trade, so was very proud to be on the short list for The Best Marketing Campaign 2023 for our Gluten Free Fortnight.

Gluten Free Fortnight is a campaign The Real Food Cafe launched in 2019 on the back of our long-standing commitment to gluten free foodservice and our growing sales and reputation for gluten free fish & chips.

We have been an A grade Accredited Caterer with Coeliac UK for the past eight years. This year we will turnover in excess of £100K on GF Fish & Chips alone and remember, Coeliacs do not come without bringing their friends & families.

Using all conventional metrics, the GFF campaign was hugely successful and so we re-ran it in 2021 and again in 2022. In 2022 we were approached and asked if we would collaborate with our local regional food network, a community interest company, supported and funded by Scotland Food & Drink with the aim