FM World Catering supplement 2010

THE MAGAZINE FOR FACILITIES MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS | 30 SEPTEMBER 2010

SUPPLEMENT

FMWorld www.fm-world.co.uk

CATERING

In association with

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BaxterStorey offers a wide range of contract catering services to business and industry. As the UK’s leading independent contract caterer we offer a personal service that focuses on fresh food.

We tailor our services to each clients individual needs and we ensure we provide the right people to deliver the exceptional.

Whether you need a dining room for board members and clients, or meals for over 1000 people per day, and whether you have a single or multi-site operation, BaxterStorey will respond to your needs, very often with award-winning solutions. And if you need to provide special hospitality for meetings, we’ll take care of that too.

What’s more, the solution will be designed to your individual requirements - whether it’s a small trendy in-house café, a deli bar, or a large complex site with diverse catering services.

For more information please visit us at www.baxterstorey.com e-mail sales@baxterstorey.com or call us on 0118 935 6700.

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CATHY HAYWARD EDITOR COMMENT

CONTENTS hink of the harvest festival, and images of children bringing huge fruits and vegetables (and the odd tin of fruit) to their classrooms, community halls and churches spring to mind.

Altars (and teachers’ desks) groan under the weight of offerings from the local community, which are usually later donated to those less fortunate. Schools and community halls are decorated with home grown produce, children’s drawings and sculptures depicting the harvest and the joys of fresh food; even the odd corn dolly gets a look in. Families get together to feast on the seasonal fayre – all to celebrate the success of the recent harvest. The tradition dates back to pre-Christian times when the success of the crop governed people’s lives. Although it’s not a bank holiday in the UK, as it is in the US and many other parts of the world, the harvest festival is an integral part of our culture. This holds true even today when you can eat exotic and out-of-season foods all year round and many of us live in urban areas far away from where the real farming and harvesting takes place.

There’s no denying that food has an emotive power that few other issues in the workplace can engender. While staff might be miffed if their bin is not emptied daily or their security pass doesn’t work, nothing engenders such passion as the workplace restaurant, and what’s in it, as BaxterStorey’s Simon Esner explains on page 4.

With seasonal eating top of many chefs’ agendas thanks to the highprofile efforts of chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, on page 12 Bite Catering’s Nick Parker takes a look at the joys of seasonal food and suggests some tempting menus for workplace restaurants.

But any FM worth his salt knows that food is only half the story – a poor coffee offering can have a major impact on your business if staff are slipping round the corner to the local Starbucks several times a day (page 6).

One location that is bound to celebrate harvest festival in style is the Blue Sky cafe at IPC Media’s London HQ. On page 10, FM World’s Natalie Li reviews the tantalising menus (and facilities) on offer.

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Viewpoint Simon Esner argues that food provision is key to a happy, productive workforce

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How to... manage sustainable vending without denting your bottom line

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Coffee revolution charting the rise and fall of big coffee brands in the workplace

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Case study: eating at IPC Natalie Li tastes the high life at the publisher’s Blue Fin building

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Food focus: seasonal menus letting nature have a say in your catering choices

This supplement was published by redactive publishing ltd 17 Britton Street, London EC1M 5TP Tel: 020 7880 6200 Website: www.redactive.co.uk COVER IMAGE: ISTOCK

In association with BaxterStorey

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“FOOD HAS AN EMOTIVE POWER THAT FEW OTHER ISSUES IN THE WORKPLACE CAN ENGENDER”

cathyhayward@fm-world.co.uk

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FM SUPPLEMENT CATERING SIMON ESNER

Appetite for success

Simon Esner is UK sales director at BaxterStorey

CON TRACT CAT ER ER I N G

e take great care when preparing meals for family and friends. Why doesn’t workplace catering get the same attention? Simon Esner says that the way to your staff’s heart is through their stomach

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want to eat. In essence, we’ve all become minor experts on the food we like, and it will become more pronounced as the UK’s healthy food culture continues to develop.

I would suggest that food is among the most tangible of services that the FM is charged with delivering. Done well, it can make employees feel valued and cared for (especially important against a corporate backdrop of pay, perk and bonus freezes).

Food for thought Of course, catering isn’t necessarily the main area of expertise for FMs – and why should it be? Often this explains why provision of food isn’t embraced in quite the same way as other aspects of the job. That’s where partnering with a specialist caterer can really pay off: food is what they do, what they’re passionate about and what they do well.

Specialist help

SAM KESTEVEN

Halo effect

As a trained chef and former restaurateur, I can talk about food for hours. But unlike in other specialist areas, almost everyone has an opinion about food, even if they have no formal training or particular interest in the kitchen.

Military generals have always known this fundamental truth: an army marches on its stomach.

While the average employee is far less warlike, the food on offer in your building is the single most likely source of militancy among staff that I can think of (apart from perhaps air-conditioning failure in the height of summer or heating in mid-winter).

You may work tirelessly to maintain a top-notch standard

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of the property and grounds, enforce a meticulous cleaning regime, and ensure that the general environment is as safe and secure as possible. But these feats, when done well, will go largely unnoticed.

Fine dining Not so your catering offer. Get this wrong to even a fraction of a degree – be it the price, range, service times or quality of the food – and the complaints will flood in.

Today’s living standards mean that the people using your facilities eat out more than ever.

The high street is bulging with options, which in turn makes us more informed about what we

Good catering can also have a halo effect, in that visiting clients can’t help but be impressed by your well-run cafe, restaurant or private dining. In turn, they’ll spread the word. In that respect, I can think of few other building services that, if done right, can have a more positive impact on your reputation among both employees and the management of your organisation.

Given the current period of austerity in the UK, employees are increasingly looking for value for money, resulting in a shortterm trend whereby employees shy away from the high street for lunch. This means an increase in people staying on site (which helps drive productivity) and an opportunity to see your catering offer fly.

On the other hand, this will lead to an intensified focus on the facilities you provide. If they don’t pass muster you will cause yourself untold aggravation

Working with a specialist service provider can arm you with the know-how and support to take your dining options confidently to the next level.

A good caterer will help to improve employee morale and retention, while getting you closer to your wider corporate social responsibility goals and environmental management targets.

Of all building provisions, catering often impacts most on waste management; as a result, it should be a cornerstone of FM sustainability policy. Caterers may be able to buy ingredients locally, helping your business to support the community.

Of course, building long-term relationships is a practice that will ensure you get the best deals while offering security for both sides.

With the right partner, you can make the most of your food. Use it to enhance your reputation and complete your FM jigsaw.

A good caterer can improve employee morale and help you to meet your CSR and environmental targets In association with BaxterStorey

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FM SUPPLEMENT JONATHAN BARR

HOW TO…

Jonathan Barr is sales and marketing director at Selecta UK

SU STAINAB LE VEN DI N G

thical products, energy efficient machines and recycling are all part of a greener vending service. It’s an approach that will help companies to reduce their carbon footprint while saving money.

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Reduce, reuse, recycle

standard whiteners), and are free from HVOs (hydrogenated vegetable oils). It also means providing a good balance of healthy options, along with popular snacks and confectionery to encourage healthier eating.

Talk to your operator about a product programme that strikes the right balance.

Recycling is a key area of sustainable vending. Ensure you are using recyclable cups and a hassle-free collection and recycling service. This will greatly reduce waste. Consider your operator’s refurbishment and recycling programme. What happens to the machines after they leave your service?

The life of most units can be extended by three to five years through refurbishment. All equipment should be disposed of in accordance with the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) regulations. Operators should be investing in machines that can be recycled easily at the end of their normal life cycles.

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Go green

Sustainable vending doesn’t have to cost the earth. Nor should it cause drastic upheaval to a company’s operations. In fact, just a few small changes can make a huge difference when it comes to meeting ethical targets.

And companies can reap additional benefits from the changes. Sustainable vending is better for the environment, it can save money by reducing energy bills. Also, it supports the wellbeing of employees by encouraging healthier eating while contributing to a company’s green credentials. So how do you achieve it?

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Set a fair price

The first step is a simple one: update your hot drinks range to sustainably sourced products like Fairtrade certified coffee or Rainforest Alliance certified tea. Result: employees enjoy quality, great tasting, ethically sourced hot drinks; the company promotes its ethical credentials, by ensuring that tea and coffee farmers get a fair price for their products.

Where there is a pay vend facility, research from the Fairtrade Foundation has shown that 96 per cent of people are willing to pay more for a product they perceive to be ethically sourced.

Facilities managers can create profit from their hot drinks vending, but in an ethical way.

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Ensure well-being

Sustainable vending means being responsible for ensuring that hot drinks are made from high-quality ingredients, are low in fat (using skimmed milk, not industry In association with BaxterStorey

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model. These energy saving steps will make for a greener, more sustainable vending facility that will help reduce your company’s energy bill.

Be energy efficient

Reducing energy usage and environmental impact is a big challenge for any company. This can only be achieved if vending operators work as hard as you do to meet your sustainable targets.

Energy efficient machines can help reduce your carbon footprint, and generate lower energy bills.

For example, machines with LED lights use less energy than those with standard bulbs, and also have a longer life. Efficient chillers and boilers are designed work at an optimum temperature.

Every time you procure a new machine, aim for a minimum 20 per cent reduction in energy consumption against the outgoing

Maintaining and servicing is an essential part of any successful vending operation.

But maintenance work doesn’t have to impact on your carbon footprint. A sustainable service is achievable, for example, by your contractor keeping vehicle mileage to a minimum.

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How’s your provider?

Is your vending operator as green as you are?

Treat your provider as an extension of your facilities management team. Remember: their way of working could have a major knock-on effect on your own carbon footprint.

Environmental accreditations from the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), such as the ISO14001, are a good measure of sustainability.

As anyone who has been involved in achieving ISO14001 will testify, it takes a lot of hard work and commitment and sets those apart who are serious about creating a sustainable business. A vending operator who has gained accreditation or is currently working towards it will have a clear commitment to sustainability and to reducing their waste and carbon footprint, now and in the future.

CASE STUDY: IMPERIAL COLLEGE Selecta has been working with Imperial College London to provide a sustainable vending solution. The package has more than doubled the college’s return.

Imperial, rated fourth in the university world league tables, with over 13,000 students, has opted for sustainable vending across its three campuses. The new products include drinks such as Fairtrade-certified bean-to-cup miofino etico coffee, with skimmed milk powder, Fairtrade hot chocolate and Rainforest Alliance tea.

David Hughes, facilities support manager at Imperial College, says: “Selecta has been fantastic; they invested in stylish housing for the machines and provided a range of ethically sourced, quality hot drinks.

Selecta’s Balanced Options range has enabled me to offer healthier yet popular products. I’d recommend Selecta to anyone who’s questioning the return on their vending facilities.”

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FM SUPPLEMENT CATERING IAN BOUGHTON

Coffee: beyond the high street After a late ‘90s honeymoon period in which FMs courted the big high street names, the corporate coffee revolution is evolving towards gourmet and own brands, to keep pace with the workforce’s increasingly discerning tastes ight years ago, the highstreet coffee bar revolution was in full swing. Catering managers watched with concern as more and more staff walked in clutching bought takeaway cups. Line managers would frown as staff nipped out on a ‘coffee run’.

Some FMs felt the ‘can’t beat them, join them approach’ was the best course of action and invited high street brands in-house to manage their workplace beverages. ‘Speciality coffee’ was introduced to the corporate palette.

Five or six years ago, it was considered chic to have a Starbucks coffee bar on the premises.

Last year, Allegra Strategies, the main research company working in the beverage sector, went on record to proclaim ‘branded concepts are still a growing feature – we expect Starbucks and Costa Coffee to develop a greater presence within UK workplaces.’

Predictably, Starbucks’ head of communications, Tim McCoy, follows the party line, confirming that “by offering Starbucks coffee through our ‘We Proudly Brew’ foodservice programme, employees can have access to the quality they expect from their local Starbucks store.”

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But Starbucks is not necessarily the dominant force, say the contract caterers.

“In central London, we’re seeing a move away from brands, simply because the high street has reached saturation point,” remarks Simon Esner, sales director at Baxter Storey. “An employee will walk on past Starbucks or Costa now that we offer them something different.

We are experiencing interest in our own-brand Down to Earth coffee, and in stylish brands such as Lavazza.”

At Artizian, his opposite number, sales director Chris Piper goes further: “At first, the big brands helped drive workplace sales. That is still true in some sites, but others have evolved beyond Starbucks.

“Many FMs want an even higher quality coffee, and also resent brands’ aggression in telling them what they can and can’t do with branded coffee in their own buildings!”

Surprisingly, then, even Illy, probably the world’s most famous Italian leisure coffee

brand, is now entering the British workplace market. Despite its expense, Artizian suggests that with a sound deal, the corporate client need suffer no difference.

“We are doing a lot of corporate taste-tests with Illy, and in top-end, white-collar sites they’re beating the chain names hands-down. We have very interesting cases of clients using them to get through the barrier of 70p for a 10oz coffee, or £1 for a 12oz.

“We also see interesting recessionary effects on the In association with BaxterStorey

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“Employees who used to walk in with a Starbucks coffee in hand for reasons of image, now prefer to get the same quality of drink, but cheaper, in-house ” REBIRTH OF THE BEAN he term ‘speciality coffee’ generally refers to coffee made from whole beans from known origins of quality, ground to powder at the moment before brewing, and prepared by a ‘barista’, who is someone skilled in the operation of an espresso machine. Baristas appeared in the corporate building as part of the same shift that saw the appearance of professional, well-qualified chefs in workplace kitchens.

The first in-house baristas were trained by the highstreet brands. Several contract catering companies have since established their own ‘barista academies’, and both BaxterStorey and Elior Avenance entered staff into this year’s barista championships; there was even a corporate catering entrant from the House of Commons.

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workforce; employees who used to walk in with a Starbucks coffee in hand for reasons of image, now prefer to get the same quality of drink, but cheaper, in-house.”

Fairtrade The prevailing assumption is that ethically-sourced or Fairtrade brands have become a major factor in workplace beverages.

But this may be another red herring. Contract caterers now report that corporate consumers are wary of the quality of In association with BaxterStorey

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‘ethical’ coffee. They share the concerns of much of the speciality coffee market; within the coffee trade, there has long been a feeling that the Fairtrade system is better in theory than in taste.

“Ethical sourcing can be a key consideration for companies with specific sustainability guidelines – but while coffee drinkers like the idea of Fairtrade, many still need convincing on the quality,” confirms Marie Caulfield, marketing manager at Café Bar. “Swansea University’s research

showed that students and staff both believed it to be inferior, and we had to work hard on a tasting campaign to convince them otherwise.”

Yet the evidence of demand is overwhelming, protests Jon Marlow, head of sales at Cafedirect.

“We spoke to 3,000 people in workplaces. Twenty-four per cent of them said they drink Fairtrade beverages at home, but only 17 per cent said they could get it at work – there was an inherent dissatisfaction. Ninety-five per

cent, which we thought a pretty strong endorsement, wanted their workplace to offer a Fairtrade beverage.

“Certainly, there were once quality issues surrounding Fairtrade coffee, but not now; the FM should investigate this development.”

They certainly should, because times are changing, says Ian Balmforth of Bolling Coffee, who has recently expanded his ethically-sourced Grumpy Mule brand into workplace foodservices.

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FM SUPPLEMENT CATERING IAN BOUGHTON

“You hear a lot of bull about ‘ethical’ coffee,” he remarks.

“Much of the corporate market has a box marked ‘Fairtrade’, and they tick it, without really understanding it. And ‘ethics’ is certainly not about paying over the odds for a sub-standard product.

“Our Grumpy Mule range is entirely traceable, ethical, and sustainable, and was the only three-starred gold coffee at the Great Taste awards. So there is a new story for the facilities manager – yes, there really can be a great-tasting Fairtrade coffee in corporate foodservice.”

Progress in the corporate coffee sector has often floundered on the term ‘vending’, which retains the image of insipid powdered-coffee brews in plastic cups. This is no longer the case – roast-and-ground coffee (that is, coffee brewed directly from real beans) accounts for about 25 per cent of workplace coffee, and is growing rapidly in automatic vending. What are called ‘beanto-cup machines’ can now grind beans and froth and steam milk to an unexpectedly high standard. Very high-volume ones have been working successfully in motorway service areas for some years now. The coffee trade continues to argue with itself whether such machines have yet matched the product produced by a human barista. Whatever the case, they certainly come close.

The FM who chooses vended beverages must now turn to roast-and-ground coffee over instant, says Dina Solomon, marketing manager at Selecta.

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if you upgrade to ground beans from instant coffee, to a bigger cup, and to a paper cup instead of a plastic one. This is especially true if you change to fresh milk or even milk powder, away from chemical ‘whitener’.”

However, she says, the crucial thing is to explain the choice to the workforce.

“We have learned that coffee is a big deal for employees. We are all creatures of habit, and if something changes, it puts us off balance; we have had complaints even after moving a machine across an office, since it was no longer where people expected it!

We now have a coffee changeover plan. We go in, months ahead, with posters, banners, table-talkers, and sometimes trial machines. When the workplace knows a change in coffee is coming, it’s much easier.”

CATERING

“Much of the corporate market ticks the box marked ‘Fairtrade’ without fully understanding it”

Topping up At the Greencore Group, a food manufacturer, beverage controller Elaine McCarroll reports using Selecta’s bean-to-cup changeover plan to implement an increase in cup size to 12oz, and raise price from 20p to 60p. Her launch week vends rose from 643 to 1902.

It is regularly said that all corporate workplaces are now aiming for their beverage offer to be ‘cost-neutral’, and most suppliers believe this is perfectly possible when a quality choice is used to keep selling price up.

“Coffee is a high-margin product that typically requires a low labour ratio. It’s a simple equation providing that the workforce consume at least 500 cups per day, every day,” says Simon Esner at BaxterStorey.

At Artizian, Chris Piper makes the same calculation, but adds that a sensible holistic beverage strategy is required – the volume of tea drunk in the workplace is as high as ever, and yet there are still places which, for reasons of historical union agreements, continue to charge 20p for it.

That, he observes, is not helpful when trying to sell coffee at £1.50.

At Selecta, Dina Solomon suggests that an average machine-vended roast-andground coffee should be priced from 50p. But she also accepts that many corporate buyers choose both a ‘real coffee’ machine and a soluble-coffee machine; the paid-for

premium coffee subsidises the free instant coffee.

However, Piper suggests that instant coffee will soon disappear from the white-collar workplace completely, if only because the FM can no longer risk installing machines which will not be fully used.

Nescafé Professional will not hear of this, and argues that instant machines will certainly continue to be used. To the ire of the ‘real coffee’ brigade, Nescafé has now launched an instant coffee machine which replicates cappuccinos and lattes, and which managing director Neil Stephens claims “competes with roast-and-ground in terms of taste, appearance and quality.”

The coffee trade has been heard grumbling about ‘passing off’, but in one aspect Nescafé has endorsed their feelings – in a survey of workplaces, Nescafé found that 72 per cent of consumers are prepared to pay more if better coffee is provided.

In association with BaxterStorey

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FM SUPPLEMENT CATERING BY NATALIE LI

Salad days Workplace restaurants have been transformed in recent years from lowly canteens to high-class eateries. Natalie Li samples the delicacies on offer at IPC Media’s restaurant in Southwark’s Blue Fin building and discovers the key ingredients of a successful workplace menu

alk into IPC Media’s top-floor restaurant and your senses immediately go into overdrive. The delicious aromas emanating from the hotfood counter compete with the smell of freshly-basked bread and cakes. Chefs in the kitchen shout orders and instructions over the din of 300 people talking shop over lunch. Stunning views across to Tate Modern on one side and the Shard development on the other jostle for attention with the artistic array of salads directly in front of the restaurant entrance.

The salads, it turns out, are the most important part of the restaurant provision, hence their prime location, The idea is to grab the attention of the 3,000 diners who use the facility every day. “Our clients include some of the fashion world’s most senior journalists, as well as staff working on health titles,” says Jenny Noon, IPC’s director

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of facilities. “For them, image, weight and healthy eating are crucial so the salad bar is the most controversial and important aspect of what we do.” A strict rotation system ensures the salad bar changes every day and offers some unusual choices.

The IPC restaurant has been run by BaxterStorey since 2002, but things weren’t always this swish, says Noon. Before the firm moved from its old premises at King’s Reach Tower in 2007, food was considered the worst thing about the building, according to surveys. Within six months at the Blue Fin building, that was turned on its head – food was, and still is, considered one of the best aspects of working at IPC. Run by general manager Ricky Wilmont and catering manager Ben Durston from BaxterStorey, the restaurant is open from 8am to 5pm, offering breakfast between 8am and 11am, hot lunches from midday until

2.30pm before closing service at 5pm. On Thursdays it stays open to 7.30pm where the bar offers a range of drinks to allow staff to wind down towards the end of the week.

Visitors to the restaurant, which seats 300 (its predecessor at King’s Reach Tower only seated 60) have a wide variety of options. They are offered the chef’s special, a traditional option, vegetarian, a pizza/ pasta dish from the hot counter, sandwiches and the salad bar – all priced at around £3.50.

“We have a lot of young, single staff members who work here and for many, the hot meal at lunch is their main meal of the day”, says Noon.

But it’s not just hot main meals which draw in the customers.

Once breakfast and lunch is over, coffees and cakes are available all day at the Winter Garden coffee bar, situated next to the main restaurant, where tempting

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homemade slices of cake are laid out on wooden boards – from 50p.

People can also choose to sit either in the café and restaurant or on the terraces looking across London.

In between the café and restaurant are a group of microwaves for people who bring in their own lunch, together with cutlery and crockery for them to use. Noon is quite open about her ulterior motives in bringing them up to the restaurant to heat up their lunch “We hope they will be lured into trying what we offer.”

One of BaxterStorey’s tasks is to collect the dirty plates from the office floors in the afternoon.

With Borough Market on the doorstep, Durston and his team of 31 have access to quality ingredients, locally sourced.

“Some days we’ll offer unusual foods such as an Israeli couscous.

In association with Baxter Storey

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CATERING

JENNY NOON: FACILITIES DIRECTOR PC’s facilities director Jenny Noon has a publishing, rather than facilities background. She has worked for IPC for more than 20 years, starting in the advertising sales department in 1988, before climbing the ladder to become a publisher. In 2002, after returning from a stint in Sydney, Noon jumped at the chance to take over the divisional services department (essentially FM). Today, she oversees 50 contractors, including the BaxterStorey contract, and three project managers.

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Also, the way we label things helps to draw people in, explains Durston.

The restaurant applies sustainable principles where possible – freshly grown herbs are produced on the terrace close to the CEO’s office. The rosemary is harvested and added to the fresh bread that is baked on the premises.

In a bid to raise environmental awareness and to adhere to the company’s green policies, all consumables are bio-degradable.

Cheaper coffee is on offer for those who use an unbreakable mug. Coffee grounds are even bagged up and given to staff for composting. And Noon is keen to start a worm farm, in a bid to reduce kitchen waste and involve local Southwark schoolchildren.

“Nothing goes to landfill from In association with Baxter Storey

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FM QUICK FACTS

500 2,700 450 250 3,000

visitors a day to the site

desks in IPC media

free range eggs are used daily

cups of coffee are consumed each day

customers served daily

our [IPC’s] part of the building, says Noon. It is either recycled or incinerated for electricity.”

Despite the high quality of the offer, the subsidy has reduced by half since the move from Kings Reach. “We would like not to be subsidised, explains Noon, “but I don’t believe that’s possible. It certainly couldn’t be achieved with any level of quality.”

At the Blue Fin building, the restaurant pays for the hospitality – BaxterStorey provides catering for the 93 meeting rooms from beverage trays, working lunches and finger buffets to formal dining, canapés and drink receptions and bespoke functions.

With interviews and press launches on site there’s never a dull moment. Durston’s claim to fame is serving beer to American rock band Kings of Leon.

There were a few hiccups when the restaurant first opened.

The queues were astounding on the first day and Noon quickly realised that three tills wasn’t enough. She doubled that immediately. “Queue management is the biggest problem, getting people through the tills with their food still hot,” she says.

One thing that has helped is the introduction of a ‘silver tariff’ – everything is rounded up to the nearest 5p which means there are no coppers to exchange hands and slow things down. Noon has look into cashless vending but decided it wouldn’t benefit staff.

Instead, a cash machine was installed outside the restaurant.

IPC occupies nine of 11 floors, and sublets the remaining two. To boost the restaurant’s revenues, Noon has opened up the restaurant to the building’s tenants.

Asked if he gets many complaints, Durston shakes his head. “We rarely get complaints, but if we do we try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” People do get picky about toast,” chips in Noon smiling “How you serve it and how much it costs always gets a reaction.”

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FM SUPPLEMENT CATERING NICK PARKER

A time to sow and a time to reap Serving fresh, seasonal food in the workplace can make employees happier and healthier.

Nick Parker explains how to harvest the benefits of following nature’s lead easonal eating is back in vogue. The average person is increasingly clued-in with it comes to eating foods which are at their most plentiful and nutritious. This is good news for the farmer and the food industry as a whole, as well as for the environment; buying and eating in-season food, which is locally sourced, reduces food miles and packaging.

The current trend towards eating seasonal foods was initially spurred on by high profile TV chefs, who also espouse seasonal cooking in their restaurants. This practice is now been echoed by everyone from the high street restaurants, to big brand sandwich retailers. More and more of us have taken to growing our own produce, either in our gardens or on allotments – at least those of us patient enough to join the waiting list for these prime parcels of land.

Yes, we seem to be driven by a desire to use the earth’s resources more carefully. But there are sound economic reasons for ‘grow your own’ and a proliferation of magazines are

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feeding our appetites with ideas on what to sow and how to cook it.

This heightened awareness of when different foods are in season is something that is also shaping workplace eating and drinking. Employees increasingly expect to see seasonal foods on the menu.

Ingredients in season are, you might say, truly as nature intended; at their peak in terms of nutrient concentration, they’re better for us – and more tasty. Those forward-thinking companies with a strong emphasis on employee well-being are starting to apply this thinking in the workplace.

The most progressive organisations are committed to sustaining their workforce with good quality, fresh seasonal food and drink. In some cases, this starts right outside the kitchen door, with the kitchen team growing some of their fresh produce on site and even cooking with fruit and vegetables that their customers bring in [see case study below].

Infusing food with mouthwatering flavour becomes straightforward when we cook

with the seasons, and harvest according to a crop’s natural cycles. It also gives chefs the opportunity to go beyond ‘food provision’ and actually create memorable experience for clients and customers.

Telling a story about the food you serve helps to educate and inspire customers. For example, you can help to transform their trips to the supermarket; with your help, they’ll be savvy enough to choose the in-season varieties of apple, potatoes or squash, and have the confidence to demand quality.

You can also inspire people to go one step further and grow their own produce with their families and children, perhaps by offering packs of seeds for sale in your restaurant and then buying back what they grow and putting in on your menu.

All of these options give staff the opportunity take a story home with them, increase their nutritional awareness and feel good about an employer who has provided them with quality food.

A seasonal menu But while the drive towards eating seasonal food is gaining ground, rolling out a practical seasonable menu in the workplace has its challenges.

For example, it’s easy to tire of a food that’s in abundance – people won’t want to eat it day in, day out – so caterers have to be clever. Take the humble leek: delicious and packed full of flavour during its six-week season from the start of October.

Canny caterers can braise them, make them into a soup and use them in roux-based sauces. They also work well as daily specials In association with BaxterStorey

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CATERING

A CHEF’S VIEW ouise McArdle is chef manager for Bite Catering at a client site in Maidenhead.

McArdle and her team of five are in the kitchen every day cooking from scratch more than a hundred hot meals as well as over a hundred more fresh salads, sandwiches, jacket potatoes and servings of home-made soup, for the 200 plus client employees.

The team is passionate about gardening, even on site, and uses this as the stimulus for creating new seasonal menus way before the seasons change: “The kitchen team are keen gardeners. We spend hours in our own gardens, all year round, planting and nurturing seedlings until we can eventually harvest our crops. We grow pots of herbs, amongst other things, outside the kitchen door, which we fuss over during the summer months. Thai basil, Italian basil, coriander, flat leaf parsley, lettuces, chillies and tomatoes are firm favourites.

“We walk through our gardens and see a patch of something growing and getting closer to maturity over the weeks. And one day it’s finally ready, although the ideas for how we’re going to use them have already formed in our minds. We have cooked with our homegrown courgettes, peppers and aubergines in our menus at work.

“Scotch Bonnet and Jalapeño chilli plants take pride of place in the restaurant. They have been grown from seed and lovingly fed and watered. Each chilli will be picked when it’s needed to go into a recipe to keep our customers happy on our next theme day, or chopped and marinated in meat dishes or used to complement our fresh daily salads.

“We use our home-grown tomatoes constantly until the season is over. The mass of green tomatoes left at the end of the season will go into our Christmas chutney. We have a supply of local organic honey produced by Neil’s dad (Neil Martin is sous chef and my number two in the kitchen), which is unstrained and is a great natural remedy for hay fever sufferers, as the pollen is still in the honey.

“Customers bring in a constant supply of fresh herbs and fruit from their gardens, throughout the year, for us to use in our cooking. We get as much fresh rosemary as we need and recently had some lovely Bramley apples that we made into apple cakes as well as for freezing as purées and sauces.

“The thinking that stimulates our seasonal menu goes way beyond just sitting down with a list of seasonal ingredients and writing our weekly menus; our own gardens force our thinking way before the seasons change.”

L

Seeds of change: FMs can improve staff morale and well-being by encouraging ‘grow your own’

“You can inspire people to grow their own produce with their families and children, perhaps by offering packs of seeds for sale in your restaurant” In association with BaxterStorey

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FM WORLD | 30 SEPTEMBER 2010 | 13

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FM SUPPLEMENT CATERING NICK PARKER

CATERING

“Infusing food with mouth-watering flavour becomes straightforward when we cook with the seasons and harvest according to natural cycles” and can be served as a seasonal accompaniment to a traditional roast.

We live in a time of affluence where strawberries can be flown in from Columbia in the depths of winter; people have come to expect them all year round and are happy to pay a premium for them. However, the issue of food miles is a thorny one: you can argue that it’s better to eat outof-season Spanish sun-ripened tomatoes than British ones grown in a polytunnel, at least as far as

the planet is concerned.

Last, but not least, the chef must be interested in seasonality and really want to put seasonal foods on the menu. Inevitably, it will take more effort to work with suppliers to ensure feasibility and consistency of supply and a fair price, particularly with premium produce with a short season like asparagus.

So how does the FM introduce seasonality? Here are few simple guidelines to make the transition trouble-free:

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Challenge your caterer on seasonality. Ensure they consider their menu over the course of the whole season, not just the week. Asky your caterer to explain how they’re bringing seasonality onto the plate Use point-of-sale marketing materials that publicise seasonality in your workplace restaurant – don’t just rely on the food on the counter.

Place ‘table talkers’ and posters in prominent positions and hold special events; tastings and themed days bring the menu to life and encourage people to try new things Understand that seasonality comes at a cost. A plate of fresh asparagus with home-made hollandaise sauce will cost a few pence more but your customers will thank you for it Be flexible. If you’re too mechanical about the your menu, you could engineer seasonality out of the equation.

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Be comfortable with the fact you’re putting real things on the plate and that they might run out – good food sells fast. Do also appreciate that having contract clauses requiring specific dishes to be available for all services isn’t real and isn’t seasonal – if a dish is really popular it may well sell out Allow tariff flexibility.

A good seasonal lamb or fresh fish might be expensive for a typical workplace tariff and way beyond the normal £2.50 meal price point, say. Don’t shy away from higher tariffs for the occasional £3.80 chef’s special Finally, have the confidence to be relaxed about seasonality and embrace the issues it creates

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A good caterer can work with you to create a sumptuous seasonal menu that all your team will enjoy and thank you for.

Nick Parker is managing director at Bite Catering

EAT THE SEASONS: Great dishes to serve at different times of the year, from chef manager, Louise McArdle

U SPRING

U SUMMER

U AUTUMN

Chargrilled Chicken Breast With Leek, Creamy Garlic Potatoes Topped With Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Homemade Flat Bread, Topped With Wilted Spinach, Poached Egg, Asparagus & Hollandaise Sauce Served With Steamed Jersey Royals

Blackberry, Raspberry & Bramley Apple Granola Crumble With Vanilla Sauce

S Homemade Filo Vegetable Parcels

S Roasted Fennel, Broad Bean,

With Damson, Plum & Chilli Dipping Sauce Served With Spring Greens

Breakfast Radish & Watercress Salad

Chargrilled Pork Steak, Homemade Chunky Apple Sauce With Honey Roasted Root Veg & Bubble & Squeak Cake

S

Marinated Balsamic Bola Beef, With Red Pepper & Scallion Mash

14 | 30 SEPTEMBER 2010 | FM WORLD

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S

Red Pepper, Courgette & Sweetcorn Fritter With Nectarine & Chilli Drizzle & Greek Salad

S S

Whole Baked Acorn Squash With Spiced Cous Cous Topped With Pan-Fried Wild Mushrooms

U WINTER

Roasted Pumpkin, Chilli & Sage Risotto, Fresh Parmesan Shavings, Wok-Fried Green Beans

S

Gratin Of Winter Squash With Roasted Beetroot, Banana Shallots Caramelised Red Onion & Lemon Thyme

S

Roast Leg Of Lamb With Rosemary & Garlic, Braised Red Cabbage With Pear & Seville Orange Served With Roast Potatoes In association with BaxterStorey

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MANAGED

BY

Cost Effective & Sustainable

Corporate Catering Wednesday 6th October 2010 Ba

The Gallery Suite, Olympia, London

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The Conference will run alongside the Total Workplace Management Exhibition which is the UK’s largest FM and Estates event.

For a full programme & registration details: T: 0207 404 4440 E: info@bifm-training.co.uk W: www.bifm-training.com

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in association with

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www.elior-is.co.uk Elior Integrated Services are part of Group Elior and are the soft Facilities Management arm of Elior UK, our sister Company is Avenance, a leading national contract caterer with experience in business and industry, education, defence and healthcare.

In addition to catering our integrated service solution includes everything from cleaning and security to reception and managed services. We provide the means that allow our clients to focus wholly on their core business.

Elior has an unequalled reputation for providing great services and in forming durable affiliations with clients by developing open and transparent relationships that are based on mutual trust and outstanding service.

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14:04:10 21/9/10 15:40:59