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HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? RICOH WOMEN’S BRITISH OPEN<br />
RICOH WOMEN’S BRITISH OPEN HOW WAS IT FOR YOU?<br />
How was it for you<br />
Darren Proud?<br />
Executive Chef Darren Proud is in charge of making sure all external<br />
Amadeus events have the very best catering in any location. From<br />
a historic abbey to fields in the middle of Scotland, Darren is leading<br />
the brigades to ensure a successful event. However, his job doesn’t<br />
start in the kitchen – it can start months, even a year, before the<br />
event takes place and is at the concept stage<br />
“As a chef, the limits are<br />
job only and what whatever you put you into put the<br />
in,<br />
OVER THE FOUR-DAY EVENT…<br />
Amadeus fed over 170 managers and staff<br />
Provided 1,000 media lunches<br />
1,200 hospitality packages<br />
(breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea)<br />
1,750 players’ meals<br />
15,000-plus beverages<br />
and 4,500 public hot meals<br />
“As a Chef, the limits are only what you put into the<br />
job and whatever you put in, you will get back”<br />
Having worked at Amadeus for more than<br />
10 years, he is one of many long-serving<br />
team members who constantly pushes<br />
boundaries and thrives under pressure.<br />
How did joining Amadeus come about?<br />
I celebrated 11 years working here on 1 August<br />
this year. Before that I worked four or five-star<br />
hotels and two-rosette-awarded restaurants.<br />
I was working as Head Chef at a golf club hotel<br />
and had been awarded a rosette in the first year,<br />
but I decided I needed something new. Hotels<br />
and foodservice are like chalk and cheese.<br />
I applied to work for Amadeus at the NEC,<br />
which I only knew as the venue for the<br />
Motorcycle Live show – I didn’t realise it hosted<br />
more than 700 events each year! I took part in<br />
a ‘cook off ’ and, to be honest, I thought I hadn’t<br />
done very well, but I was called back for a third<br />
interview and was given the job.<br />
The way of working here was completely<br />
different – I mean every aspect was different.<br />
In a hotel, as a Head Chef you have to do<br />
everything yourself, but in foodservice you have<br />
great teams around you. There are hygiene<br />
experts taking that workload from you, you have<br />
purchasing people who help with suppliers.<br />
I felt Amadeus was very posh when I was first<br />
shown around. I’ve enjoyed every second since<br />
that first day – no day is the same. I can be<br />
working on a wedding, organising the food for<br />
a golf event, arranging menus for a 300-person<br />
function in a field – it’s so diverse and you really<br />
do have to think outside the box. I’ve worked in<br />
old kitchens the size of a broom cupboard, set<br />
up in fields with no electricity and had to get<br />
ovens into spaces that weren’t designed for<br />
them! I love that every day here is different.<br />
Coming from the hotel sector, Amadeus was<br />
a world away. I was working 15-hour days and<br />
didn’t feel rewarded. Here, I work hard and<br />
feel appreciated. In hotels you can hide<br />
and work can become pedestrian, but<br />
here you have structure and support,<br />
and it’s so diverse.<br />
What’s the most memorable<br />
Amadeus event?<br />
That has to be working at the<br />
Scottish Open for the first<br />
time. I had worked with<br />
you will get back”<br />
Amadeus for a year and the catering for<br />
this event was now mine to run. There<br />
were about eight kitchens with 40-plus<br />
Chefs and it was manic from the day it<br />
started till the day it ended. I loved every<br />
minute of it – seeing the teams working<br />
for you in the middle of field with heaps<br />
of happy visitors. Every year gets better<br />
and better for me. I’m trying new<br />
things, bouncing ideas off my Chefs.<br />
I stand back and look at some of this year’s<br />
events and feel so proud, and we received<br />
great comments, so we know we’re<br />
doing something right.<br />
Hitting the client’s brief and going<br />
beyond it is always the aim. It can be<br />
different to showcase what we do sometimes<br />
without seeing it first-hand. Hearing comments<br />
such as ‘it’s the best food they’ve ever had at an<br />
event’ is special to me, and to the team. Honest<br />
feedback from both the team and visitors helps<br />
us grow. Recently, Marc Frankl, our Food and<br />
Beverage Director, said he just couldn’t believe<br />
what we do and wished he saw it more often.<br />
I took this as a great compliment, because it can<br />
be difficult for all of the team to come and visit<br />
our sites when we’re hundreds of miles away.<br />
What’s your favourite dish?<br />
For me it has to be pork belly. I just love cooking<br />
it – it’s not praised enough and there’s so much<br />
flavour in it. That’s what I enjoy the most about<br />
38 GLORIOUS<br />
AMADEUSFOOD.CO.UK 39