Amadeus Glorious Magazine Issue 02

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HOW WAS IT FOR YOU? THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY CONFERENCE
“Simon is very conscious of the
food being the best it can be and
checks absolutely everything
before it reaches a plate”
and all vehicles went through a comprehensive
search before they were allowed on site. We
worked closely with the police on ensuring
everything was safe and got in on time.
Simon is very conscious of the food being
the best it can be and checks absolutely
everything before it reaches a plate.
How do you get so many food orders
to the plate in time?
Simon doesn’t get involved until we have the
final confirmations of menus, which is about ten
days prior to the event, so there is no confusion
when it comes to ordering the produce.
Menus and number of delegates can change
quite radically from the first conversation
with the client to the
final details.
He just knows he is
going to have four or five
very busy days and makes
sure his team are in place
to cope with the demand,
which includes a team of
chefs who work through
the night to ensure all
food is prepped ready for
the next day. A Head Chef
is then allocated to each
of the zones to work
closely with the catering
manager and event team.
This helps with
communication, as each day they
know what they need and everyone
is on the same page.
Another element is making sure that we had
enough equipment in each zone to actually serve
the food. Our back of house manager did an
incredible job, which included a comprehensive
equipment list of everything from knives and
forks to glasses for each zone and each event.
Did you face any challenges
during the conference?
The volume of delegates,
particularly on the second
day, was quite high as the
conference was extremely
popular this year, which
caused big queues at
our Starbucks.
It’s close to the
entrance and also near the
cloakroom, so it’s what
people see when they get
into the venue. To try
to ease the queue, we
decided to install a pop-up counter as close
to Starbucks to sell tea and coffee and give
delegates another option if they didn’t
have time to wait.
What were your highlights of the event?
I had two actually. The first was that our
Catering Operations Manager Wayne Hall,
would send an email before he headed home to
everyone in the team.
He would talk about what had happened in
the day and he gave everyone in the team fun
nicknames. It can be a demanding few days, so it
was great to wake up to something each morning
that was light-hearted, informative and made
us all laugh.
The second is that we haven’t had one
single complaint across every service we
provided about anything related to the food.
That is a fantastic testament to the whole
of the ICC team.
36 GLORIOUS