R-Oil is cold-pressed, extra virgin rapeseed oil, grown and produced in the Cotswolds.  Farmers Hamish and Robert Campbell had been selling their rapeseed for industrial extraction, but recognising the demand for high quality cooking oil, researched ways of pressing the seed without heat or solvents and found that the resulting oil tasted very different from the mass-produced varieties.  They could also compete on price and so started selling to local restaurants and shops.

Now they have brought their delicious oil to London and H&J has signed up to use R-Oil across our sites; in the kitchen for frying and as an alternative to olive oil in dressings.  The oil is delivered in re-useable containers and waste oil from fryers is collected by R-Oil and then converted into bio-diesel to run their delivery vans.  The by-product from the pressing is also used as animal feed so this really is a sustainable business. 

The setting at Cadhay House near Ottery St Mary was perfect for a quintessential country wedding, but Sukie, being Sukie, wanted to spice things up a bit with Spanish tapas as nibbles and an Indian Bhangra band for entertainment!  There was plenty of Champagne and H&J also provided some ice-cold Fino sherry to complement the hand-carved Iberico ham, chorizo, garlic and chilli prawns and tortilla, and created a non-alcoholic pear and cranberry crush to quench the guests’ thirst as they enjoyed the sunshine on the lawns of this stunning Elizabethan house.

Dinner was served in a marquee decorated with seasonal English country flowers, simply arranged in jam jars and vintage milk bottles.  Sirloin of beef from Kimber’s Farm in Somerset was cooked slowly at a low heat and served with roast vine tomatoes, balsamic onions, new potatoes and a salad of broad beans, asparagus and rocket.  The chocolate wedding cake doubled as pudding, with bowls of strawberries and raspberries and clotted cream on the tables for the guests to help themselves to and, for those that still had room, there was a selection of British cheeses from Neal’s Yard Dairy, served with Candice’s homemade chutney.

The band, RSVP, who play regularly at Glastonbury and other festivals, rocked the rest of the night with their particular brand of Bhangra fusion with everyone joining in the dancing regardless of age.  What a night!

Our riders were part of a 35 strong challenge; at the start a mix of teams and individuals, but by Paris, having bonded over tough hill climbs, saddle sores and disappointing football results, they were all firm friends!

Day one was the toughest with 118km to cover from London to Dover and with plenty of lashing rain and the South Downs to conquer.  The group spread out over the day, but all stopped together for breaks, with support vehicles at the front and back to hand out supplies and mend broken bikes.  The ferry terminal at Dover was a welcome sight and after the crossing and a short coach ride to Dieppe, everyone slept like babies.

Day two was more enjoyable with pleasant sunshine and gently rolling countryside and only 88km to cycle.  At the overnight stop, a large screen TV was set up for the England game and the beers flowed, but with little to celebrate and the promise of an early start on Sunday, nobody was too late to bed.

Final day and a 5.30am wake-up call for the last leg of 108km into Paris.  The whole group crossed the line together and after much-needed showers met up for a celebratory meal in the evening.  Awards were handed out by the Children in Crisis team and Leo took home one for teamwork, puncture mending and morale boosting!

Well done to everyone who took part; the H&J team achieved their target of £6000 so many thanks to all who donated money to this fantastic charity and here’s to the next challenge.

The students spend two weeks in our kitchens putting into practice the lessons they have learnt from their course. This includes food preparation, health and safety, food hygiene and dish presentation.  With a selection of diverse sites available, the trainees can get involved in all aspects of contract catering; from cooking for large numbers of staff, to hospitality, fine dining and event catering. 

For many students, this will be the first time they have worked in a busy professional kitchen and this opportunity gives them an insight into the reality of cooking under pressure and the chance to apply the skills they have learnt at Westminster Kingsway College.  We also hope that they will also benefit from the mentoring provided by our chefs who will continue to track the students as they progress through their 3 year course.

Jordan Kerridge who has recently spent his placement at the Institute of Physics has this to say on his experience: “Working with Chef Leo Rodley has given me many new ideas as well as opening my eyes to working in a busy kitchen environment.  My daily duties have included producing food for the staff cafe and pastry work which I have really enjoyed.  All the baking is done in-house so I have always had a job to do if the kitchen is quiet.  I feel very lucky to have been in a placement where I could be part of the main kitchen brigade.  Working with Chef Leo and his Sous Chef Rafa has taught me a lot about producing food on a large scale whilst maintaining high standards of flavour and presentation.”

The gang are training hard at the moment and have set up a blog at www.bikingtoparis.wordpress.com which will keep up with them as they get ready for the off on June 11th and follow them over the 300 gruelling kilometres to Paris.

To help our intrepid cyclists reach or even exceed their target, please go to www.justgiving.com

For more information on Children in Crisis, please go to www.childrenincrisis.org

Using St Paul’s Cathedral as an illustration, Patrick explained to the audience our approach in developing a public restaurant into a destination; from the initial tender process, through the research into the local and tourist markets and especially the importance of the client - caterer relationship in successfully implementing new ideas.

H&J has run the café and restaurant in the Crypt at St Paul’s for the past 14 months having successfully secured the contract from the incumbent, a very large contact catering company.  During the tender process when we visited the cathedral we felt that the offering didn’t reflect the cathedral in any way and could have been the restaurant in any building anywhere.

We saw the opportunity was there to create a dining experience which mirrored the cultural experience and this approach we knew would appeal to both the tourist and the local markets.  The food reflecting the venue was the easy part for us. Our values dictate that the food we serve is British – in style and provenance.  At St Paul’s we perhaps went a step further.  For the café we tracked down old British cookery books such as The Englishman’s Food and Food In England and started baking - Wiltshire Lardy Cake, Richmond Maids of Honour, Yorkshire Parkin, Singin Hinny and a fruit cake soaked in Newcastle Brown Ale.

In the restaurant we wanted to show our passion for simple food using the best seasonal and local ingredients. This winter we have served up proper comfort food such as homemade faggots with mash, steak and ale pie with buttery pastry, free range chicken with purple sprouting broccoli – food that reminds us all of excellent home cooking.

These traditional recipes – the best of British really work in a building that reflects the best of Britain. We wanted to unite the food we serve with the surroundings and thereby enhance the experience for the visitor, and how could you serve food with a French or Italian flavour when next door to us in the crypt lie Nelson and Wellington?

For some venues running a restaurant or a café that meets the needs of the visitors is just what they’re shooting for.  Some venues, however, lend themselves beautifully to becoming a destination venue – where people have originally come to see the attraction but after that come back just for the food on offer.  That was an important part of our strategy at St Paul’s. Obviously in the tourist industry there are seasonal peaks and troughs and a destination restaurant in the cathedral which attracts people who live and work locally helps us to balance the revenue stream through the year.  We have the typical Pareto split of 80 – 20 in favour of tourists in our café but in the restaurant that trend is reversed. So we know we’re getting there. This is due in no small part to our fabulous chef Candice and her team.

At St Paul’s we have an excellent relationship with our client and do not feel like a 3rd party caterer and neither do our staff – we feel that we all work together.  Honesty is also a central part of the client – caterer relationship. Many companies promise the earth in the tendering process and offer unrealistic margins and budgets and then wonder why the client is unhappy when they don’t get what they’ve been led to expect.

For all the fact it is a cliché, a successful catering company (actually any company) needs to employ the right people. We chose our people with care. The client is part of the selection panel for the site manager and the head chef at any site and they try the food at the chef’s cook off.  We know that we can train in service skills and barista skills but we need motivated and enthusiastic staff and the right personality cannot be trained.

Last but not least on the list of ‘must haves’ for a successful catering contract you need suppliers who share your passion for excellent, local, seasonal food. We don’t have corporate purchasing policy – our chef’s buy what they need and want to cook.  We treat our suppliers as part of the family. We work with artisan bakers from Borough Market and the Rare Breeds trust who help us source Herefordshire Beef and other traditional varieties.  We also have our own bees and hives in Regents Park – now there’s productivity!

So if you can get all of these elements in place (and it’s not as easy as it might sound!) there’s a strong chance that your catering contract will flourish and go from strength to strength.

Harbour & Jones Annual Forced Rhubarb Excursion (this does not mean we were made to go!)

For those of you that have not heard of the Rhubarb Triangle it is worth doing a little research on this 30 square mile area between Bradford, Wakefield and Leeds as in it grows the best rhubarb in the world!  Gaining protected name status in February this year, Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb now joins the ranks of Parma ham and Stilton cheese to have its name legally protected.

After a fairly early start at King’s Cross and a delicious on-board Champagne breakfast provided by H&J, we arrived in Wakefield and were taken to Janet Oldroyd Hulme’s farm.  The Oldroyd family have been farming rhubarb for 5 generations and are the largest producers of forced rhubarb in the UK.

After a warming cup of Yorkshire tea, we were herded into a small barn with about 80 other rhubarb lovers where Janet gave us an in-depth talk on the history, cultivation and current state of the rhubarb industry.  We now have only a handful of growers left in England, but at its peak there were 200 farms in this part of Yorkshire and it is thanks in no small part to Janet’s father and family that the industry is still going. 

Janet told us all about the life saving properties and wonderful benefits of rhubarb and we were then led into the dark growing sheds.  Forced rhubarb is grown in the dark with no photosynthesis taking place which makes it sweeter and better flavoured than the garden grown variety.  The sheds are lit by candles and we peered in the gloom at the massive crowns which produce the rhubarb.  Heating is necessary to keep the temperature at an optimum for growing and where this used to be done cheaply by coal, gas is now used which has contributed to the increased costs that the rhubarb growers are now having to deal with.  Once Candice had finished taking photos, we left the growing sheds and Patrick bought 10kg of rhubarb for us to take back to London.  He also managed to grab a couple of bottles of rhubarb wine and some chutneys.  To finish the day in true H&J style, we popped into the nearby pub for a pint of bitter and some rhubarb ice cream and then made the quick trip back to London.

The evening commenced with a champagne reception served with a selection of exciting canapés including guinea fowl and sun-blushed tomato brochettes, tuna tartar with lime, chilli and Cornish sea salt, and marinated beef fillet with mango and pawpaw salsa.  Later in the evening, hearty bowl food was handed round with guests offered a choice of mini bangers and mash, vegetable Thai green curry or hake goujons with skinny chips.  Finally the sweet treats at the end of the night were warm chocolate brownies and mini meringues kisses with cream.  The delicious food was complemented by wines from the Forbes House list and we sent 200 happy satisfied guests into the night after a very successful party.

JM Finn & Co is a privately owned investment management company, based in Coleman Street, EC2. With previous catering operated in-house, Harbour & Jones started their contract at the beginning of December 2009 with the aim of improving the quality and service of their busy hospitality rooms. Current turnover is £178,000.

British Standards Institution (BSI) Group is the world’s first national standards body, offering training, product testing and independent certification of management systems. Based on Chiswick High Road, Harbour & Jones took over the previous contract held by Compass on 4th January 2010 courtesy of Stern Consultancy Ltd. Harbour & Jones operate the staff restaurant for around 700 people on site alongside BSI’s hospitality facilities, improving sales and service. Current turnover is £500,000.

Medical Defence Union is a not-for-profit organisation, established in 1885, which defends the professional reputations of medical staff.  Based in Blackfriars Road with 300 people onsite, Harbour & Jones are providing a full hospitality service and staff trolley from 1st February 2010. Current turnover is £250,000.

Our newest recruit, Sarah Tester, is to head up the B&I sales team, working with Nathan Jones to continue to build up business in this sector.  Sarah has many years experience in the contract catering world having spent the majority of her career with Sutcliffe Catering and Baxter and Platts in both operational and selling positions.  More recently Sarah has been Head of Service for Catering at Carillion Facilities Management, gaining expertise in a number of business disciplines that has helped her gain a significant insight into the “other side” of the contracting fence.  Commenting on her appointment as sales director Sarah said, “I’m very excited to be joining such a dynamic company and am hugely looking forward to working with the team to develop the business in this challenging market.”

Meanwhile sales dynamo Sally Main, who has recently returned from maternity leave, takes up a fresh challenge as director of the newly formed venues and events sales team.  Sally has been with H&J for 4 years in both operational and sales roles and her latest promotion recognises her hard work, talent and commitment to the company.

Also promoted is Gary McKechnie who becomes our Director of Food, moving up from his previous role as company chef for hospitality.  Gary joined H&J a year ago and has consistently impressed with both his food and his ability to lead and manage other team members.  He and his team will be responsible for developing strategies to implement the H&J food style and to continue to drive up standards across the business.

With help from the indefatigable food guru, Jenny Linford, whose books including Food Lovers’ London and The London Cookbook we are such fans of, we set about collating all the information, testing recipes and whittling down the collection to a manageable number of recipes which could be arranged by season.  Jenny then applied a house style to the writing whilst Chris travelled around our sites to meet the chefs and photograph their dishes.  The resulting book, with recipes for delights such as goat’s cheese with honey and pea shoots, baked Cromer crab and cobnut ice cream, will, we hope, become an indispensible staple on our clients’ bookshelves, full of delicious, easy to cook recipes to suit almost any occasion.

If you are interested in getting your hands on a copy of the H&J Cookery Year, please contact our sales team with details of your company on or call James on 0207 520 5448.

The date was set and Leo, Candice and Gary set off for Dorset on a Friday night.  After a 4 hour journey with bumper to bumper traffic on the motorways they arrived at their hotel tired, thirsty and hungry, but a couple of pints and some good pub grub made everything better and they went to bed feeling excited about the day ahead.

Deer stalking takes place either at first or last light so our trainee hunters had an early start and were up and ready to go at 5.30.  After a detailed safety talk, each chef went with a stalking expert and spent the morning learning how to follow trails, how to identify the different breeds and, of course, keeping an eye out for the elusive deer.  Candice and her guide were the only successful party and back at base all three chefs were shown how to gut (or gralloch) the deer and prepare and check the carcass for market. 

After a week of hanging, the deer carcass was brought to London and was the star turn at our game demonstration workshop run by our H&J butcher.  At this workshop, our chefs learnt to prepare various different types of game, both feathered and furred, picking up skills such as plucking, skinning, gutting and jointing the meat into recognisable cuts for the kitchen.  All agreed that it was a fascinating day and most were quite envious of Candice, Gary and Leo for their chance to really see where the meat had come from.

The competition was launched earlier this year to raise awareness of coeliac disease and the need for chefs to provide gluten-free options on their menus.  Candice designed a 3-course menu which comprised poached Barradale egg with cavolo nero and shaved brussel sprout salad, followed by roast partridge and game pie and Regents Park honey ice with roast figs and clementine cake.

As Head Chef at St. Paul’s Cathedral Candice caters for a wide variety of customers and needs to create menus using the best seasonal produce which can be enjoyed by all.  She has a particular interest in cooking gluten-free food as a close friend of hers has Coeliac disease and Candice loves finding new recipes and trying out new dishes for her.

Bob Hoskins got the festivities underway by switching on the lights at St Paul’s and was joined by Spandau Ballet, Little Boots and Scouting for Girls amongst others, all of whom performed on the steps of the cathedral for the crowds of Londoners who had gathered to enjoy the show.  Andrea Bocelli and the St Paul’s Cathedral Choir then led London in a record-breaking Christmas Carol sing-a-long with thousands joining in the singing of Silent Night.

As we catered for those performing at the Cathedral, we got the chance to mingle with some of the stars of the evening and we also fed and watered the 100 guests of the Corporation of London at their party in the Chapter House at the end of the night.  The Chapel Down sparkling wine and Parmesan lollipops went down a treat.