St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes

St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes

Let Them Eat Cake

Friday April 16th 2010

Patrick Harbour was asked to speak at the Association for Cultural Enterprises Conference held in Newcastle last month.  Joining him to discuss running restaurants in public buildings under the title “Let Them Eat Cake”, was Sara Sweetland who works for the National Trust and who spoke about her experience of providing an in-house catering service.  Patrick’s presentation looked at the alternative to running catering in-house, that is, of course, through third party caterers such as H&J.

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.

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