The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) was launched in 2010 and
held its inaugural Sustainable Restaurant Awards in January of this year.
Offering support and advice to its members, SRA also provides a Restaurant Directory, helping diners to make more informed choices.
Contact Montfort Catering Consultants if you would like to discuss how to offer more sustainable food and beverage options at your visitor catering or staff catering.
One size
certainly does not fit all! There are catering trends and there are catering
trends. Whether you are providing visitor catering in a museum, leisure
attraction, park café or any manner of catering operation you need to be in
tune with your customers’ needs. Across the UK there are number of broad food
and beverage trends present. However, what is key is how you use this
information and in the correct context. Regardless of broader trends, there
will always be certain groups of customers with very different and specific
needs. One size certainly does not fit all.
Earlier in
the year press reports were rife about a park café accused of ‘gentrifying’ the
menu and alienating its customers. The Clissold Park Café, in Stoke
Newington, promoted outrage by dropping dishes such as chocolate pudding and
chips and replacing them with dishes including spiced carrots and chorizo.
A Facebook
group was set up in protest by the Clissold Park Action Group. The
operators of the Café eventfully bowed to pressure and introduced cheaper
dishes including cheese on toast, sausage and mash and pasta.
If you are developing a new catering operation or are improving an
existing one it’s vital that you engage with your customers and
develop a menu that suits their needs throughout the day. National and general
trends provide a good guideline but they should not be assumed to be the defining
solution.
London’s skyline has been recreated in cake. Bompas &
Parr’s latest project is a rooftop golf course and tearoom. If that doesn’t
sound very interesting then the fact that it’s based on the roof of Selfridges
and each hole is celebrated with one of London’s architectural icon buildings (made
of cake) is unlikely to result in only fair weather golf! - Open until Sept 2.
It has to be seen to be believed and no licking the
buildings!
Allergies are becoming increasingly common and can often be
dismissed by cafes, restaurants, supermarkets and the likes with broad
disclaimer notices. However, Mon Histoire dans l’assiette in Lyon has
taken the issue to the heart of their restaurant ethos, providing a menu free
of 11 common allergens while not compromising on food quality and flavours.
The menu is entirely free of gluten, eggs, lactose, peanuts,
pitted fruits, soya, mustard, seafood, celery, sesame and lupin beans. All
produce is sourced from local suppliers and where possible, organic sources.
Data sheets detailing the ingredients used are provided and the team are fully trained
in nutrition and food allergies.
It’s not a new idea but it’s always great to see fast and
healthy alternatives to sandwiches and the like. Fastoche do made-to-order
pasta, rice and vegetable pots, priced between £3.90 and £4.90, along with a
range of salads, wraps, dessert smoothies and other beverages.
We’ve previously written a great deal about cinema food and
drink (see below links), however, this is a new one – called ‘Edible Cinema’. Electric Cinema in Notting Hill has recently held ‘an enhanced cinema
experience with food and drink’.
It works like this: the audience are given a series of numbered
‘packages’ containing food and at specific points in the film they are
instructed to consume the contents.
The concept is in collaboration with the team at Soho House,
renowned experience organiser Polly Betton, and experimental food designer, Andrew
Stellitano. ‘The experience is not just about eating; the smell, texture, even
the way your mouth feels after eating the contents of the packages will
correspond to what’s happening on screen and heighten the viewers’ sensory
experience'.
The first film chosen was Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s
Labyrinth.
This initiative will of course be on hold until the cinema
is back up and running after their small fire. We hope it won’t be too long.
Gulf News is a leading English daily newspaper in the UAE.
You only have to glance around any coffee shop to see that coffee and
newspapers is a great combination. Of course, a great deal of news browsing is
now done via mobiles as well as the traditional paper format.
Capitalising on this, Tim
Hortons coffee shop chain in the UEA has introduced a ‘Headline News’ Cup sleeve. A special
printer pulls tweets from the Gulf News Twitter account every hour and prints
onto the sleeve, which is served with every cup. If customers want to read
further they simply scan the QR code or enter the URL, which will direct them
to the Gulf News website.
If you run a café or coffee shop and have a specific
customer profile, this is a great way to further engage with your audience and
stand out from your competitors – it doesn’t need to be national news that you
are sharing! You may even be able to strike a deal with compatible
organisations wishing to appeal to your customers.
If your want to know the latest restaurant openings or are
having problems deciding which restaurant to book, the Top Table app (IPhone, iPad, Android Free) is useful and easy to
use, with lots of reviews, discounts, specials offers and a speedy booking
system.
The Diamond Jubilee weekend is upon us and seems to have
captured everyone’s imagination. Some restaurants, bars and cafes are relishing
the opportunities this brings with special events and offers.
Additionally, according to this morning’s London Metro,
Sainsbury’s and Waitrose report an enormous rise in the sale of Pimm’s while
Asda has stocked up on Victoria sponge.
Middlethorpe Hall's Coronation Crown Cake
If you would like to discuss how to develop your operation
and capitalise on both temporary and longer term trends, as a specialist
catering consultancy, Montfort Catering Consultants are best placed to help
you.
