The FSM award show is an annual event held to recognise excellence across the contract catering industry. The 2016 show was held at the Lancaster Hotel in London and various companies within the industry were invited to provide a course for the guests, with Angel Hill Food Co doing the canapés for the reception.
Once the invitation came in, our development team sprang into action and started to plot our plan of action. Chris, Rhys and Matt wanted to showcase two of the most important things to us; the awesome people we have within our business and their dedication for exceptional food. So they decided that hand-caught River Test trout, from the fantastic Chalk Stream Foods, would be centrepiece of the food offering and that our Culinary Classroom chefs would be the team delivering it.
In the video below, Chris walks us through some of the thought processes behind everything.
The awards show was held on a Monday, so there was a busy weekend of preparation before the big event. The team were fantastically dedicated and pulled out all the stops in ensuring the evening went off without a hitch. With thousands of blinis, bites and skewers to be made, it wasn’t for the fainthearted!
We also decided to put a slight twist on the canape reception, by having a live table where guests could build their own canapés or have freshly carved trout gravadlax. This allowed our Culinary Classroom chefs to interact with the guests, chat about the provenance of the dishes and to experience the buzz of the show. It also mirrors our Chef Theatre offer, which has gone down so well in our restaurants.
The results of all of this were absolutely staggering, and everyone involved with Angel Hill Food Co were immensely proud of the chefs and their flawless execution on the night. The canapés received loads of positive feedback from the guests and it served as a brilliant way to introduce Angel Hill Food Co to the industry as a whole.
We’ll let Chris, our Chef Director, have the final word.
What the team delivered last night in terms of quality does them a huge amount of credit. It was our first ‘outing’ as a new catering brand in front the whole of our industry, competitors and customers alike. The stakes were really very high and they delivered above and beyond expectation. Their interaction with the other chef teams, willingness to get involved and professionalism overall was outstanding. The hotel are delighted and I’ve just received an email from them inviting us back next year!
We can’t say better than that! A huge well done to the team, it really was fantastic.
