As a restaurateur, from the moment my customers walk through the door, their overall experience should be as outstanding as Pervin, my team and I can make it. And as a chef, good food is central to everything I do. Café Spice Namaste has been in business for 21 years, which hopefully means we are doing something right, including how we source our food.
Clearly I am not alone in this industry in trying to get a good grasp of where our food comes from, so that ultimately we can provide our customers with a consistently great dining experience.
To add to what is a critical on-going conversation, on 25th April, Café Spice Namaste will host chefs, restaurateurs and caterers who will gather to discuss and compare how they source their food and how their food supply chain works. Through sharing knowledge I am sure we will all learn something new that can contribute to our work as committed, responsible professionals.
Adopting a roundtable format we will be discussing…
- How much of what you serve is purchased as ingredients and prepared and cooked by your establishments, be they restaurants like mine or sites providing high volume contract catering at schools, for example.
- Which categories of food you are purchasing and how you purchase them, for example, through independent suppliers, wholesalers, procurement companies or a mix of all three.
- Where our suppliers are based in relation to our establishments, for example, are they local, across the UK, Europe or the world and what the advantages are of each.
- What are our buying priorities, taste, provenance, sustainability, price, other or a combination.
- Do any ingredients you purchase include GMO’s in them or their production?
- How important is sustainability to your business?
- Do you cater for people with food allergies and intolerances, and if so how?
- If you provide gluten free menu options what are they?
And much, much more in trying to better understand where our food comes from, what is in it and how that impacts on our businesses.
To set the agenda on the day we have prepared a SHORT SURVEY that will take 3-5 minutes to complete, please do so adding your experience to the day’s discussions and debates.
And if you would like to take part and attend THE ROUND TABLE on the day, it takes place on 25 April at Café Spice Namaste. It is from 10am-1.00pm when we then continue the conversation while enjoying lunch together. The Café Spice Namaste team will be serving a menu including ‘sustainable’ Norwegian Seafood.
There is no cost to attend and we are selecting guests from their completed survey results. Please indicate in the survey if you would like to be invited to attend and take part.
All who complete the survey will receive a full report on the survey results and the roundtable discussions.
All who request to attend will be replied to personally but we cannot guarantee any places, so please respond as soon as possible. Guests will receive an invitation by post to bring with them on the day.
I sincerely hope you will take part in the survey and be interested in attending our roundtable.
Yours sincerely
Cyrus Todiwala OBE DL
The Hospitality and Catering Supply Chain Roundtable 2017
is sponsored by and created in association with