26 May 2020 by Charles Manners

One advantage of the lockdown is we have been able to review how we work and also take time to look at our business as we come out to the ‘New Normal’ and define our role as catering consultants, or food service consultant or even food and beverage consultant.

Friends often ask what our role is and I try to sum up that we are all experienced in the  hospitality sector, and enjoy working with a range of clients who operate, or are involved in, cafes, event spaces and restaurants in historic houses, visitor attractions, destination, parks,  stadiums, workplace, healthcare and university catering sectors.  They are generally responsible for managing  a wider portfolio than solely the catering operation, and in many cases are non-experts who require an independent catering perspective, thus the phrase ‘independent catering consultant’. We find ourselves working for trustees, owner operators, facility and HR directors, financial directors, museum and estate directors and chief executives, all of whom value an independent catering consultant’s opinion.

In reality, the term food service consultant and food and beverage consultant are terms used in more global markets, and rarely here in the UK; in essence we are all very similar. A number of firms have in house capabilities, including kitchen and restaurant design teams, we have opted to use a small number of preferred independent specialists similar to ourselves to ensure we have the breadth of experience for specific customers.

We strongly believe that our experience is key; in that all three directors have 30 years plus experience in the hospitality sector, from running hotel restaurants and bars, to London restaurant companies to contract catering companies.  We have undertaken a wide range of projects to accurately ascertain likely sales, margins, costs and the pitfalls and opportunities in specific sectors.

We are proud of our independence; this means we are not aligned nor work for in any way with the contract caterers nor any catering suppliers, thus ensuring our catering advice and recommendations and views are based on our professional judgement alone.

We are adept and take time at understanding the culture of an organisation and in turn are able to translate this into providing solutions to ensure the customer offer is aligned to the organisation’s goals and objectives.

We are all looking forward to resuming face to face work with clients and delivering our catering consultant services.