By Wayne Hancox, F&B Manager at The ICC
A fork buffet for 3000! No request is too large for us and
that's exactly what we did when we catered for the opening of
Annual Congress of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine
(EANM) 2011 at the ICC,Birminghamwhich welcomed over 5000 delegates
to the city.
It took 12 months of planning and 90 staff to deliver the
feast which was themed to showcase great British food. We took the
best of the UK and offered everything from creamed leeks with baby
dumplings finished with Welsh Caerphilly cheese, Lamb in Irish
stout and rustic root vegetable hot pot, Scottish Neeps and Tatties
to strawberry and raspberry Eton mess with over sized meringues and
Welsh caramel and honey cake. Many of the delegates were
international and so the pressure was onto deliver a flavour of our
wonderful country.
The event took place across the main areas of the ICC
including the mall and registration areas and we filled every
available space; even displaying the menu on our digital screens!
The buzz was great on the night with a Scottish piper and Irish
dancers adding to the flavour. Delegates really responded to the
food which is wonderful after all that planning and we had a great
time seeing our hard work come together in such a spectacular
way.
Meanwhile other members of the team have been busy
particularly Simon Hellier, - our Executive Head Chef at the ICC -
who co-ordinated a gastronomic feast like no other recently when he
led The Birmingham Chefs Alliance Dinner. The event saw seven
ofBirmingham's finest chefs' work together for the launch of
Birmingham Food Fest. Simon and his team also catered for 1000 at
the Birmingham Post's business awards where colleagues from Amadeus
were awarded the Birmingham Post's Hospitality (Leisure &
Events) award. All in all a busy time for everyone!