My Chilli Con Carne and Bevil's Lunch Club



Photograph by Izabela Bartusik (Food and Beverage Supervisor at One Great George Street)

Life is full of interesting people and it is just wonderful to get off the treadmill of life in London and take time to chat with them. Shelley Coleman from our catering team recently had the chance to sit down with a character from Railway Engineering. Here is the resulting guest blog post from her, which I trust you will enjoy reading.

My 2013 Salad Inspiration

The stress of cooking for more than 8,000 journalists at the 2012 London Media Centre has faded into a happy memory and I've been wonderfully rejuvenated by the festive break. I'm now full of energy and enthusiasm for the year ahead, even for blogging!




Indian potato salad with paneer, cashew nuts and curried yoghurt dressing



My Halloween 2012 Villain

Something strange is going on in the Cafe bar tonight....



Warm welcome to our Cafe bar


Having worked on my pumpkin creation, here is the finished scary piece of art.  What do you think?



My Pumpkin Carving Creation 2012



Now must dash back into the kitchen. It has been a busy day and I have trick or treaters waiting for me at home too! 

My 5 VIP...Very Impressive Pumpkin Promises.....

Here I am....sat with my carving tools, 25lbs pumpkin and expectations to better my 2011 Hallowe'en carving.

The Pumpkin arrived from Entremettier, my Covent Garden supplier yesterday. As growing conditions have been less than ideal in 2012, the pumpkin is not quite as gargantuan (212lbs) as last year. He is nevertheless a good shape, size and condition for anatomical dissection and transformation into hopefully an epic character.


2012 Pumpkin pre-carving

Jamie Oliver, OGGSVenue and me last week



Jamie Oliver hosted by Square Meal at OGGSVenue

 Last Monday Jamie Oliver was whisked into our building via one of our secret VIP entrances metres from my kitchen by his entourage and accompanied by our own on-site security team, right at the start of our busiest week feeding thousands of journalists at the LMC, Jamie was interviewed by Ben McCormack from Square Meal in our Telford Theatre. Now that there is a temporary lull in my kitchen until the Paralympics start, I have had a few minutes to contemplate and reflect all things Jamie Oliver and his visit.

10 Tips to ‘Feed’ the ‘Appetite’ for Bespoke Menus

  Elderflower and crème fraîche tart with  mixed berries
(Recent event chosen from our 2012 menu to complement the rest of their bespoke menu)

Increasingly our clients have become "savvy" with food. Along with dietary requirements and environmental concerns, we need to also contend with requests for locally sourced and organic produce and get it all to the OGGSVenue dining tables whilst demonstrating good value for money.

10 TOP TIPS

1.    Time. To be creative one needs to be able to find time to step away from the operation and allow lots of research time. When team members are not doing normal routine jobs and what they know, more concentration of energy and therefore time is required.
 

A World of Cuisines in my Westminster Kitchen?

Thanks to my wonderful eclectic team, a walk through my kitchen is a bit like ‘Going around the World in 8 seconds’ rather than 80 days due to the many languages and accents I hear!



Summer Skye Photography



This diversity makes the ‘Class of 2012’ a particularly creative bunch in an otherwise traditional, Grade II listed, Westminster meetings and events venue.

Since I was talked into this blogging malarkey, I have noticed an increase in my use of puns. Forgive me therefore for saying that my team quite literally bring a myriad of tastes and flavours to our tables at OGGSVenue.