Under new management, Church House aims to put food 'at the forefront of the meetings experience' as a way of building business in the conference market. Louise Wilson reports
"When people think of conference catering they think of rubber chicken and we want to radically change that perception. that's the view of Lacy Curtis-Ward, newly appointed general manager of one of London's most established conference centres, Church House.
She believes her mission is to place the food at the forefront of the meetings experience and since tier appointment six months ago she has embarked on a 30-month plan of refurbishment arid redecoration.
Now, with the help of a new management team she is working to transform the menus," to take the food offering up a notch or two".
Set in the heart of Westminster, within the quiet calm of Dean's Yard. Church House looks out on thespires of Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. the conference centre is a separate commercidl venture housed on the ground. lower ground and first floors of the building.
The centre's appointed caterer is Crown Venue Catering (CVC). part of the Crown Group, which has held the contract for 11 years and currently generates an annual turnover of around £1.8 million from it.
Its customer base is drawn from three main sectors: government, corporate and associations attracting international, national and local delegations.
Church House was built to commemorate the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1587 During the war the Assembly Hall suffered a direct hit, but sustained minimal damage due to its solid construction.
Winston Churchill was so impressed hy this fact that the building was requisitioned by the Houses of Parliament for the rest of the war and in November 1945 it hosted the first meeting of the United Nations.
Joining Curtis-Ward on the management team is catering manager, Terry Wright. who previously was general manager with Leith's. and Paul Vincent, the head chef. whose CV includes work at Wembley Stadium & Conference Centre and the Royal Festival Hall.
Of the core team there are four key management staff. seven stewards and four chefs.
Currently Church House business is booming. It currently hosts 3,000 meetings a year. across 15 rooms ranging from small meeting rooms for 10 tip to the larger rooms that can provide dinners for 160. That adds tip to an average of 3,500 fork buffet covers a month plus around 200 dinners.
Keeping abreast of current eating trends is something the team sees as crucial.
"These days the general public take a lot more interest in food and wine and are far more knowledgeable says Wright.
"Gone are the days when we could offer generics. People are much more specific nowadays."
And there has been an increase in demand for special dietary requirements.
Says Molly Mackie. deputy catering manager: "People request vegetarian, gluten free and food that takes account of different food allergies. And overall the trend is also changing from formal to much more informal."
As if to prove the point, Vincent pulls out at random some paperwork from a recent conference. He highlighted the fact that of the 100 people attending, 37 had special dietary requirements.
He says his vision for the catering is: "Modem simple fresh, food, that does not need a lot of explaining and is not over-garnished."
Food tastings are something else that Curtis-Ward has been keen to introduce because she believes they are a good way of promoting the food to potential and regular customers
She started with the four-strong team of conference sellers, arranging sessions to give them first-hand experience of how different food and wines work together.
"They are very good at selling the rooms and are very knowledgeable about how the rooms work together, but they needed to have a greater understanding of the food and wine menus.
"The chefs and the manager cooked all the menus and presented them and the wines that go with each menu. The girls were absolutely amazed.
"The volume of non-house wine sold since has gone through the roof because the girls are recommending them.
"And business for sit-down lunches is up by 30 per cent," says Curtis-Ward.
Regular customers have also been invited in for tastings as a precursor to the development of the new menus, and also with a change of coffee supplier in mind, customers were invited to take part in a blind coffee tasting.
"We have taken the traditional menus and thrown them out the window and started from scratch. "We put what we would serve in a perfect world and look to see if it is reasonable within our parameters," says Curtis-Ward.
Additionally, facilities are being expanded as part of the re-vamp, with the aim of attracting, "high end corporate clients."
More catering space is being taken on which should be ready from September this year.
Says Wright: "Remaining competitive in the marketplace is key We want to be driven by quality over price rather than price over quality."
Among the changes her team has to cope with are shorter lead times. This is the amount of notice given by clients when they book an event. According to the recently published Meetings Industry Association's (MIA) Annual UK Conference Market Survey, this has dropped from 2.6 months in 2001 to 1.6 months now as straightened economic circumstances have forced businesses to change the way they operate.
Says Curtis-Ward: "So much of the booking is last minute, it does not give us a lot of time. We get last minute requests on the food side. We recently had a booking for 500 people for 48 hours later."
"As a result," says catering manager Terry Wright, "The service needs to much more flexible so that it can change at short notice."
But they both see the food element as an increasingly important part of their business.
"For so long now the catering has been seen as an appendage to the rest of the package. Our team, though, aspires to provide something that is interesting and can stand alone," says Wright.
This attitude has seen their business buck a trend noted in the MIA survey that showed food in 12th place in the order of priority for meeting planners.
"The MIA has seen a slide in satisfaction in the last year while our customer satisfaction has gone up over the same period from 81 to 86 per cent. The food is a key reason for that customer satisfaction.
"Meetings organisers need to be aware that the catering is considered to be a critical part of the conference experience. They need to be educated in the benefits and importance of catering," says Curtis-Ward.
She adds: "We are taking a giant leap. People are looking for something different where the quality is better and the presentation is better.
"London 15 years ago was not considered a major food centre. There has been a huge revolution here."
