Amadeus breaks catering record at ICC vet’s congress

NEC Group caterer Amadeus broke its own catering record at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association World Congress gala dinner.

The event, held at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, allowed 950 guests to choose their starter, main and desert from a full choice menu.

The restaurant style service for such a large event was a first for the catering group, and a rare occurrence for any venue.

“Delivering a restaurant style service, where each guest has a menu of options to choose from is relatively unheard of, particularly on such a scale,” said Craig Hancox, Amadeus’ Catering Manager at the ICC.

“Every guest had three options to choose from for their starter, mains and dessert, and each table’s order was taken by our front of house waiting staff and then fed into the kitchen where our Executive Head Chef, Simon Hillier and his team got to work to deliver the courses as ordered.

“We have delivered this service before but not for so many. This style presents its challenges, primarily from a service and ordering point of view, but we have a very talented team who are always looking to raise the bar for our clients and I feel we’ve certainly achieved this here. The team came out on stage and received a standing ovation, that’s a fantastic reward for all the hard work.”

The congress was attended by more than 5,000 vets, 2,000 vet nurses and 3,000 exhibitors from 70 nations.

BSAVA President Andrew Ash said the banquet was now his benchmark for restaurant eating.

“If the food is as good in a restaurant as it is at a BSAVA banquet then its good food indeed,” he said.

In addition to the full service gala dinner, the Amadeus team at the ICC also created a Taste of Britain reception at the events opening ceremony, where 750 guests had a choice of four British themed catering pods: a Chip Shop – the most popular pod – serving mini pieces of fish, battered scallops, deep fried black pudding, haggis wellington and hand cut chips; a Country Carvery; Ice Cream Tricycle; and, the ICC’s Pudding Society, serving small tasters of traditional English puddings.

The BSAVA World Congress, was held at the ICC for the 22nd successive occasion, and this year attracted a record number of visitors, with more than 10,000 people – a 22% increase on the previous high in 2011.