Although regular event catering is the ‘bread and
butter’ (nice catering pun) for Executive catering
services, some event organisers do also ask for
the company to provide waiters and waitresses
to serve the food, this adds a special touch to
any event.

On Saturday October 15th Executive catering
services combined their catering skills with their
waiter and waitressing skills to provide a
spectacular six-course meal, served to a selection
of County Durham’s most respected citizens.

The event was organised by Durham Territorial Army and was held at their headquarters in Durham City. With guests including the mayor of Durham and the chief constable of Durham Police, it was essential that everything was prepared down to the final detail.

The Territorial Army decided to hold the event to celebrate the huge amount of money rasied over the past year with their extreemly popular Crossfit training sessions. The TA have been in a joint colaberation with the CrossFit team DssTuff based in the USA.
The idea was to exchange fitness routines and compete every Saturday against each others times. All compeititors would be notified on the following Monday if they won or lost their personal fitness battle. The loosers would then have to either put money into the charity cash fund or donate a prize that could be raffled off during the event.

The process didn't just include Fitness and workouts. The big idea was to exchange information and knowledge. The USA CrossFit team was able to provide information including what are the best CrossFit workouts, a range of the best shoes for CrossFit and information about how to set up a CrossFit box.

More about the Catering
In total, Executive catering services provided six members of staff, one waiter, three waitresses and two chefs. The six members of staff were accompanied by volunteers from the centre and together they formed a very efficient workforce.

For starters the two chef's had prepared a beautiful vegetable soup, this was transferred into hot soup bowls then served to the prestigious guests table by table.

Although soup can often be bland and tasteless, the chefs did extremely well to create a well flavoured dish whilst catering for the possibility of any vegetarian guests. The soup was served with a white or brown bread bun and guests were given the option of butter.

After the tables had all been cleared from the first course the chefs began to serve out the second course, lemon sorbet. The sour taste of the sorbet was complimented perfectly by a covering of a sweet strawberry sauce and then garnished with a chocolate decoration.

The staff once again served these fabulously presented dishes to the guests one table at a time. The waiters and waitresses were particularly efficient when serving this course as any wasted time would result in the sorbet melting.

The refreshing taste of the second course seemed to be very popular, and like the soup, the majority of the dishes were empty when collected, compliments to the chefs.

The next course was the main course, arguably the most important course of all and therefore quality of presentation and quality of taste were very important for this course. The majority of guests were treated to roast beef, Yorkshire puddings, potatoes, parsnips, green beans, carrots and sweetcorn, all garnished perfectly with beef gravy.

The beef and Yorkshire puddings were prepared in the kitchen and each guest was served these on their plate. The vegetables and the gravy however were served a table at a time. Each table was given more than enough vegetables and gravy to cater for all and they helped themselves to these, allowing guests to add as many or as few vegetables to their plates as they liked.

The small proportion of vegetarian guests were also very well catered for, head chef Philip Lee Hewitson personally prepared two fabulous plates of mixed salad. The presentation of these plates was enough to turn anyone vegetarian, wonderful attention to detail.

As expected the beef and the vegetarian dishes went down a storm and all of the guests were marvelling over the quality of the food they had been served thus far and they were only half way through their night of fine dining.

After giving all guests ample time to help themselves to additional vegetables and digest their main course, the two chefs started to prepare the fourth course, everyone's favourite Italian desert, profiteroles.

The two chefs readied the fourth course by filling individual desert dishes with a hand full of profiteroles and a spoonful of rich chocolate sauce. Similar to the sorbet the waiters and waitresses had to be very efficient when serving the deserts to each table, this was to ensure that each individual dish was fresh whilst it was tantalising the taste buds of the guests.  

The guests all loved the profiteroles as much as the three previous courses and were all very impressed with the quality of the food and the quality of the service. Very high praise considering the superiority of the guests.

With only two course to go, the chefs and the rest of the staff were very pleased with the praise coming from the dining hall. Although not unexpected, it is nice to know that guests enjoy the food and service provided by Executive catering services and feel the need to make the company aware.

The final two courses provided a perfect ending to a night of luxurious dining, cheese and biscuits followed by coffee and mints.

A fine selection of various cheeses from around the globe were accompanied in a platter by savoury snacks such as celery sticks and carrot sticks. This impressive platter along with a separate selection of biscuits and crackers provided a wonderful fifth course for the guests.

The final course as previously mentioned was coffee and mints, the perfect way to end an evening. The coffee was hand poured for guests, offering them the choice of cream and an after dinner mint. The waiters and waitresses served each guest individually at their table and this gave the guests an opportunity to thank the staff for their impeccable service throughout the evening.

Overall, the evening was a huge success and was enjoyed by all, staff included. The quality of the food was perfectly complimented by the outstanding service provided by the Executive catering services staff. Once again the company demonstrated that they do not only serve the North of England with expertly prepared food but with professional service too.