The Public Sector Catering Awards (preciously the Cost Sector Catering Awards) celebrated it’s 30th year last night at the Hilton London Metropole. The awards are the gold standard for public sector catering, which is often the unsung hero of the foodservice world. Be it catering in education, hospital catering, care home catering and even catering for the military and the prison service, public sector catering is the oft-unseen force that keeps Britain running.
The drinks reception saw over 500 nominee caterers and industry faces gather to catch-up and see who would be walking away with these coveted awards, with much talk of how many of the awards they had managed to attend over the years. Having started in foodservice back in 2001 I suspect I may have been to somewhere approaching twenty! I know, I’m showing my age now!
As ever the night was a lavish affair hosted by Dewberry Redpoint with Andrew Archer at the helm. He kicked the evening off with his welcome speech calling for long-overdue systemic changes to eradicate the nation’s food poverty. Aptly the night supported both Springboard and Hospitality Action with a raffle which managed to raise nearly £3,000 for the charities.
After a fabulous meal from the team at the Hilton London Metropole it was time for the main event – the awards themselves. Hosted by stand-up Dominic Holland the winners were announced by each of the category sponsors including our client Hobart who sponsored the Innovation Award, which was won by Great Ormond Street Hospital. Amongst the other worthy winners was for the Lifetime Achievement Award which deservedly went to Sue Cawthray chair of the NACC and Chief Executive of Harrogate Neighbours.
Well done to all the nominees and winners, the sponsor and of course the team at Dewberry Redpoint on another great event. The full list of winners is available to view on the Public Sector Catering website here.
