World Food Day 2022
Food brings people together in a huge variety of ways, from family gatherings or a friendly pick-me-up to first dates or peace-offerings. Everyone has a favourite food, ranging from pizza to pasta, cookies to cakes, and all the good stuff in between! So many amazing dishes and ingredients are available to indulge in today, and World Food Day (16th October) celebrates them all.

Lumina Food Strategy Forum Top Takeout’s
You may recall my last Lumina food strategy forum exec summary blog was split into the good news and the bad news. I’m sad to say that the weight of bad news is rather overwhelming this time around, however that isn’t to say there isn’t some good news. As ever things are changing on a daily basis as this debrief happened on 21st September two days before the Chancellor’s ‘mini budget’. However, that said, it offers up a useful snapshot of the market. My top take outs from the debrief are as follows:

Contract Catering’s StrEAT Food Awards 2022
Earlier this month, we made our way to the Islington Metal Works in London for the 2022 StrEAT Food Awards, hosted by Contract Catering Magazine. The event saw some of the UK’s biggest and best contract caterers including Amadeus, BaxterStorey, Elior, Lexington and Sodexo, battling it out to take home one of three coveted titles including Street Food Dish of the Year, StrEAT Food Chef of the Year and Meat-Free Dish of the Year.

CROWNING MUTTI’S GOLDEN TOMATO COOK
November 2021 saw the climax of an exciting cooking competition – Golden Tomato Cook – which we developed for our client Mutti, the Italian’s favourite tomato brand*. Inspired by Mutti’s Pomodorino d’oro award which is presented to the famer who supplies the best quality produce each year, this new consumer culinary competition recognises and rewards the UK’s best tomato cook. Menus were judged on making the tomato the hero of the dish, originality, presentation, menu appeal and taste. Mutti’s mission is to raise the tomato to its highest expression and this contest challenged consumers across the UK to do exactly that by creating a three-course tomato-based menu using the Mutti Essentials range.

Entering the Year of The Tiger
1st February marks the start of the Year of The Tiger under the Chinese lunisolar calendar. This is known as the Chinese New Year, Lunar New Year or Spring Festival and celebrations will typically last for 16 days, from the New Year’s Eve up until the Lantern Festival (this year is the 15th February). It is a celebration that over 2 billion people get involved in all over the world.

A Hattrick of Wins for jellybean Clients
After two years away The Caterer Supplier Awards returned in December to recognise hospitality’s most exciting manufacturers, producers, and suppliers.
The 2021 awards were even more crucial considering the pandemic and the challenges that our industry is facing. As well as providing operators with details on the essential products that could help their menus and business, the awards were also a celebration of the best foodservice manufacturers and suppliers who – despite facing their own trials during Covid – continued to innovate to support hospitality as it navigated the new normal and rebuild.

London Cocktail Week Month
As London Cocktail week is now all of October (nice!) we thought we’d share some of the Beans’ favourites. According to international research from Brandwatch, Margaritas are the most popular cocktail followed by Martini, Mimosa, Bloody Mary, and Manhattan. But closer to home it is safe to say, us Beans have found solace in a wide range of cocktails over the past 18 months (of course, all drunk responsibly!). We are after all a leading food and drink agency so really, it’s research. Isn’t it?

Jellybean is a Top 60 B2B agency
I am absolutely thrilled that Jellybean is a Top 60 B2B agency (59) and a Top 40 Integrated B2B agency (38) according to the recently released 2021 UK B2B Marketing Agencies Benchmarking Report.

The Cateys, But Not as You Know it
In previous years, the night of the Cateys would see me dashing home from the office to quickly get changed into my glad rags and ‘doll myself up’ as best I could on a quick turn-around. Then I’d head up to town by train and cab, arriving in time to enjoy some pre-dinner bubbles and mingle with the gathered throng at The Grosvenor House Hotel, whilst admiring the always stunning ballroom below. This year however was (as most things have been) somewhat different. Rather than a little black dress I was in my working from home uniform of smartish top and gym gear below the waist. Instead of bubbles I had my trusty water bottle and instead of The Grosvenor House I was sat at my kitchen table-come-office in front of my laptop.

National Burger Awards? Yes please.
On Wednesday 19th of February, two Beans ventured to the Islington Metal Works to attend the much-awaited National Burger Awards 2020.

Celebrating at The Caterer’s Product Excellence Awards 2019
Last Friday I was fortunate enough to end my week enjoying fantastic food and wine with equally fantastic company. With no less than three clients shortlisted for a Product Excellence Award (The Caterer’s 2019 PEAs in partnership with Delaware North) I ventured out to the London Stadium (2012 Olympic Stadium and home to West Ham United F.C.) to celebrate their success.

Arena Summer Event
As a leading food and drink agency we pride ourselves on keeping abreast of the latest developments in the world of foodservice and a key part of that is attending the regular Arena networking events. This week saw the summer event, held at the roof top venue of 30 Euston Square, it was impressively jam-packed with content and of course a rather fabulous lunch to boot. The day kicked-off with a presentation on the breakfast and brunch market from Deli France. As the only meal occasion in growth (at time of publication) it’s little wonder there is a desire to really understand the consumer drivers around this growing opportunity. Unsurprisingly, as with most of out of home eating market, there is a split between health and indulgence and with our busy lifestyles convenience is a big factor. As well as the more functional breakfast on-the-go, the rise of brunch was also examined in our millennial led ‘insta-focused’ world where brunch has become the go to for meeting up with friends. (For the full report visit www.delifrance.com/uk/breakfast-brunch-report to download.)

Pub in the Park 2019
When it comes to festival food long gone are days of the dodgy burger van. With the rise of street food you can now eat everything from Thai to stone baked pizza, Korean BBQ to Moroccan wraps. But there is one festival that takes things to the next level when it comes to food. Tom’s Kerridge’s brain child ‘Pub in the Park’ blends music with truly great food – genius! With eight of these pop-up festivals planned this summer, everywhere from Leeds to Tunbridge Wells, it seems Tom is adding festival organiser to this many talents.

National Mojito day July 11th
Picture this: a glorious summer’s evening, the smell of sausages sizzling away on the BBQ and most importantly, a tantalizing and refreshing cocktail in hand, otherwise known as a Mojito.

Cateys 2019
As you will know The Cateys is known as the Oscars of the hospitality world and plays host to those at the top of their game. As the leading foodservice agency we were delighted to join the team at The Caterer for a night of fabulous food from Lisa Goodwin-Allen, Exec Chef at Northcote, great compering from newly-wed Rachel Riley of Countdown fame and of course the awards themselves.

Craft Guild of Chefs Awards 2019
As the leading foodservice agency we were delighted to have been invited once again to the prestigious Craft Guild of Chefs Awards at the fabulous London Hilton on Park Lane by our good friends Dewberry Redpoint.

A Big Fat Fundraiser
Hospitality Action do great work for those in our industry who have fallen on hard times, and as the leading foodservice agency, Jellybean have been supporting them for over 20 years. As a thank you for our support and pro-bono design work, we were invited to their Big Fat Quiz at the London Hilton on Park Lane – an opportunity we jumped at.

My Kind of Festival
Two of my favourite things came together this bank holiday weekend – the coast and food! The Foodies Festival is the UK’s biggest food festival and celebrates food from across the globe in a tour around the UK including Bristol, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Oxford, as well as one of my favourite places, Brighton. Your leading foodservice marketing agency reports back with the skinny on the all that took place!

A Global Award Winning Campaign
If you didn’t happen to be one of the 81 million pairs of eyes that saw our fantastically tongue-in-cheek integrated Food PR & Social Media campaign for family-run Surrey sausage manufacturer, Porky Whites, then perhaps ‘the SAUSIES’ is a new term to you…
