New thinking… at Old Billingsgate

For the third year running, JGC had the privilege of feeding the attendees at the annual London conference hosted by a Life Sciences company. The 600 sharpest minds in the STEM world gathered at Old Billingsgate for three days last month to discuss the latest developments in “Sequencing and Molecular sensing” amongst other things…

And minds like these need the perfect brain food to stimulate them over the three days. That’s 1,800 breakfasts, 1,800 lunches and 1,800 dinners, and the crew to feed and break times to cater for.

All of course, which is the kind of challenge that we love to deliver against. There were so many food options across the whole event that the menu alone would have required its own newsletter so here’s just a hint of what it included on one of the days.

This is what we served...

For breakfast – strawberry cream cheese, strawberry and dark chocolate open bagels and, carrot, turmeric and clementine juice.

Lunch – steamed trout, samphire and red onion slaw and a sundried tomato, feta and wild rocket orzo, and a superfood salad of roast summer squash, toasted pumpkin seeds, heritage beetroot, bulgar wheat, kale, pickled blueberries, avocado, pomegranate, and an orange dressing.

Dinner consisted of a mix of canapes, bowls and food stations including an “Edgeware Road” mezze station featuring a variety of tagines, dolmades, feta and spinach filo parcels, flatbreads and dips and a Slider station.

This whole event took up all three of the spaces at Old Billingsgate – the Grand Hall, the Vault and the Gallery to accommodate the variety of seminars, presentations and demonstrations going on at this huge event.

Over 8,000 coffees and at least 100kg of cheese were consumed! And the Jimmy Garcia Catering management team walked a combined distance of 349 miles (837,811 steps actually) over the course of the event.

Richard Groves said: 

“This is the third year that the organisers have chosen Jimmy Garcia Catering to deliver the catering for this world-leading conference. The logistical planning takes four months and the number of moving parts across all floors of Old Billingsgate is one of the most satisfying and complex events that JGC Head of Operations, Ellie Foreman undertakes each year.

We love working on this project – it is complicated logistically, is for a large number of guests, it runs over several days and gives us the opportunity to create delicious and healthy food that keeps the delegates' minds razor-sharp throughout the day.”