BaxterStorey’s senior team in the Central region donned their aprons as they went back to the floor on Thursday 24th February, taking over the kitchen and front of house operation at Curzon Building, Birmingham City University.
Regional culinary lead, Adrian Cousins was on hand to keep the amateur kitchen team on track and to support with any questions, from seasoning to portion control.
Swapping budgets for beans, finance manager Phil Jackson took over the coffee bar for the day. In between grinding beans and steaming milk, he gave his best shot at performing some latte art, but has concluded that his real art remains crunching numbers.
Regional managing director, Peter Kent got his hands in the flour, impressing the team (and himself!) with his vegan sausage rolls and marmite and cheese scones, despite it taking a surprising amount of time to peel some butternut squashes for his soup!
Operations manager, Sophie Robinson and regional culinary lead, Andy Macleavy got stuck in for their Indian-inspired Platini pop-up. Students and staff enjoyed recheado spiced chicken with homemade flatbread, moong dal, kachumber salad and raita with homemade bhajis. Also on offer was Food EQ sweet potato and chickpea falafel with odds and ends pickle, courtesy of operations director, Nic Ramsdale-Crowshow.
Giving students a taste of Asia was operations manager, Morag Elliot with her Teriyaki salmon and sticky sesame tofu, served with Asian broth, slaw and gyozas. She said: “Today has been so uplifting for the team. It’s taken me back to my cheffing days; I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Manning the till and taking orders was general manager, Cheryl Edwards, whilst health and safety manager Katie Kurnock’s was star baker – her rocky road and gooey brownies proving popular with students.
Head of food for the regions, Adam Nossek was food stylist for the day, on quality control and perfecting the food presentation. He was particularly impressed by the filling to bread ratio of operations manager Nick Bate Jones’ sandwiches.
Operations director, Jon Leverett did a great job of running the busy pass. He said: “Today’s been all about re-connecting our senior team with our customers. Our region’s quite spread out, so coming back to the floor has been a great opportunity to bring people together for what’s been a fun and inspiring day. It’s all about working with fresh, local ingredients to produce some exciting dishes for the students and staff here at Birmingham City University.”
You can watch the day’s events here.
Image credit: BaxterStorey
