Interview: Club Wembley’s General Manager Charlene Nyantekyi and Head of Culinary Harry Lomas

CHARLENE NYANTEKYI & HARRY LOMAS

LUXURY HOSPITALITY MAGAZINE SPEAKS WITH CLUB WEMBLEY’S GENERAL MANAGER CHARLENE NYANTEKYI AND HEAD OF CULINARY HARRY LOMAS ABOUT CHALLENGES POSED BY THE PANDEMIC AND FORTHCOMING FIXTURES

CHARLENE NYANTEKYI:

How did the pandemic affect Club Wembley and what does it feel like to slowly returning to some sort of normality in terms of being able to reopen etc.?

C: While it’s been brilliant seeing our members back in the stadium, we are always looking for new events and experiences to incorporate into our calendar. Evolving our offering to ensure our Club Wembley members get to experience some truly magical moments on and off the field will always be our priority.

The pandemic presented us with an opportunity to test more events across our digital platforms. We brought some exclusive digital events with legendary sports personalities and family-friendly content that included an interactive magic show that our members could enjoy at home, which really encapsulated the sense of community we embody at Wembley.

What was the first event allowed when you reopened and what was the atmosphere like?

C: As part of a coronavirus trial in April 2021, we welcomed 4,000 fans back in the stands for Leicester City’s Emirates FA Cup semi-final clash with Southampton and the atmosphere was electric despite the restricted attendance. Die-hard fans from both sides could be heard singing throughout the afternoon which was a surreal experience having gone over a year without any crowd noise in the stadium.

Seeing sports fixtures live and in a world class venue such as Wembley is a completely unique experience and one that those fans had been craving since the lockdown, so it filled me with immense pride to be able to help deliver this experience for them.

The electricity in the stands was undoubtedly matched by a sense of optimism around the ground from both the supporters and the whole team here at Wembley; we strongly believe that this trial fixture played a significant role in the Government’s decision to allow fans back into stadiums up and down the country at all levels and across all sports at that pivotal moment.

Talk us through forthcoming fixtures

C: Looking ahead to 2022, we are set to host several international football fixtures as the England Men’s team prepares for the Qatar World Cup. These matches have consistently attracted huge crowds as fans are still looking to make up for lost time, having been deprived of the opportunity to go to live sporting events for so long and we expect this enthusiasm and support to continue over the next year.

The historic and standout Emirates FA Cup semi-finals and final will once again be held at Wembley from April 16th onwards and these fixtures always promise to be special occasions – particularly as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the competition this season. We’re excited to find out which sets of fans we’ll be welcoming into the stadium and guarantee that it will be an experience to remember off the pitch for them no matter the result.

Aside from sport, we’re also looking forward to hosting Ed Sheeran and Coldplay for several nights respectively over the summer – we have no doubt that those will provide some incredible evenings for all guests in attendance.

Do you have any Covid rules/restrictions in place?

C: As a venue we go above and beyond government guidance as the safety of all our guests and staff is one of our highest priorities. We develop our rules and restrictions together with Brent Council and our local director for public health, while also considering the expectations of those attending the stadium. Therefore, the rules and restrictions may change over time but will always be based on a common-sense approach which will continue to enable us to deliver world class events for fans in both a safe and comfortable environment.

HARRY LOMAS:

What does it feel like to be back working?

H: I’m over the moon to be back after what has been an interesting 18 months for everyone. The stadium has seen a number of changes and improvements including the refurbishment of our Number Nine, Arc and Venue restaurants.

From the culinary team’s perspective, we’ve introduced more plant-based options to our menus and recently launched our own apprenticeship program as part of our commitment to training the next generation of chefs here at Club Wembley. And obviously, it’s been fantastic to see fans back in the stadium.

Talk us through your role and overseeing the 200 chefs who cater for Club Wembley

H: I’m a key player in the senior management team and we’re the team responsible for delivering the food and hospitality at Club Wembley which we do at all levels throughout Wembley Stadium. I have responsibility for five full-time head chefs, 10 back of house and all the front-of-house staff who work alongside us. On matchday, up to 250 chefs will also come in from various pools and agencies to assist us. We work with eight main restaurants, 600 main food outlets across the stadium and work in 98 kitchens, delivering around 5,000 hospitality meals, over 2,000 on buffets and over 6,000 at concessions so it’s a very busy place to operate.

Have any changes been made to the food and beverage department as a result of the impact of Covid-19?

H: In the early stages of the pandemic, we had a great opportunity here at the stadium to work with local charities. We were supporting a charity called Compassion London who were providing meals to vulnerable people across the capital in the depths of the crisis. We had a full operational team with people from Club Wembley and the stadium all helping to support the charity’s efforts by receiving goods and donations, creating menus, cooking, packing, and dispatching. We organised over 100,000 meals to be delivered to vulnerable people in May 2020 with the help of over 300 volunteers. In the last 12 months, the team at Wembley has been part of the Government research programme which has been gathering data to enable the Government to make the right choices for hospitality and events as we move forward. All our new protocols, including social distancing regimes, handwashing, and sanitising, ensuring we’re involved in the lateral flow testing and of course mask wearing, combined with a common-sense approach has enabled us to confidently deliver the back of house and behind-closed-doors catering when we had the various football fixtures.

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Assuming everything goes well, it’s going to take us at least 12 to 18 months to get back to where we were pre-pandemic. Having said this, it has given us a chance to reflect, review our processes and how we’re going to get through the next year.

As I just mentioned, one of the things we’re doing is working closely with Delaware North and the stadium to introduce our own apprenticeship program, directly training chefs for the first time here at Wembley to get accreditation and qualifications. If we don’t train our own chefs now, we’re going to find them very hard to get hold of in the future.

How do you keep your team motivated?

H: We’re a team first and foremost at Club Wembley, and we’re going nowhere without the team. I’ve got a brilliant logistics team, backof-house team right through to the chefs and of course we link very closely with the front-of-house team for the actual delivery of events. My management style is very much results based, I need to get results and I need to deliver. If kick-off is at three o’clock, kick-off is at three o’clock – they’re not going to wait for me. In terms of my way of working, I’m a coaching type of manager; I want to bring on the next generation and work together with people to make life that little bit easier.

Collaboration from everybody from The FA right down to the backof-house and the stewards is key to our ongoing success. Some may say I’m charismatic and inspirational but that depends on who you’re talking to! It all comes back to teamwork however, my military background and experience of working at the Olympics feeds into this and the days of shouting are long gone. It’s great to work with a team here at Wembley who want to work here, make things happen and are professional.

Talk us through upcoming fixtures and how you prepare the culinary team for them?

In the last 12 months, the team at Wembley has been part of the Government research programme which has been gathering data to enable the Government to make the right choices for hospitality and events as we move forward.

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our top fine-dining experience, though the restaurant is very much a success story, so we don’t want to mend something that doesn’t need fixing. The Arc and Venue are two very interesting restaurants which have both been fully refurbished and we’re looking to deliver a new grill- and brassiere-style menu in both which will be a real plus for our members.

At our speciality bar within the recently refurbished Number Nine bar, we’ve had everything from curries and chow mein to paellas and pastas, and we try and provide a dish based on the country we’re playing - this will continue into 2022.

Three quarters of the stadium is under general admission so we have a wide range of food available for fans to try. I’m very keen on ensuring we use local, sustainable food and we’re going to focus on these even more going forward. Similarly, we’re also looking at reducing our carbon footprint and working closely with The FA on this. We have reduced our food waste by better menu planning, collaborating with our clients, reducing packaging and general waste at every stage. Sustainability is going to play a big part in Wembley’s journey moving forward.

Our mission is to serve simple, sustainable food, presented nicely, served with passion and to ensure that our customers enjoy their journey, it’s as simple as that.

H: When we’re planning for events, we work closely with Club Wembley to find out what they like, what direction they’d like to go in, what they’d like us to implement and what they’d like us to bring together for their members. It’s all about working together through our menu tastings and having an open dialogue to create our outstanding events.

We’re looking to develop new dishes all the time and have a constant dialogue with our clients and our customers who provide feedback which we try to implement into the menus as we move forwards. As a result, we’re introducing more plant-based dishes at One Twenty,