CAMPUS MATTERS
April 2016 The newsletter for Campus Services
IN THIS ISSUE
An up-date from Mike I hope you all enjoyed what was certainly a busy second term and were able to enjoy some restful time off over Easter. Several members of the catering team spent the latter part of last term hard at work practising for the recent TUCO competitions held in Warwick at the end of March. The team entered a total of ten competitions this year and the impressive haul of two golds, three silvers, a bronze and two merits is testament to the hard work and commitment of those involved. Congratulations and thanks to all those who played a part both on the day and behind the scenes in helping our team to achieve such amazing results. Thanks also to those who kept the business going while the team was competing. Please do take the time to have a look through at your colleagues’ work, detailed inside this issue of Campus Matters. It really is a privilege to work alongside a
Multiple awards for catering
group of such talented individuals! At the end of last year, we had just learnt that we had been awarded 75.9% in our Hospitality Assured assessment, an improvement of 0.9% compared to 2013. Remembering that 75% is the required score to achieve “Excellence”, we should all feel proud of our achievement. You’ll find some of the detail of the assessment report in this issue, giving an indication of where we scored highly as well as the areas that have been identified as “Areas for consideration” if we are to achieve our target of 77% by the next assessment.
Enjoy the read! Mike
Last month was all about competitions for the catering team. More details on pages 2-4.
Hospitality Assured results In the last issue of Campus Matters we promised to communicate the results of the full report. Read more on page 5.
Double gold medal scoop for the catering team! Several members of the catering team competed in the finals of the annual TUCO (The University Caterers Organisation) Awards at Warwick University last month, winning a total of eight awards between them. Competing against the most talented people in the university catering sector on the day, the Royal Holloway team was led by Darren Coventry and Rebecca Nurse, assisted by Jasmin Turner, Bob Reid and Gary Smith. Additionally the work of Ravi Kanthiya, Carol Vallejo, Sara Glassett, Sharon Chandler and Donato Dondiego was entered into the Salon Culinaire competition. As winner of the Service Skills Challenge at last year’s event, Terri Sadler was invited to be on the panel of judges.
The team scooped their second win, again for the second year running, for the TUCO Innovation Award, for which they showcased the introduction of street food. Street food is now offered via a permanent street food cart in Founder’s Dining Hall as well as at College events and open days and via a variety of external street food vendors who visit campus three times a week.
Chef de Partie, Ravi Kanthiya took silver and Best in Class with his delicious Petits Fours, which included lime and white chocolate macarons, In the Cupcake Challenge, Pastry Chef, Sara vegan strawberry jellies and Royal Holloway’s Glassett was awarded gold for the second year version of a Twix! running, while Sous Chef, Sharon Chandler took the silver. Sara’s cakes this year followed a gardening theme, accompanied by a watering can made entirely of sugar, while Sharon’s had a retro sweets theme of sherbet lemon, strawberry drumsticks and lime and chocolate éclairs. Cupcakes - gold
Petits fours - silver and Best in Class
Cupcakes - silver
A further silver was awarded to Crosslands Shift Leader, Jasmin Turner in the Bar Skills competition. Jasmin had to create and serve Royal Holloway specific cocktails from a list of provided ingredients, demonstrating to the judges her knowledge of the different alcohols and mixers and how they worked well together. Jasmin’s signature cocktail, the “1879”, was named after the year that the first brick of the Founder’s Building was laid and contained Chambord black raspberry liqueur, providing a
connection with the Château de Chambord, the inspiration behind the architecture of the Founder’s Building. Topped with a “pill” of edible gold glitter, served in an original Thomas Holloway pill box, the cocktail was truly reminiscent of Royal Holloway’s history.
Head Chef, Carol Vallejo and Sara Glassett both received merit for their entries in the gluten free bake (a pumpkin cake with caramelised nut topping) and novelty cake categories respectively. Head of Conferences and Catering, Mike Hoare commented, “It was marvellous to see so many of our catering team rewarded for all of their hard work, particularly given the extremely high standard of the competition. Special congratulations and well done must go to Sara and the street food team for winning gold for the second consecutive year”.
Bar skills - silver Congratulations also go to Sous Chef, Donato Dondiego who was awarded bronze and Best in Class for his bread display containing a cheese and onion plait, olive bread, chocolate bread, brioche and a wholemeal twist focaccia.
Gluten free bake - merit
Bread display - bronze and Best in Class
Novelty cake - merit
Catering team win bronze Three members of the catering team took part in a “Cook and Serve Challenge” at Hotelympia, the UK’s largest foodservice and hospitality event at Excel, London earlier this month. Open to teams from any industry sector, the competition required each team to prepare, cook and serve a three-course meal for 4 covers, with 2 of the covers presented to the judges and the other 2 covers to diners at a laid table. All three courses had to be cooked, presented and served in no more than an hour and a half. Darren Coventry, Food Production Manager, and Pooranavelupillai Baskaran, Trainee Chef in The Hub competed in the kitchen, while Terri Sadler, Conference and Events Team Leader represented Royal Holloway as Front of House.
The Menu Starter Lime and elderflower marinated mackerel
The team was judged on the content and presentation of the three dishes, not only in their own right as individual dishes, but also in the way they harmonised with each other to form a wellbalanced meal in terms of flavours, colours, textures and portion size. Head of Conferences and Catering, Mike Hoare said “The catering team regularly takes part in competitions to improve their skill and creativity in cooking as well as to gain valuable feedback from prestigious judges. Congratulations to the team, who beat off very stiff competition to achieve a very well deserved result.”
samphire salad, breaded quail’s egg and crispy prosciutto
Main Pan-fried breast of duck homemade duck, fennel & pistachio sausage, a trio of golden beets and a sloe gin jus Dessert Passion fruit soufflé mango, basil and chilli salsa with Passoã cream
Passion fruit soufflé Pan-fried breast of duck
Hospitality Assured - Results revealed In November last year we welcomed back the and audits, a strong team-working and Assessors from Hospitality Assured to come co-operative ethos and effective training and impressive environmental initiatives” contributed and reassess our business. Hospitality Assured is the standard for service and considerably to our success. business excellence, created by the Institute of Hospitality, specifically for customer facing businesses. The process encourages businesses to develop best practice by viewing their own operation from a customer perspective to see where improvements can be made to benefit the business. After two days of rigorous interviews with representatives from across the department, we were awarded a score of 75.9%, compared to the 75% we gained at our previous assessment in 2013. Graded across 9 “steps”, we obtained improved scores in 6 out of the 9 steps, when compared to 2013, with particular improvement in the areas of Customer Research, Training and Development and Customer Satisfaction.
As well as highlighting what we are doing well, the report outlined areas for consideration/ improvement. The assessors recommended that, in order to achieve our target of 77% by November 2016, we need to:
- establish and implement a rigorous measurement process to enable easy evaluation of ongoing performance against targets and results achieved (especially in relation to customer satisfaction); - establish a process for gaining more detailed customer feedback that reflects the customer service promise and new College values.
The Assessors commended us on the numerous changes and improvements since 2013, highlighting in particular the introduction of street food, Bubble Tea and Starbucks into Imagine, new menus, the automated number plate recognition system and the new security operating model. They also reported that “thoroughly documented planning processes and procedures, checklists
Wedding finalists Congratulations to the conference team on getting through to the finals of two prestigious wedding awards recently. Royal Holloway was shortlisted for “Best Historic Venue” in this year’s UK Wedding Awards and one of the couples who enjoyed their wedding in the Picture Gallery last year, was a finalist for “The Wedding of the Year” competition, organised by Your Surrey Wedding magazine.
Security to the rescue Our security team leapt to the rescue recently, when they took control of a road traffic accident on Bakeham Lane, directly outside the Royal Holloway exit. Security officers Andrew Maher and Ashley Howell came across a collision between a minibus of school children and a delivery van while they were on mobile patrol in Bakeham Lane recently, when it appeared that the driver of the minibus had performed a U turn in the path of the van.
turn left only while the road remained closed.
Security Manager Simon Davis said “This is a perfect example of members of the security team going above and beyond the call of duty to assist with issues off campus. Many thanks to the team for all the assistance that they were able to give to the injured children and to the Ashley administered minor first aid to a number police.� of the children who had sustained superficial cuts and bruises whilst Andrew directed traffic around the accident and ensured that vehicles leaving the college turned left to avoid the scene. In the absence of any police or ambulance crew, further assistance in the control of traffic was given by security officer Bob Neivens, allowing Andrew to help with first aid for the children. On arrival, the police thanked them for their quick actions and assistance, before closing the road in both directions. Andrew remained at the college exit to ensure traffic exiting continued to The collision to the right of the Royal Holloway exit
Kingswood and Penrose refurbishment Recent refurbishment work to both Kingswood replacement of all baths with showers while in and Penrose is now complete. the kitchens, electric hobs and ovens have been In Kingswood this included a refit of heating & installed in place of the old gas facilities. All water services and systems including 3 new bedrooms have been repainted and new curtains boilers, the installation of new electrics, lighting, and wash basins have been installed in each data and safety systems and an upgrade of the room. In the communal areas, all corridors and mains electricity supply throughout C block. stairwells have been repainted and re-carpeted, Inside, all bathrooms and pantries have been as well as the installation of a fire safety system refitted and bedrooms have been repainted, to all areas. re-carpeted and furnished with new curtains and wash hand basins. Electronic key card access has also been installed. Additionally, corridors have been repainted and re-carpeted, new doors and frames have been fitted throughout and the reception area has been up-dated. In Penrose the scope of works included the
New kitchen in Penrose