Events to savour – Meet Birmingham and The ICC undertake UK first at International Confex

1st Feb 2010

Meet Birmingham is giving visitors the chance to experience a UK first on their stand at Confex (stand B640) from 23-25 February 2010. Birmingham Convention Bureau and The NEC Group have teamed up to offer a series of live food demonstrations to launch a new tasting menu that is the first of its kind in the UK’s event catering industry.

The tasting menu – which allows the customer to experience small tasting samples of two starters, a fish and meat main course, two varieties of dessert and a cheese course in one sitting – has been developed by Paul Gould, Executive Head Chef for The NEC Group.

Paul said: “While a tasting menu is a familiar sight in Michelin star restaurants, we have found that the catering industry has failed to deliver this for high volumes. We’re recognised for being able to take niche restaurant concepts and deliver them to scale, so this presented a great challenge and opportunity for the ICC catering team to be the first to do it!“

A selection of the menu will be cooked in a special theatre kitchen on the stand at the show with samples available for visitors to enjoy. Meet Birmingham’s cookery demonstrations will give visitors a taste of the city’s award winning and diverse culinary offering for business and leisure visitors alike.

As well as gourmet delights, visitors can discover more about Birmingham’s range of world-class venues and state of the art facilities that make it one of Europe’s most popular conference destinations. Hilton Birmingham Metropole, Wroxall Abbey, The Public and q-basemedia all form part of the Meet Birmingham stand and can advise visitors and help with conferencing requirements.

To make bringing your event to Birmingham even easier, Birmingham Convention Bureau is launching the Meet Birmingham guide 2010 with full details of the venues, accommodation and activities on offer.

Ian Taylor, commercial director at Marketing Birmingham, said:
“Birmingham is a well connected and highly reputable events destination which is reflected in the breadth of venues on the Meet Birmingham stand. In the same respect, the city is increasingly regarded as a major player on the food and drink stage. With Michelin starred food and innovative catering, Birmingham has the whole package for event organisers.

“Together with The NEC Group, we are working hard to ensure the interest in the city continues and have a host of national and international business confirmed for this year. The city will be welcoming the Liberal Democrats Party Spring Conference and the return of the Conservative Party Conference this year. There’s also The International Materials Handling Exhibition, International Association for Dance Medicine & Science Annual Meeting, and IPEX.”

Sally Davis, managing director, NEC Group Catering, said: “Continually investing in research to introduce these new concepts for clients, is designed to help them make the most of their events with us, particularly at a time when differentiating their business and standing out from the crowd is essential.”

For your chance to see the chefs cooking live, come to Meet Birmingham’s stand B640 at the following times each day:
Session 1 – 11.00 to 11.30
Session 2 – 13.00 to 13.30
Session 3 – 15.00 to 15.30

They will be cooking a selection of food from their exclusive new Tasting menu that will be a first for UK catering:

Taster menu
Crab salad, willow radish
Gazpacho sorbet
Seaweed Melba toast
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Aged Angus roast beef tornado
Girolle tortellini
Mulled Bourguignon sauce
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Potted lemon curd
Lemon grass jelly
Coconut chilli shortbread