How do you get to become Scottish Banqueting Chef of the Year for the third consecutive year? Would it be your ability to roast five tonnes of turkeys each December? Or to assemble 9,000 individual elements for a banquet dessert for just one function? To manage the peeling of almost 50,000 kg of red rooster potatoes? Or to bake 25,000 pieces of shortbread every year? Or serving such international luminaries as Bill Clinton, Clint Eastwood, Prince Andrew and Princess Ann as well as many of the world’s top golfers?
It’s all in the detail
According to Billy Campbell, Executive Chef at Thistle Glasgow, who has just chalked up a hat trick with this prestigious title at the Scottish Hotel Awards, it’s all in the detail. He believes that it’s his team’s dedication to treating each plate at a major banquet as if it’s dinner for two which really counts.
“Some people would be phased by catering on a daily basis for 1000 people at a major event,” explains Billy, “But I just treat everything in multiples of 100. It may be a thousand plates in single units but if you think in blocks of 100 then it’s just 10 units of 10. It’s really important that each of those plates looks identical and that everything which leaves my kitchen is of the highest standard. Attention to detail is everything.”
Billy’s daily workout: 1,000 guests
Catering for a thousand people at a time is an almost daily workout for Billy and his team at Thistle Glasgow as the hotel has possibly the largest hotel grand ballroom in Scotland and hosts events from Scotland’s biggest Burns supper – The Lord Provost’s Burns supper – to The Ben dinner. Having the large capacity which it does, the hotel is busy with balls, dinners and conferences all year round and has a well-established reputation for being the ‘go to’ place for charity events.
But it’s in the run up to Christmas that the kitchen reaches top gear, roasting 5 tonnes of turkeys annually. Yes, that’s 5 tonnes. The same as an adult elephant. Consider that the average family turkey – which feeds your clan for a week – weighs 6kg on average, that’s a lot of birds.
Each plate must look as good as the first
When asked why he thinks he’s been awarded the Banqueting Chef of The Year for the third time, and has a nomination for the equivalent title in the UK Craft Guild of Chefs awards in London in June, Billy thinks attention to detail scores highly.
“If you have a trio of desserts at a banquet such as chocolate and salted caramel with dipped hazelnut in ginger; baked apple cheesecake with mincemeat filled cigarellos; and chilled lemon soufflé with a chocolate cage then you are looking at nine different elements on each plate. That’s 9,000 individual elements – and that’s just for the dessert. Each plate should look as good as the first plate. We’re always pushing it to the next level.”
Bespoke approach
In Billy’s kitchen you’ll find no ‘set banqueting menus’. He meets each of his banquet clients in person and works with them to devise the right menu for their guests, for the style of their event and, crucially, to meet their budget. It’s a bespoke approach throughout as he prepares tasting sessions with clients to identify the perfect menu.
There’s little chance that the food appearing in front of guests at an event will look any different from the version sampled at the tasting dinner. Photos are taken at the tasting sessions and are posted at each kitchen station along with tasting notes to ensure that each consistently meets the original standard. It’s no surprise that Thistle Glasgow has such a loyal customer base and sees the same events returning to them year on year as well as attracting new balls and banquets.
Collecting red rosettes
Trained on the, somewhat legendary, British Transport Hotels’ apprenticeship scheme from the age of 15, Billy began his career in the Central Hotel in Glasgow. It’s a career which has seen him work at Gleneagles, The Old Course at St Andrews, Fairmont St Andrews and Loch Lomond Golf Club. He says he has no regrets about leaving the golfing links behind as he’s a self-confessed ‘very bad golfer’. It seems that he preferred to collect red rosettes rather than birdies; he’s been the heart of several five red rosette kitchens and he’s seen his fair share of change.
Thistle Glasgow has 15 meeting spaces within the hotel, with the Grand Ballroom catering for up to1500 theatre style and 1000 banquet style.
For more information about the hotel click here
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