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The Square Dining Experience at the BGL Group
Executive chef has catered for the top athletes in Sydney Olympics
Immediate release: 31 July 2007
Major local employer the BGL Group has made a significant investment in a plush new on-site 110-seater restaurant at its headquarters in Pegasus House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, Peterborough.
Executive Chef/Catering Manager Chris Wheeler will be heading up the new in-house team and is already recruiting for the additional new roles of Chef Manager and Assistant Chef. The expansion is to meet the demands of the Group's rapid growth, which has taken on more than 1000 new staff in the last three years. The BGL Group is the UK's largest privately-owned personal lines insurance broker.
Called 'The Square', the new restaurant will have a significant focus on providing well-balanced and healthy foods. Chris is no stranger to the importance of nutritional content in meals – he spent a month catering for the top athletes in the Olympic Village in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney as winner of a Guest Chef Competition hosted by Aramark Catering.
He said: "Cooking at the Olympics was a fantastic experience. I was working with Korean and Japanese chefs in the theatre section and everything had to reach excellent nutritional values because of the athletes' requirements. The food was out of this world."
Chris was previously Executive Chef for Peterborough-based travel giant Thomas Cook before joining the BGL Group last year to cater for all its corporate hospitality events. He will continue to oversee that role as well as looking after the new restaurant, plus on-site Costa Coffee shops at Pegasus House and the new IT headquarters in Park House, Lynch Wood, Peterborough.
Chris has already lined up an impressive list of local organic suppliers including River Nene Organic Vegetables at Yaxley, T & J Fine Foods in Stamford, Anglia Oils and Bank Farm Vegetables. There will also be fresh fruit smoothies from The Big J Smoothies and all sandwiches and baguettes from Delice de France, which can be pre-ordered each day, will be made with freshly baked bread.
He has a host of exciting plans for The Square including a section where people will watch as their food is cooked to order – choosing for example fresh ingredients for pasta or stir-fry or even a 30-second omelette cooked with free range eggs sourced from Kings Cliffe, near Oundle.
Chris said: "We call it 'theatre-style catering' - people can just come in and choose their ingredients and we'll make their lunch fresh right in front of them. It's going to be fantastic – a new eating experience. A lot of money has been invested in making the restaurant more attractive, both in terms of the surroundings and the food on offer. The BGL Group is committed to making sure its staff enjoys coming to work, and the new restaurant is an important part of that."
An abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables will be available from the self-service fresh salad bar, in addition to a snack counter with home-made savoury dishes etc. Main meals will offer the choice of healthy steamed fish on Fridays, cold carvery meats, quiches, roasted vegetable flan and stuffed chicken dishes and all the traditional offerings of the main hot and cold food section. There is even a hot breakfast bar available daily.
Chris said: "We are trying to use more healthy ingredients and are keen to offer good, nutritious choices to vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. The salad bar features a huge range of organic produce, again sourced locally. All our meats used are fresh joints supplied locally by Peterborough Game and Stilton Butchers."
The BGL Group has been working closely with the dieticians at Peterborough and District NHS Trust and as a result, healthier options will be on offer, which will include dishes like steamed cod with roasted baby vegetables or skinned chicken dishes with all low-fat ingredients.
"We are trying to keep the menu interesting. The last thing we want is for it to get boring and monotonous. We don't want people to walk in and know exactly what they're going to eat that day. We'll be taking a real interest in employee feedback – we want them to feel they are getting an exceptional service. We'll listen to people's views on the food, and if they request things that are not on the menu we will do our level best to make it happen."
Chris will also be running a promotional calendar of menus at The Square – the first of which will be Cook from the Book, where each day he will serve up a different gourmet dish from one of the cookbooks written by celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Rick Stein or Gary Rhodes. Future promotional weeks will include a Taste of Australia, A Piece of Italy, and so on.
The project has taken nine weeks to complete and has cost in excess of £600,000. Staff will be issued with discount vouchers for the restaurant during the launch week.
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