Would you like advice on your menus and food offerings from someone who fully understands the needs of a hospitality business, is a qualified and experienced Nutrition Adviser, keeps up-to-date with latest food and health trends, can calculate the nutritional values of any of your dishes and can help you develop the best marketing strategy for your F&B offering across the various segments, target markets and channels?

There is so much confusion around what constitutes healthy eating and people’s expectations of food options when dining out have changed quite significantly in recent years. Many conference venues mistakenly think that fruit smoothies are the best healthy option for a refreshment break. Chefs and General Managers alike struggle with what people expect from a vegan dish. And a customer’s expectation when dining out as a treat is very different to when they are a conference delegate in your hotel for 3 days.

‘You are what you eat’ could never be more true than when it was first written in 1826. We are spoilt with the range of fresh foods available to us year round, the celebrity chefs are showering us with cookery books and TV shows, food packs give us a detailed nutritional breakdown and yet a huge percentage of the world’s population, across all age groups is overweight and obese. Diet-related health problems swamp our National Health Service. And our culture dictates that celebrations inevitably include high-sugar high-fat foods and calorie-rich nutrient-poor drinks.

Hotels have their part to play. Guests may not care if a birthday celebration in your gourmet restaurant or a celebratory afternoon tea are high in sugar, fats and calories, because they are considered a ‘treat’. But conference delegates will expect you to consider their energy levels and ability to concentrate when developing your M&E menus. Overnight guests expect some healthy breakfast options. And the growing number of Vegans and those with allergies and intolerances will expect a varied choice of options, not just one or two dishes. Surprisingly, how healthy those dishes are is not top priority!

If you are curious as to how I can help, drop me an email inspiremeplease2@aol.com