Feeding body and all souls
Tim Fisher has a job with a difference. Unlike most chefs, he has the busiest time of the week off. His Friday evenings and all day on Saturdays are spent away from the kitchen, and the working week revolves around Sundays when, as chef of All Souls Church, in London's Langham Place, he caters for as many as 120 people.
The other main difference between Fisher's role and that of other chefs is that he cooks without the help of a kitchen brigade. He relies instead on a team of volunteers made up of regular church-goers, most of whom have limited catering skills. Despite this, he believes that some of them are better than people he has worked with in the industry in the past.
"Their attitude is overwhelming," he says. "They're so motivated, but they see it as giving something back to the church."
Managing this volunteer force could amount to extra pressure on him, but when he joined from contract caterer Sutcliffe two years ago, he sat down with some of the key volunteers and made lists of all the tasks which had to be carried out for each event. New recruits are now trained from these lists. While Fisher prepares all the food and devises the menus, the volunteer force is responsible for serving and clearing up.
Fisher's working week begins on a Friday, when he prepares as much as possible of the food for the following Sunday. He also draws up the menus for church events for the following week. Sunday is the busiest day of the week because there are four services offered throughout the day. Fisher prepares the midday meal, which consists of the choice of a meat dish or a vegetarian option plus dessert and a soft drink for about £5. The customers are drawn from the 50 regular churchgoers plus visitors to All Souls. Lunch is served in the dining room below the church, which holds 47, and the next-door Waldegrave Hall, which is also used for larger functions and can hold as many as 144.
Although there is a risk that people will take advantage of the food without being committed to the church, Fisher's philosophy is that if they come in to find out what All Souls does and leave with a good impression as well as a full stomach, then he has done his job. As a member of the church, he feels his role is inextricably linked with Christianity, and whatever he does sends out messages about his faith.
"Whatever the church is doing, we try and provide hospitality," he says. "There's a point to it. It's catering that actually does something."
Once Sunday is over, Fisher spends the rest of the week doing lunches and dinners for between 30 and 90 people. On Mondays, the 32 staff lunch together, and in the evenings he prepares supper for about 80 people attending the Christianity Explained seminar. On Tuesdays, Fisher cooks for a further 80 people who attend the church family prayer meetings, and on Wednesdays he prepares an evening meal for the 30 people attending Bible courses. Finally, on Thursdays, there is a lunchtime service for anyone who works in the area, and usually between 80 and 90 people turn up for this.
On top of this weekly schedule, Fisher also cooks between 12 and 15 special dinners a year for 100 people on average. Strangely, for someone who caters in a church, weddings are the one thing he doesn't do - his Saturdays are sacred.
Despite his personal link with the church, Fisher is running a business. Although the catering at All Souls is not about making a profit, Fisher does have to look carefully at costings and can't go mad choosing expensive ingredients. For example, a meat main course costs about £1.30 to buy and is sold for £2.90, while desserts have a food cost of 50p and are sold for between £1 and £1.50.
"We don't skimp," he says. "I spend between £10,000 and £12,000 a year on meat. I try really hard not to give a cheap meal because it doesn't cost much. I want to give a meal which is reasonable."
Through his efforts, and the fact that the church has become busier because of increased interest in the seminars it holds, such as Christianity Explained, the catering side of things has just broken even for the first time. Turnover from January to December last year was £48,000, an increase of £12,000 on the previous year, and Fisher served about 30,000 meals.
He changes his menus every week, although congregation favourites such as curries and Italian dishes make regular appearances. Fisher draws inspiration from the 700 cookery books he has collected over the years. A typical menu at All Souls might include, as a main course, supràme of chicken with a cream sauce of tarragon and bacon, served with fondant potatoes and buttered carrots, and a dessert of orange bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce.
In addition to working with volunteers and having Saturdays off, Fisher has noticed a few other differences between his job and those of other chefs.
For example, when he first arrived, he had to work with domestic equipment and has waited two years to purchase new things. "I feel I have earned the right to buy things by breaking even," he says. "The volume demands decent equipment. To spend money, I have to prove we actually need the stuff we are trying to make the money with."
Another difference is that, besides having to cater for the tastes of the churchgoers, he answers only to himself. "I like the freedom of doing more or less what I want," he says. "Creatively, it's great, you can just develop all the time."
