Hospitality Week to welcome restyled cooking competition

A brand-new Culinary Theatre will be among the highlights at Hospitality Week, taking place at the NEC, Birmingham, on 20-23 January 2003.

The theatre, which replaces Hospitality Week's traditional Salon Culinaire, will feature four kitchens, provided by Electrolux, built around a central viewing area. They will play host to teams of chefs from various sectors of the industry.

Selected teams of three will do battle in four classes per day. Each class will focus on a different hospitality sector - including universities, pub groups, schools, business and industry, hotels, restaurants, healthcare and travel.

Teams will be presented with a mystery basket of ingredients 30 minutes prior to the competition and will have 40 minutes to produce a meal or dish.

"Competing teams will be selected by invitation from 16 sectors of the industry and will consist of two chefs and one assistant," show director Claire Finch explained.

Away from the theatre, the exhibition will run conferences on issues relevant to the industry, such as deskilling or reskilling, customer and staff retention and loyalty, consumer behaviour and brand issues.

Also scheduled into the event are the New Product Awards, which recognise outstanding new products on show at Hospitality Week that have been developed since 1 February 2002. The award winners will be announced at a gala dinner on 22 January.

Some 17,000 visitors are expected to converge on the NEC for the show, where they will have the opportunity of touring around 400 exhibitor stands.

Web site: www.hospitalityweek.com