Rice to the top
If Darren Rice needed an electric scooter to get about the Millennium Dome, where he was head chef last year, then he could do with a Star Trek-style transporter to get about his new place of work.
For Rice has taken on the job of executive head chef at the new ExCel exhibition centre in London's Docklands, a structure which covers 90,000sq m. "It took a couple of weeks for me to get to know where everything is," says Rice, who works for Payne & Gunter, the Compass Group company holding the 10-year, £98m contract to provide food and beverage services at the venue.
"To get around the Dome from my office it was a quarter of a mile, hence the scooters, but ExCel is much bigger. It was daunting at first, but if you break it down and put the right people in the right areas it becomes fun and exciting."
It takes about 17 full-time chefs to run the four main restaurants, and Rice is in the process of recruiting more staff. The main kitchen, where the prep is done for the Olive Tree restaurant in addition to the catering for the main banqueting suite and boardrooms, is just one of 20 on site.
Rather than assign his chefs to any one kitchen in particular, Rice prefers to rotate them so they gain experience in all areas. "It keeps them interested and ensures there is cover in the event of absence," he explains. Key team members include head chef Ian Boxall and purchasing manager John Woolford, who worked on the catering team for the soccer World Cup Final in 1966.
The restaurant menus change according to the nature of the exhibitions - for instance, lighter dishes are popular during a fashion event. And the menus currently used for banqueting are to be phased out in the coming weeks and replaced by a central bank of menus for the whole operation. These are likely to include such dishes as duck foie gras terrine with pear chutney and baby brioche, and roast loin of veal with caramelised shallots and truffle jus.
Much of Rice's time is taken up with meetings, and tastings for clients - sometimes two or three to make sure the client is happy - are a must for larger events. Altogether, it's very different from his early career. Having never wanted to be anything other than a chef, Rice attended catering college in Brighton between 1981 and 1982 after leaving school. A few years in some of the seaside town's hotels and restaurants followed before he found his niche in contract catering, working for Letheby & Christopher (also now part of Compass Group) as a production chef at four small racecourses in the South of England.
"I have worked in restaurants because it's important to see every side of the job, but it is a totally different animal to contract catering," says 35-year-old Rice, who was drawn to the sector not by the hours, although he admits they do get better the higher up the ladder you climb, but by the excitement and challenge he felt it offered. "I couldn't see myself in a restaurant seven days a week. I would love to have worked in a Michelin-starred restaurant in the early days, but not now. It's a young man's game."
Still with the same company, in 1991 Rice was appointed senior sous chef at Ascot racecourse, a post he held for three years before giving it up to spend three years on the circuit working at outdoor events, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Grand National and Henley Royal Regatta.
"I thought that rather than be stuck in one place, I'd join the core of chefs the company uses on a regular basis for outside events," says Rice. "There was plenty of work and it was exciting travelling around the country. I enjoyed the variety and the camaraderie."
During this time, Rice cooked for royalty and worked alongside the likes of Albert Roux and Brian Turner. He also found working on the circuit a great source of inspiration and ideas. "Contract catering food has changed a lot. It had to get better as customers became more demanding. The days of pumping out chicken and salmon are gone. But there's always room for improvement."
Rice's first head chef position came next, still with Letheby & Christopher, dividing his time between Goodwood racecourse and Twickenham rugby stadium for three years, before the company offered him the job at the Millennium Dome.
"The Dome was a learning curve," he recalls. Indeed, the hospitality operation for which the company was responsible was a lot to handle. There were six banqueting suites accommodating 250-300 people (each?) and one for 600-700 guests, in addition to the main floor with a capacity of 3,000.
"There were times when the suites were all in use at once. There was always some form of hospitality, such as City board meetings, going on - anything from finger buffets to five- and six-course dinners."
Having moved into the managerial side of contract catering, Rice no longer spends time at the stove, and while he does miss it, he relishes the new challenges presented by this change of direction.
"I didn't cook at the Dome and I don't cook here. I do miss it but that's how it has to be," he says. "You get to a level where you break away from cooking and into management. Having cooked for 16 years it's like going into another trade."
