The new life of Brian

Celebrity chef Brian Turner has put his name to the new restaurant at the NEC in a venture that is proving to be a fresh start for everyone involved. Janet Harmer reports.

The recent opening of the restaurant at the new Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC is a new beginning for several people. The 130-seat Brian Turner's restaurant is the first major undertaking for the chef-restaurateur following the closure in September 2001 of Turner's (the restaurant that he ran in London's Knightsbridge for 15 years). It also marks a new partnership between Crowne Plaza and Parallel, the new Aramark-backed company that has been set up to operate the outsourcing of hotel restaurants.

Roy Ackerman, who runs Parallel with partners Nick Scade and Paul Breach, is delighted that Turner is the person fronting the company's first project since it was set up last year. "We must have looked at 20 to 30 ideas for the restaurant, but Brian was the number one choice," says Ackerman, who firmly believes that hoteliers are generally not restaurateurs and therefore do not have the expertise to maximise the potential of hotel restaurants. "He is a Yorkshireman and very British, with a down-to-earth approach to food. We wanted someone who understands how to bring out flavours. On top of that, he is highly popular and will appeal to the wide spectrum of people that we hope to attract to the hotel."

The general manager of the hotel, Jonathan Walker, is equally pleased to be working with someone of Turner's calibre, and believes that his celebrity status will be a vital factor in attracting local residents and business people into the restaurant alongside hotel guests. "We took the decision to outsource all our food and beverage outlets because we're finding that both business and leisure travellers are increasingly looking to see a named chef attached to a hotel restaurant," he says. "It doesn't mean we are abdicating our responsibilities but, by bringing in outside specialists and working in partnership with them, together we can achieve powerful results."

While much business is expected to come from the adjacent National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and the NEC Arena, which has some 80 concerts scheduled for this year, there are still many other days to fill. "The NEC is in operation only about 100 days a year," Walker says, "so having Brian's name attached to the hotel will definitely help bring in non-residents for the rest of the time."

Constant demand Despite his high profile, Turner, whose contract is with Parallel, seems genuinely surprised that he continues to be in constant demand to become involved in both new and existing ventures. He says: "It's wonderful that, as someone who is slightly older than the boys who are making it now - I'm 56 in May - I still get asked to take on new projects."

Although initially sceptical about the Crowne Plaza venture, Turner quickly realised the enormous potential offered by the site of the new hotel, which surprisingly - considering the utilitarian nature of the buildings that make up the NEC and the NEC Arena - is attractively situated. Both the restaurant, on the lower ground floor, and the ground floor Bar 606, with capacity for 130, take full advantage, through full-length windows, of stunning views over Pendigo Lake. The location, it is hoped, will be a major factor in attracting to the restaurant people staying in city-centre hotels 15 minutes' drive away - particularly in the warmer months, when al fresco dining by the lakeside will be available.

For Turner, the new restaurant is the opportunity to reach a wider market than he was able to tap into at the 52-seat Turner's in Walton Street, and prior to that as head chef for the Capital hotel, also in Knightsbridge. "It is not a question of lowering my standards from what I was doing before," he says, "it's about offering a simpler style of food, but of equally high quality."

Knowing the area well - he has stayed in local hotels for the past 10 years while making the BBC's Good Food Show - Turner knows exactly the kind of place where people will want to eat after a tiring day at an exhibition. The emphasis is on British food served in a relaxed but sophisticated environment, with an opportunity to share dishes if customers so choose.

"We have a number of large tables so that people meeting up at shows can get together," he says. "They can choose to have a selection of different dishes as starters, which can be put in the middle and shared by the whole table. The idea is more akin to tapas or a Chinese meal, but we are serving British food. So often when I've been at the NEC, I've started off on a table for two that has ended up as a table for eight - what we are offering will help facilitate that."

Changing daily Dishes served in this way will change daily and may include Scottish smoked salmon parcels filled with fresh salmon and avocado, smoked eel with apple and baby beet leaf salad, and Malton meat balls in a rustic tomato sauce.

Main courses and desserts are served as individual dishes, but Turner believes there is an opportunity eventually to extend the sharing concept to puddings. However, he is taking time to talk to customers to ensure that what he is offering is what they want. "We've got to feel our way through and will make changes if the public don't like what we're doing," he says.

While Turner is at the restaurant "a lot", the 16-strong brigade is being led on a day-to-day basis by his executive chef, Gerard O'Sullivan, who was previously executive chef at the Marriott Liverpool South hotel at Speke Airport. Food and beverage manager Loy Seng - who is employed by Crowne Plaza, while the rest of the food and beverage staff are Aramark employees - is ultimately responsible during Turner's absences for all the eating areas, which include Brian Turner's, Bar 606, the room-service operation and banqueting in nine rooms.

O'Sullivan has long felt that the outsourcing of hotel restaurants is the way forward and is delighted to be working alongside someone who is prepared to put his name to the restaurant. He says: "Brian has been very frank with me about not having large hotel experience and not being used to the policies and procedures that come with working within this environment - that is something that I can provide. But we both have very similar tastes in food and service."

Turner says of his new role: "After 15 years of enduring rising rents and rates for my own restaurant, I'm quite happy not to have those stresses any longer." He is also very happy with the deal he has, knowing that there may be the opportunity of expanding the Brian Turner's concept into other hotels.

And it does not preclude him being involved in other ventures. As well as recently becoming a director and shareholder in the three-strong London restaurant chain Foxtrot Oscar, where he intends to inject renewed vigour into the menu of British comfort food, he is also keeping an eye out for a freehold property in the capital where he can re-establish his own independent restaurant. "I'd like a small base, one I could go back to and experiment with dishes," he says. "It won't be anything like Turner's. It will be somewhere more informal, maybe even a pub, but somewhere that's always busy."

The Aramark-Parallel partnership

Aramark in the UK, which has an annual turnover in excess of £300m with more than 900 contracts and 11,000 employees, has set up a new division, Parallel, to handle its move into the sector of food and beverage outsourcing within hotels.

"It's a very exciting niche market to get into," says Aramark's chief executive, Bill Toner. "Through our core company, we can supply enormous management resources, global purchasing power, an extensive workforce and IT systems to help meet the demands of this sector.

And who better to work alongside than a well-respected restaurateur such as Roy Ackerman, who fully understands the restaurant business and recognises the benefits of all that we can offer?"

Toner would eventually like to see the Brian Turner's restaurant brand extended to other hotels, maybe other Crowne Plazas, though this is not a necessity. "But it will be no more than six," he says. "It has to be a small enough number for Brian himself to control."

Beyond that, Toner believes that "the world is our oyster" as far as hotel outsourcing is concerned.

"We are currently in talks with a couple of international players," he says, "and hope to be able to announce the plans we have with them later this year."

Crowne Plaza Birmingham NEC

Pendigo Way, Birmingham B40 1PS
Tel: 0121-781 4000
Fax: 0121-767 5029
Web site: www.birminghamnec.crowneplaza.com

General manager: Jonathan Walker
Food & beverage manager: Loy Seng
Executive chef: Gerard O'Sullivan
Bedrooms: 242
Restaurant: 130-seat Brian Turner's
Bar: 130-seat Bar 606
Banqueting: nine rooms with maximum capacity of 200
Staff: 140 (food and beverage, 70)
Rack rate: from £175 for single or double occupancy
Projected occupancy for2002: 68%
Projected annual food and beverage turnover: £2m-plus

Sample dishes from the à la carte menu at Brian Turner's

Black pudding spring rolls with a chilli pineapple chutney, £6.50
Rich and fine chicken liver on thick buttered toast, £7.50
Avocado filled with horseradish hummus and cucumber piccalilli, £7.50
Roast Lincolnshire duckling with a pear and apricot stuffing and saut‚ potatoes, £18.50
Chicken and quails' egg pie, £13.50
Smoked haddock and scallop casserole with new potatoes, £17.50