When chefs are coming to dinner…

Although people from all walks of life are now more food-conscious than before, cooking for a roomful of chefs is quite different to cooking for any other group of people, admits Gary Klaner, executive chef of the Landmark hotel in London.

As he prepares for the 2003 Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference, which takes place on 16 April in association with British Meat, he says: "It's important to do something that will make the chefs sit up and talk, and that means taking some risks and doing something a bit different. I know I can't reinvent the wheel, but I intend there to be a few unusual touches, although you wouldn't know it by reading the menu. I don't expect to please everyone - food is too subjective for that - but as long as the dinner has been cooked in the best possible way I'll be satisfied."

He may not want to give away all his menu secrets before the big day, but Klaner's happy to chat about the meal's centrepiece, a beef dish teaming Scottish-reared Angus fillet with braised oxtail. And although he has created the dish using elements and techniques he knows will work, it does have an element of surprise connected to the oxtail (you'll have to wait until the night to discover what it is, though). "I've used snippets here and there in the past, but the dish is new," he explains. "You have to be realistic and not stretch yourself for the sake of it."

To keep interest high, both out front and in the kitchen, Klaner has used different cooking techniques for the meat, braising for the oxtail and slow-roasting in a low oven for the fillet. He says: "We cook the beef at 80°C for an hour - that makes it really tender, reduces shrinkage by about 20% and means we don't need to rest it. And you get an even colour, right the way through the fillet."

At Klaner's request, his supplier, north London butcher Frank Godfrey, hangs his beef for 21 days for a good depth of flavour. "Any longer and the taste veers towards being overpowering and becomes too venison-like," Klaner says. "That can throw the flavour balance."

He is, of course, no stranger to cooking for major events in the chef's calendar. In June 2002, the Landmark was the venue for the Craft Guild of Chefs annual awards dinner, and Klaner made sure there were several talking points about that menu. The centrepiece was a dish he'd cooked for banquets before, but usually with halibut (served with courgette flower stuffed with Cornish crab, purple potato and bean cassoulet, sauce Jacqueline). "On this occasion, I wanted to use barramundi," he says, "as it's a fish that would interest many of the chefs."

The logistics of getting nearly 400 portions of fresh barramundi, caught off the Australian coast, flown halfway across the world for the right date, and to meet the highest quality, was no easy feat. "Fortunately," he says, "our supplier came up trumps and the dish was well received. But it's not one I can regularly offer banqueting clients - there just isn't a regular and consistent supply of barramundi."

Klaner is keen to be as flexible on menus as he can, so each banquet at the Landmark is different. "We do have set menus in place, but they're only guidelines," he says. "We prefer to create something special for each customer." This keeps the client happy, but also makes life more interesting for the kitchen brigade.

Many dishes have a classic base, but are served with a twist, while flavours are kept simple and clean, with a restaurant-style presentation. "People have a set vision of banquet food," says Klaner. "I hope I've been able to change that vision."

Warm terrines at a function are a good example, and give the kitchen brigade a chance to show off their skills. One of Klaner's favourites is a terrine of Scottish salmon, sole, lobster and lemon grass essence.

Most requests from banquet clients, including risottos - "it's just a matter of getting the timing right" - can be met by Klaner, the exception being soufflés. "Unfortunately," he says, "the kitchen is in the basement and quite some distance from the function rooms. Soufflés just wouldn't survive the distance."

From a chef's point of view, the Landmark is an ideal venue for banquets. "It's not too large, so I can consistently control the quality of the food that goes out," Klaner says. The Landmark's Ballroom can seat 400 for a sit-down dinner, while other rooms cater for functions for either 50, 100 or 200 covers. "On a busy evening, we might do between 700 and 800 in banqueting," Klaner says. "I was involved in functions of 1,200 at the Hilton on Park Lane [also in London], and when you get to those sorts of numbers it is not easy to produce food at a certain standard consistently."

In addition to banqueting, Klaner and his brigade of 54 chefs also cater for the hotel's all-day dining room, the Winter Garden, on the ground floor of the eight-storey atrium, and the pub-style Cellars, as well as room service for the 299 bedrooms. The space previously occupied by John Burton-Race is used as an additional banqueting room.

So what has been Klaner's biggest banqueting challenge at the Landmark? Overseeing his first state banquet in June 2001, when the South African High Commission played host to the entire British Royal Family, including the Queen, he says. Once again, Klaner came up with a bespoke dinner, for 350 covers, with the added task of using as many South African ingredients as he could.

The menu included a millefeuille of pink trout, Cape Malay won tons, mango and lime crème fraîche; seared maize-fed chicken breast, roasted sweet potato and spring onions, devilled sauce; and iced purple fig and ginger soufflé, mixed berry compote. Cold soufflés, unlike their hot counterparts, are clearly possible.

Chef Conference Dinner, 16 April 2003

\ Parfait of foie gras, apple chutney
\ Confit of Scottish salmon, asparagus and truffle sabayon
\ Scottish Angus beef fillet and braised oxtail, Anna potato tower, parsley cream and Cabernet Sauvignon sauce
\ Brie de melun with herbs, celeriac fondant and pear sorbet
\ Warm almond and pickled ginger strudel, rhubarb jelly
\ Coffee and petits fours

Gary Klaner - career history

During a one-month student placement at Le Méridien Piccadilly in the city, he was offered a position as a commis chef, and stayed for three-and-a-half years. "Working with David Chambers was very valuable," Klaner recalls. "He was really my mentor for the early part of my career. It was there that I decided to make a career in hotels and get to the top."

Klaner then got the chance to go abroad with Le Méridien, being offered a position at the company's hotel in Boston in the USA. He stayed for a year and, on his return, joined Hartwell House in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, where head chef Alan Maw, who had previously been sous chef at Le Méridien Piccadilly, became another key figure in his career. "He taught me a lot about organisational skills," Klaner says.

Then came a move back into London, to the Hilton on Park Lane, for two years, before moving down the road to the Berkeley, under Andrew Turner.

In August 1998, Klaner joined the Landmark as executive sous chef. Two years later, following the resignation of executive chef Georg Heise, Klaner was promoted to the top job.

In the past year, Klaner has been involved in some consultancy work outside the hotel, including writing menus for GNER's first-class trains, on their London-to-Edinburgh route, as well as for the first-class service on Kuwait Airways.