Sodexo meets growing demand with new university hospitality menu

Sodexo has launched a new hospitality menu for its portfolio of university contracts as demand for conference and banqueting continues to rise.

The foodservice company said that universities are increasingly offering hospitality and event services in a bid to develop new revenue streams and that catering for events and conferences now accounts for up to 50% of turnover in some of its university contracts.

The new menu includes more than 500 dishes across 10 categories, including barbecues, canapés, buffet lunch items and full banqueting, and will be available to all Sodexo's university catering teams through an online database. Allergen information will also be featured.

Executive development chef Robin Turner created the recipes in collaboration with the head chefs at each of Sodexo's university sites.

He commented: "We're really excited about the new menus which are seasonally-inspired and based on the use of high quality, fresh, locally-sourced ingredients. We have a fantastic, creative team, and it was great to be able to work together on this project to deliver a suite of dishes which will work for every occasion."

Sodexo has also introduced a new online room booking system called Area 101, which is also being rolled out across its university contracts.

Simon Knight, contract director at Sodexo, led the project. He said: "Hospitality and conferencing is a huge growth area for universities. With our heritage in hospitality and expert knowledge of food, Sodexo can help our university clients deliver high quality events and banqueting, which helps to maximise their commercial opportunities."

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