Amadeus serves up seven courses for seven hundred

Multi award-winning caterer Amadeus served up a seven course tasting menu for around 700 guests at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) banquet, held at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham last week.

Amadeus has built an enviable reputation for delivering exceptionally high quality food and the BSAVA banquet was no exception. Head Chef Simon Hellier and Catering Operations Manager Craig Hancox started working with the event organisers 12 months ago to create the seven course tasting menu.

The menu featured a plethora of complementary tastes including seawater and seaweed caviar pearls that burst in the mouth, beetroot meringue which evaporated on the tongue, monkfish caught off the south-east coast of Britain, oxtail spring roll and award-winning Devon blue which was baked into a cheesecake. 

To deliver a total of around 5,000 dishes, Amadeus had 20 chefs preparing for the banquet for two days prior to the dinner, 30 chefs in the kitchen on the evening, 80 waiting staff serving and 7,200 pieces of cutlery polished and set on the tables. 

Commenting on the food, Amanda Stranack, Head of Congress for BSAVA, said: “This year was our 25th consecutive year at the ICC and one of the many reasons we continue to come back is because of the quality of the catering. Amadeus do an exceptional job at delivering beautiful, high quality food to our delegates during the day when they’re catering for 6,500 delegates and especially for our black tie dinner which saw around 700 people attend. As usual we’ve had fantastic feedback about the food from our guests with many saying it was the best conference food they’ve ever had.”

Amadeus has almost 40 years’ experience serving 1.8million covers annually in their home and external venues. At the ICC the largest number of guests Amadeus has served a sit-down dinner for is 1,850, while the BSAVA dinner has the largest number of covers for a seven-course tasting menu.  

Craig Hancox, Catering Operations Manager, said: “We’ve been working with the BSAVA since they first came to the ICC in 1991 and the number of guests at the banquet has increase every year. We pride ourselves on being able to work with event organisers to meet their objectives and their expectations and so it has been an honour to work with the BSAVA for the last quarter of a century.”

BSAVA Banquet Menu

Amuse bouche
Avocado & pickled vegetables / seaweed caviar / wasabi sesame crisp

First course
Smoked duck breast / beetroot & meringue / candied carrot / black forest chutney Vegetarian: Two types of asparagus / soft poached quail egg / crushed pine nut dressing

Second course
Mojito sorbet / yuzu gel

Third course
Parsley butter roast Monkfish cheek / samphire / orzo pasta lobster cream
Vegetarian: Courgette spring onion calzone / pumpkin and basil risotto / candied tomato oil

Fourth course
Petit Beef tournedo / oxtail spring roll / truffle salted quail egg  butternut squash gnocchi / wild mushroom salad
Vegetarian: Wild mushroom tortelloni / spinach / buna shimeji mushrooms / paprika foam

Fifth Course
Raspberry & vanilla – Elements

Sixth Course
Devon blue cheese cake / spiced pear chutney / fruit biscuit shard

Seventh Course
Tea / coffee and Petit Fours