The team at Tong Garden Centre in West Yorkshire has invested significantly to treble the area of the kitchen that prepares dishes for its in house restaurants.

The food preparation area that services Tong Garden Centre's Blooms Kitchen and Mezzanine restaurants has been extended by 110m2 to cater for the increased demand for its home prepared dishes and afternoon teas.

"The catering team prepare an average of 23,000 dishes a month, including freshly made sandwiches, quiches and the meat and potato pie that is a firm favourite with customers. The expansion of the prep kitchen means that the team can prepare more meals and can satisfy the growing demand for afternoon teas whilst developing new dishes to delight customers in our Blooms and Mezzanine restaurants," said Cath Westmoreland, Tong's catering manager.

One of the 16 strong catering team to benefit from the new food preparation area is Kitchen Assistant, Vanessa Wright: "We love working in the spacious new prep kitchen. The workflow has really improved and there's plenty of room to prep our delicious afternoon teas and other homemade dishes."

Tong Garden Centre occupies a 19 acre site in Tong village. It is one of Yorkshire's biggest independent garden centres that seats 480 across the two restaurants, has 125,000 square feet of retail space and parking for up to 700 cars.