Blackbrooks Garden Centre in East Sussex scooped the catering prize in The Greatest Awards organised by GTN with four other regional awards also being presented to centres which had excelled with their food and drinks offerings this year.

The awards were the result of customers voting for their favourite garden centre restaurant or coffee shop so it was the public vote that counted.

But along with the votes came some fantastic comments on why a garden centre was worthy of such a prestigious prize. Here are just a few of the comments we received:

Overall Winner and Regional Winner for The South:  Blackbrooks Garden Centre at Seddlescombe in East Sussex.

Consistent theme of votes – friendly, smiles and food to die for!

“Their salads are delisiomissimo.”  Diana Harffey of St Leonards on Sea

“The ethos is great, food exciting and nothing too much trouble.”  Diana Fowler St Leonards on Sea

“The service is second to none & their produce is always excellent.  Their Latte and cream cakes are the best!” Mrs Park, Bexhill on Sea

“They are polite, happy and always very helpful.  The Food is always first class.”  Mrs Cooke, Hastings

“Fresh baps and cakes to die for.” Jean Caroll Bexhill on Sea

“They make you feel welcome and wanted.” Christine Bancroft, Hastings

“Consistent high quality food that is always fresh.  Fast friendly service.  The Goats Cheese and Pepper Paninin – Yum! And the best chips in East Sussex!” The Norcott family from Hastings.

Perhaps the last comment should be this one from Hazell Fellows from Roberstbridge  “They smile, even with a very long queue.”  Now that is a truly great quality for a busy garden centre catering team!

Our Regional Winner from the North, Eastfield Garden Centre was praised for their excellent & personal customer service:

“The food and service is second to none.” Mr & Mrs Day , Bridlington

“Nothing is too much trouble, they open fresh cakes if there’s nothing on display I fancy.” Alison Johnson, Bridlington

“In just a few visits your preferences are known.” Barry Blair, Bridlington

In Scotland, Loch Lomond garden centres customers said:

“They treat you as a friend and never waver from this.” Harry Holloway, Alexandria

“It has become my place of choice for afternoon tea.” Margaret McKinney, Drymen

“You are part of a family.” Mr A Bradley

In the East, Regional Gold went to The Garden Café, Craft Nurseries where amazing cakes were consistently cited as the reason they should be The Greatest:

“Cakes and desserts are out of this world.” David Sexton, Essex

“Make you feel special.” Sue Johnson, Colchester

“A home from home place.” G.Rumble, Essex

“Great service 7 days a week, all year round.” R. Rumble, Essex

“The service is second to none.” Emma Gray, Colchester

“I have never come away hungry.” Mrs P.R.Lemon, Colchester

“We now have to book a table in advance.” Mrs V Scriven, Colchester

And in Wales and The West, The Old Railway Line received the most customer votes including these comments with a consistent theme of friendly, smiley staff:

“They are the best at everything!” Ben Clinton, Powys

“The service and cheerfulness of staff is second to none.” Jean Attwood, Glasbury

“Always a friendly welcome.” J Mipsud, Powys

Each week Catering Design Group, one of the UK’s leading restaurant and commercial catering design companies, provides readers of GTN Food Xtra with a range of solutions, hints and tips around the theme: “Are you wise to the value of good design!”

This weeks topic is:  “Don’t be dictated to!”

A good designer will listen to you and hear what you want to achieve. If you feel you are being dictated to or manipulated, then you haven’t found the right designer – so walk away.

The right designer will have a clear focus on all of your objectives, ensuring they are at the heart of everything they do and they will be able to give you a clear rationale behind every element of their design.  

To find out more, contact Catering Design Group at: info@cateringdesign.co.uk

http://www.cateringdesign.co.uk/

With catering and food sales continuing to offer major add-on profit opportunities for garden centres, leading garden trade show Glee (September 14-16, NEC Birmingham) will be offering retailers extensive inspiration at a more prominent Food & Catering Zone this year.

Sponsored by experts, Catering Design Group and Blue Cap Coffee (Lavazza), this area gives garden retailers an unrivalled opportunity to gather best practice examples, advice, contacts and products to help them initiate or improve their catering offering.

Now in its third year, the Food & Catering Zone will be bigger than ever, and will be a rich resource for any retailer wanting to expand their catering facilities. In addition to the wide range of catering services, confectionary, kitchen equipment, kitchenware and café/restaurant design consultancy specialists that have made their home within this dedicated area in recent years, retailers will also find additional inspiration to explore within the newly introduced Farmers Market. Home to artisan suppliers, the Farmers Market will be packed with everything from locally sourced brands to specialist produce as well as delicious food and drinks from an exciting mix of catering innovators.

The Food & Catering Zone will also address key issues with an unrivalled workshop programme. This year topics up for discussion include seasonal events and marketing strategies to attract customers year-round, how garden centres can win the coffee shop ‘wars’, attracting younger customers to your on-site catering, supply chain efficiency and much more.

Speakers will include Helen MacDonald, owner of Merryhatton Garden Centre; Iain Wylie, Chief Executive of The Garden Centre Association; Tracey Fletcher, owner of Kitchen Garden; Will Armitage, MD of Armitages Garden and Home; Helen Pyttlik, garden centre manager, Bicester Avenue Garden Centre; and John Williams, director of Blue Cap Coffee.

With more exhibitors than ever before the Food & Catering Zone will be an exciting showcase. Key brands to look out for include Cafeology, Belvoir Fruit Farms, GMS Expresso, Vision Commercial Kitchens, Bon Bon (Wholesale) Ltd, English Garden Tea, eXpresso Plus, Horti Catering Equipment, Moonshine Drinks, NBTY Europe, The Victorian Kitchen, Tudor Tea & Coffee and UCC Coffee.

Phillip Howard, Managing Director, Catering Design Group, one of the area’s 2014 sponsors comments: “We’re delighted to be returning to Glee and proud to be one of the partners of the Food & Catering zone in 2014.

"We’ll be bringing along our great team of experts across design, kitchen planning and project management to give visitors advice and answer any questions they may have. We’ll also be sharing an abundance of hints, tips, trends and insights to enable visitors to create a destination catering space.”

Glee event manager Matthew Mein added: “This year’s Food & Catering Zone is set to be the best yet! The area will not only be bigger and packed full of even more exhibitors than ever before, but with the guidance of our new sponsors and with the hugely valuable feedback of the recent Food & Catering Steering Group, we have been able to develop a programme that is as targeted and hard working as possible. I very much looking forward to seeing this area come to life in a just a few short weeks.”

To find out about the Glee Food & Catering Zone, or how to exhibit, visit www.gleebirmingham.com, or call the Glee team on 0203 033 2160.

A fantastic opportunity has arisen at our Birchencliffe garden centre for an enthusiastic, self-motivated Restaurant Manager for our established café within our family-run garden centre.

The successful candidate will be a confident and committed individual with excellent people management and communications skills. You will have a proven record of achieving growth in both sales and profit targets, and able to positively lead and develop your food services team to ensure a consistently high level of customer service.

Key experience

· Previous managerial experience in a catering environment is essential

· Demonstrate planned career progression within quality food and beverage environments

· NVQ level 3 / 4 or equivalent

· Coordinate and direct the day-to-day operations of the kitchen and front-of-house

· Responsible for the direction and supervision of all catering staff

· Ordering food, costing and planning menus

· Responsible for maintaining high standards of hygiene, health and safety

· 40hrs/week, daytime working and alternate weekends, occasional late nights

To apply, please send your CV with a covering letter detailing your experience, evidence of your capability to fulfil the role and why you should be considered for the position to recruitment@armitages.com

Closing date Friday 8th August 2014

Bradley's Juice were winners of Best Non-Alcoholic Drink at BGFA2014 Local Producers, sponsored by Almondsbury Garden Centre.  Miles Bradley told Guide2Bristol readers about Bradley's Juice.

"Thank you so much to everyone who nominated us for this prestige award, we feel really privileged to have won the award for the Best Non Alcoholic drink. It is always great to get praise for something you love doing.

"We are a small family business based in rural Somerset where we use only hand selected apples to make our single variety juices. We do not add any water or sugar so you only get the full flavour of the fruit.

"In addition to single variety apple juice, Bradleys produce and bottle our Quench range. Bradleys Quench is made from the freshest fruits and our range includes Still Lemonade, Sparkling Lime and Ginger, Brewed Ginger Beer, Sparkling Elderflower and freshly squeezed Orange Juice. We are always searching for new flavours and are delighted with the newest addition to our range which is sparkling fresh Strawberries and Elderflower. Served over plenty of ice with fresh mint and cucumber it makes a fantastic summer drink which does full justice to this fabulous summer.

"What apple farm in Somerset would not also make Cider? At Bradleys Juice we are proud of our very own, slightly sparkling cider, called Bradders. We only make enough cider to sell in the summer, so if you are after that very special taste of Somerset then you better get down to our stockist before it is all gone."

For more information on the Bradley's Juice range, visit www.bradleysjuice.co.uk

Demand for haggis is rocketing along with other iconic Scottish food and drink products as a result of the Commonwealth Games.

Initial sales at Tesco show that the games are having a significant effect in highlighting and boosting interest in Scottish food and drink across the UK.

Over the course of the games, Tesco expects sales to rise by:

• Haggis and black or white puddings – demand expected to rise by 80 per cent
• Shortbread – up to 60 per cent
• Scottish bottled water – up to 50 per cent
• Malt whisky – up to 30 per cent
• Tunnocks tea cakes – up to 20 per cent
• Smoked salmon – up to 18 per cent

Tesco head of local sourcing Sarah Mackie said: “The Commonwealth Games has put a world spotlight on Scotland and created a natural curiosity for shoppers around the UK to try out Scottish food and drink.

“We expected to see demand grow in our Scottish stores but customers right across Britain are buying Scottish products - it is a great testament to the wonderful range of products that producers in Scotland create.

“Haggis has been the real winner so far during the games and it may now become more popular south of the border as a result.”

Tesco has promoted Scottish food and drink in several of its Glasgow stores through sampling tours whereby shoppers can try different delicacies. It stocks more than 1,500 local and regional lines.