Charles Campion, food critic and MasterChef judge, has been announced as the Keynote Speaker on day one of the HTA Catering Conference 2015, which takes place on June 9-10 at The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands.    

After spending a successful fifteen years in the advertising industry, Charles and his wife, bought a ruined mansion in Buxton, Derbyshire, and set about turning it into a luxury hotel and restaurant, taking on the role of head chef himself. As interest rates doubled and the recession bit home, the only ray of sunshine was general acclaim for the food - unfortunately this was not enough to stop the enterprise failing. Charles used this as an opportunity to reinvent himself as a food writer and has written about food and restaurants in the London Evening Standard for nearly twenty years.

He has appeared on Food and Drink on BBC2, Hell’s Kitchen, MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef, Professional MasterChef, and the BBC’s One Show. He was also co-host of a major series on Sky – “The Greatest Dishes of the World”.

Charles will give an insight into what makes a great garden centre catering outlet and how to make your establishment stand out from the competition. He will share anecdotes and ‘his rules to dine by’, helping you to understand better how to give your customers the best experience.

Sarah Dunning, Chief Executive of The Westmorland Family, will be our second keynote speaker on day two, alongside Valentine Warner.

Sarah started running the family business in 2005, after several years of working in the City for NM Rothschild and as a headhunter. Primarily Sarah sees herself as the champion of The Westmorland Families values, ensuring that they are the compass for everything that the business undertakes. She loves food and constantly strives to strengthen the business’ food approach through its homemade food and its relationship with its many artisan and local producers.

Sarah will talk about the challenges they have been through in moving from one site to two and how they have approached sourcing local suppliers, their values and principals and how these differentiate them from other motorway service stations. Sarah will cover how they appeal to both locals and passers-by.

The two day conference, complete with conference dinner and exhibition, and sponsored by Vision Commercial Kitchens, will cover hot topics that impact garden centre catering and will take place in both conference and workshop format. There will be plenty of time for networking, with the conference exhibition providing a great opportunity to meet with catering product suppliers.

Booking for the HTA Catering Conference 2015 is now open, please go to www.cateringconference.co.uk