Adam Bennett ~ Bocuse d'Or

Bocuse d'Or

MARCHE are very pleased to offer congratulations to Adam Bennett, of Simpsons Restaurant, Birmingham after he finished in 4th place at the prestigious Bocuse d'Or competition in Lyon this week.

photo from the Simpsons Web Gallery

In addition to finishing in fourth place, Adam also won the special award for the Best Meat Platter and his commis chef Kristian Curtis was awarded the prize for Best Commis, ensuring that the team from Simpsons came away with the best ever overall result for a UK team competing at the most high profile international culinary competition.

The Caterer website has the full details of the competition and comments from Adam and Brian Turner ~ UK Bocuse d'Or judge and President of Academy of Culinary Arts.

Follow the link here

Best Bar None Awards - MARCHE Winners

Birmingham Best Bar None Awards 2012


Thursday 1st November 2012
Birmingham Best Bar None Awards

CONGRATULATIONS!
MARCHE Members

Best Hotel Bar Category

Novotel City Centre

Best Student Bar

Joe's Bar, University of Birmingham

We hope you all had a fantastic night!

Photography by Jas Sansi

Available from the Best Bar None Website

AA Hospitality Awards - Highlighting MARCHE Members Winners

Photo via BHA Website

The AA Hospitality Awards 2012 - 2013 were announced on 25th September.  We are delighted that two MARCHE Members are part of winning Groups.

AA Hotel Group of the Year (sponsored by D-ENERGi)

Hand Picked Hotels

(MARCHE Member New Hall Hotel)

Eco Hotel Group of the Year (sponsored by British Gas Business)

MacDonald Hotels & Resorts

MARCHE Member MacDonald Burlington Hotel

Our warmest congratulations to New Hall & MacDonald Burlington!

BCF & MARCHE Golf Day

All photos are by Steve Love

Here is a report of the day from Chris Hudson of BCF

On Tuesday 24^th July the British Culinary Federation and MARCHE teamed up, and co-hosted this year’s event, which took place at the prestigious Marriott Forest of Arden Golf and Country Club.

Except this one, which is from the hotel's website

A complete field of 80 members and guests took on the challenge of the Arden Championship course, in what turned out to be so far, one of the hottest days of the Year!!

The format of the day was registration from 8.30am with coffee, tea and bacon rolls on arrival and then a “shotgun” start at 10.00am from each of the 18 holes around the course. The BCF had also invited a Craft Guild of Chefs team, to compete in the Mike Sullivan Trophy (formally; The Concorde Trophy) which is held annually at their respective Golf Days.

The golf was followed by the much needed refreshments at the 19^th hole, as there was a definite “glow” amongst the players, who had endured the heat on the course. An enjoyable two course buffet meal was then served, prior to the prize presentation, which was given by Mark Blake (MARCHE, Executive Council member) and assisted by Hilary Hall (MARCHE, Chief Executive).

The BCF and MARCHE would like to say a sincere thank you to, Major International, Gram, and Aubrey Allen for their generous sponsorship on the day. Also, to everyone who donated raffle prizes, and to the people who organised and supported the event, in order to make the day such a great success.

Team Prizes:

1^st Gary Hunter, Terry Tinton, Ash Spencer, Geoff Booth. (Westminster Kingsway College)

2^nd Tony Cheal, Ian Perkes, Paul Carr, Dan Hendriksen. (The Arden Hotel)

3^rd Luke Tipping, George Hicks, Steve Belcher, Harry Kattou. (Simpsons Restaurant)

The Mike Sullivan Trophy:

The British Culinary Federation

Longest Drive:

3^rd Gary Bloxham

12^th Daniel Parsons

Nearest the Pin:

8^th Steve Belcher

15^th Matthew Taylor

18^th Dan Hendrikson

Here are the photos of some of the MARCHE members teams ~ in glorious technicolour!

The Abbey Hotel & Golf Club
Simon Clements, Dan Parson, James Robert & Adam Small

Lea Marston Hotel
John Blake, Mark Blake, Richard Blake & John Whale

Simpsons Restaurant
Matt Cheal, Mike Coldicott, Stassi Kayiatou & Chris Satchwell

RBS
David Growcott, Rob MacLaren, Ian Morgan & Glenn Williamson

Simpsons Restaurant
Steve Belcher, George Hicks, Harry Kattou & Luke Tipping

Redcliffe Catering
Brian Robbins, Matt Taylor, Simon Tupper & John Turnbull

The Abbey Hotel and Golf Course
Steve Dipple, John Hindson, Tom Kirkham & Nick Stanton

MacDonald Burlington Hotel, Electrolux & Fracino
Mark Dimenn, Derek McDonagh, John McGinnell & Doug Walker

Marketing Birmingham, Hobart & Steelite
David Grundy, Ivor Marsh, Graham Robinson & Nigel Tolley

All photos are provided by Steve Love

Preliminary Rounds - Done!

Well folks - in a very short time, all the Preliminary Rounds for the MARCHE Awards for Excellence 2012 will have been completed (our Food Service Assistants are just finishing off as I type!)


The results are emailed to the venue Awards Coordinators, by the date given in the Awards Calendar.  Just a couple are still to come and these will be with you as soon as possible.


In the meantime, here's a little peak at what the preliminary round competitions look like to us.

Chef, Young Chef, Cook & Serve, Manager of Tomorrow and Sales Coordinator all submit paper entries for their preliminary rounds.

The MARCHE Awards Office is strewn with towering piles of paperwork as we sort through all the entries, chase the ones lost in the mail or internet.  They are copied and sent off to the relevant judging teams.

The Housekeeping Assistants all wait politely for their turn to take part in their practical assessments and written papers.

At least it was a glorious day with sunshine blazing in to make everyone feel a little sunnier themselves.

Thank you Radisson Blu for hosting us on Wednesday.

Due to a slight administrative error (we left the camera in the office *ahem*) we haven't got any photos of all the lovely Receptionists taking part in their preliminary round, so you will have to take our word for it that they were all turned out immaculately and entered into their allocated tasks with enthusiasm and energy.


Thank you Jurys Inn Birmingham for hosting us on Tuesday.


And today its the turn of the Food Service Assistant candidates.

Here they are being briefed on the plan for the day by the Chair of Judges.

Our specialist Judges take their judging responsibilities very seriously

And we really do thank them for their (very) hard work in judging each category.

Hall Green Greyhound Stadium hosted us for the first time this year - thank you for having us!

So that is a quick look at the preliminary rounds of the MARCHE Awards for Excellence competitions.

We're looking forward to seeing our finalists in the coming weeks.

! GOOD LUCK !

The BOBS - MARCHE Winners

Photo by Jas Sansi PHOTOGRAPHY

Monday 16th January 2012

The BOBS

CONGRATULATIONS

MARCHE Members

The ICC & Symphony Hall

Best Overall Venue

Photo by Jas Sansi PHOTOGRAPHY

Not just in the City Centre ...

Here in the MARCHE Awards Office - we officially love our competition venues.  All those venues who so kindly let us take over a conference room, a bar or even an entire floor of bedrooms, so we can rampage around for a day with candidates, judges and camera crews.


These lovely venues also volunteer to host us and for that we are eternally grateful.  Because of this - we don't have an awful lot of say as to where in the region the competitions take place, but between us, we are doing our best to cover "The Midlands".




So here is a map - with the varied location of the MARCHE Awards for Excellence 2012 competitions.  As you can see ... not just in the City Centre!

Thank You ...

All the lovely venues who have offered to host competitions this year

We thank you

University College Birmingham

Moor Hall Hotel & Spa

Westwood Conference Centre, Network Rail

Jurys Inn Birmingham

Solihull College

The Abbey Hotel

And the venues we are still working with to confirm dates

Hall Green Greyhound Stadium

MacDonald Burlington Hotel

Radisson Hotel, Birmingham

Thank you too - we're looking forward to working with you!

Your Awards Needs You

Yes - it's true - Lord Kitchener says so ...

... well sort of!

We are looking for MARCHE Members who can help out the Awards this year by providing some space for one of the competitions

Either hosting a preliminary round or a final round

A conference room or some other available and suitable space

If you would like to help, please contact Hilary in the Awards Office

0121 440 1892

MARCHE Awards for Excellence - In the post .....

This photo is from the collection of The British Postal Museum & Archive

The brand new

2012

MARCHE Awards for Excellence

Information Pack

is

in the post

to YOU

(keep your eyes peeled for it!)

You can't miss it ...

it's bright GREEN

If you don't receive this over the next few days, let us know and we will resend

MARCHE Awards for Excellence 2012

The info packs are at the printers

Photo by Jane Haden

Photo by Jane Haden

It is coming.

Are you ready?

Best Bar None Awards ~ MARCHE Winners

Photo by Jas Sansi PHOTOGRAPHY

Thursday 13th October

Best Bar None Awards

CONGRATULATIONS!

MARCHE Members

Best Hotel Bar Category

Photo by Jas Sansi PHOTOGRAPHY

Holiday Inn Express Birmingham Centre

Best Student Bar

Photo by Jas Sansi PHOTOGRAPHY 

Joe's Bar, University of Birmingham

Photo by Jas Sansi PHOTOGRAPHY

We hope you all had a fantastic night!

Well DONE!

MARCHE representing YOU

MARCHE CEO Hilary Hall recently attended the launch of the new National Business Crime Forum at the House of Commons in Westminster.

This new, all-party parliamentary group is bringing together MPs from all parties, along with business representatives, to consider how best to tackle business crime.

In light of recent events, the retail sector is particularly highlighted as a focus for the group however, MARCHE is working to represent the hospitality industry and to bring the particular concerns of the industry to the group.

If you have any queries please contact the MARCHE office for more information.

MARCHE & BCF Golf Day

The MARCHE and BCF Golf Day was held on 13th July at The Belfry

Rob, Don & Ray from UCB enjoy a pre-golf breakfast

Ivor and Graham from BHCA set off on their round

Mark Blake presents winners Neil Smith and Stuart Boyle with the MARCHE Golf Shield




And the winners were ...


3rd Paul Anderson & Tony Butler, Gram UK
2nd Ivor Marsh & Graham Robinson, BHCA
1st Neil Smith & Stuart Boyle, The Belfry

Best score for team with both players with handicap of over 20
James Roberts & Sue Blake, Lea Marston Hotel

Nearest the Pin on the 3rd Tim Barker
Nearest the Pin in 2 on 7th Peter Allen
Nearest the Pin in 3 on 12th Phil Dobson
Longest Drive 18th Ryan Grigg




Huge thanks to Mark Blake for organising another great golfing day!