As I sit writing this, shivering with the first flurry of snow, I can truly say that Christmas is upon us. That means lots of decorations, fun, and festive food in the #bmFamily💜💚.

The last few weeks have been hectic and Christmas lunches have moved around like a shuttle board. What with the weather and the perfectly timed week of train strikes – what should have been our busiest week, moved one week earlier.

Spreading Foodie Joy

Life as a caterer has had some steep challenges, particularly from the pandemic. It can be very stressful to know the numbers to cater for in our restaurants especially as these have become totally unpredictable.

As usual, our chefs and teams are magicians. They have to guess not only how many, and who is coming in to their restaurant but also what we think they will chose to eat? It’s all impacted by travel, weather, team events and a plethora of other things.

Finger in the air ‘guessing’ was something we were quite good at pre-pandemic. It was a gentle undulating curve of occupancy. However, now it’s turned into a stressful mountain hike up and down with customer numbers varying madly. It can go from 100 to 600 in a day!

This is where our talent team of front of house and chefs come in to support. What an amazing set of individuals they are. We have always provided great back-up plans but since the return to work we have made sure we can really support our teams. It’s never perfect but it does mean we have a great team of people ready to move around and fill in. It’s not an easy job as there are always different circumstances, new learnings and new people to work with.

To help spread the foodie joy we also have the senior support team of MDs, Directors, heads of department and the odd Founder! We have been active in the front line with our team members serving the Christmas lunches to add support. It’s great to walk the talk, have some fun on site and work alongside our wonderful team members.

The one consistent is the #bmFamily💜💚 pulling together

We feel very blessed that so many people have chosen to return to the #bmFamily💜💚 and that we have retained and enhanced our strong family culture. It’s something we all cherish and work hard at. I’m delighted that the joint MDs Angus and Antony have also made it their core objective to further improve its value too.

So that’s our message for Christmas. Expectations need to be managed and preparation and plans made, but we all know that things change at the last moment and that many factors will vary, especially over this season. However if you approach it as a family, together with a few back up plans, then you will enjoy the sense of achieving together and having fun. After all it’s about being fundamentally food and family and that has got us through another year with great success.

A well-seasoned Merry Christmas to you all or a happy celebration of Hanukkah or Omisoka or all the other celebrations that will take place over the next few weeks. It just proves embracing diversity, there is always a reason to celebrate.

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