galloping gourmet

February 24th — Locally Brewed Real Ale

Our Drinks Manager, Ray Beckett, announced plans to serve locally brewed real ale on draught at all of our various bars today. After many painstaking and tough trips to various suppliers we've now selected our different beers including the discovery of a little known but wonderful pint for Gaynes Park from independent brewery 'The Gate' in Sawbridgeworth. This cottage brewery lovingly brews a limit of nine barrels per week at the back of their pub, although the market will dictate that beer this good be produced in much larger quantities very soon! Clients will need to order in advance to secure these high quality products. We believe that such excellent local beer brewed, delivered and served by local people is a product well worth savouring at each of these sites.

February 6th — ResCU Charity Dinner Dance at Gaynes Park

£16,000 raised at Gaynes Park tonight for local charity ResCU at a dinner dance. Chair of Trustees, Debbie Stephen said: "Thank you (GG) for your input into a very successful charity event at Gaynes Park. We had a great evening and the food was superb. I would also like to highly commend Angela for her help throughout the evening and through the planning stages, she was excellent support. £16,000 was raised for a very worthwhile charity which aims to build a respite care facility in Essex to support families caring for a disabled member."

February 6th — Taste Of Curradine 2010

Taste of Curradine is over for 2010. It was a fantastic event that offered everyone a chance to experience the outstanding food from the Curradine Barns, from home-cured bresaola to shellfish bisque.
Plans are already underway for Taste of Curradine 2011. Watch this space... See more photos.

February 3rd — Countryside Alliance Award

GG Managing Director Simon Robson attended the Countryside Alliance Awards at the House of Lords along with the management team of Wasing Park. Nicknamed the 'Rural Oscars,' they aim to celebrate the characters, skills, traditions and enterprise of the countryside and to recognise innovative and successful businesses from across England, Scotland and Wales.
Estate owner Joshua Dugdale said: "We believe that the future of rural estates is based around their ability to become a hub in the local community. An estate is vitally important to many people in the local area both directly and indirectly - a thriving estate means a thriving community. This is about so much more than the bottom line and in winning this award our amazing team have shown you can be a financially successful and importantly, a socially responsible business even in a recession."

January 20th — New Event Manager at Rivervale Barn

Welcome to Olivia Pratt our new Event Manager at Rivervale Barns. A couple of weeks into her time with us she reported: "I have always worked in hospitality, as a waitress throughout university for various catering companies and more recently as a Wedding Coordinator in a country hotel. I'm really enjoying working at such a beautiful venue where everyone from the venue owners, and all the GG team, Berny, Nick and Tom is passionate about producing the best possible day for the couples. In my first week, there was a Tasting Day at Rivervale which confirmed what I had hoped, that I had joined a company committed to producing excellent, well presented food."

January 8th — Our Venues in the Winter

The country might well be in turmoil due to the snow and that lack of grit, but we've got five weddings on this weekend and on they will go! In amongst all the challenges though it's worth stepping back and remembering how beautiful these venues are at this time of year. Here is a photograph taken today from Coltsford Mill in Surrey. See more pictures...

January 1st — New Year, New Initiatives

Our Central Business Support Manager is out and about at all of our venues ensuring our event and kitchen teams have everything that's required to deliver first class service to our valued clients. Teresa is also responsible for ensuring our staff are kept well up to date with a variety of key training initiatives. During 2009 she co-ordinated training and refresher courses in many areas including advanced and basic health and hygiene, licensing, SAGE, Excel planning, fire safety, first aid, hotel and hospitality planning. She will be co-ordinating some new initiatives in accordance with best practice for 2010 and is looking forward to analysing in which areas these should be in close consultation with our teams.

December 16th — Kate's Promotion

Kate Richards promoted to the role of Venue Development Manager (Galloping Gourmet) with immediate effect. This management post is an extension of responsibilities from her previous job, and will allow her a greater opportunity to support and direct our events teams at existing sites as well as play a crucial part in the foundation work involved at our future venues and of course help to share everyone's good ideas around our company.

December 14th — Taste of Curradine

Advanced publicity launches for our 'Taste of Curradine' day in February 2010. We want the whole world to know that coming to a venue where GG co-ordinates and cooks doesn't just guarantee a beautiful venue, it provides such clients with outstanding fine dining! Find out more about Taste of Curradine.

December 1st — New Facilities at Curradine Barns

The new facilities at Curradine Barns open today and add terrific versatility to this much loved Worcestershire wedding venue. The bar area has been significantly extended and a cosy lounge area created. Guests are now welcomed via an impressive entrance hall where drinks and canapés can be served immediately after the formal ceremony. All areas are internally linked so the entire day can be enjoyed under cover whatever the weather demands.

November 26th — Second Chef at Gaynes Park

Second chef Craig Lancaster commences his new role with us today under Xavier Pellerin at Gaynes Park. Craig has a close affinity with local Essex produce- most recently regularly travelling out to sea to commercially fish! He brings with him skills honed at restaurants and hotels in Haute Savoie, Colchester, Inworth and Tring and will add much enthusiasm and talent to our team in Epping.

November 18th — Gaynes Park Tasting Day

Another superb night at Gaynes Park and a very successful Tasting Day held, due to massive demand, one midweek evening. Read more...

November 15th — Wasing Park Tasting Day

Some wonderful food prepared today for our clients at Wasing Park by Joe Cathers and Team Chef. See more photos...