1 Your Platter Matters serves up stylish
grazing tables. 2 Food gets interactive at
The Star Sydney. 3 BCEC partners with
dietitian Kerry Leech to build nutritional
menus. 4 Food becomes part of event
styling with Your Platter Matters.
4
3
4 Dietary requests
3 Ask the dietitian
Many venues are enlisting the help of professional dietitians
and nutritionists to guide their menus. Brisbane Convention and
Exhibition Centre (BCEC) partners with accredited practising
dietitian and nutritionist Kerry Leech to help build menus and seek
advice on how to best fuel conference delegates. One part of her job
is to help educate people on how to make healthy choices, which can
be especially difficult in buffet situations.
“Buffets and shared plate types of meals can give you great options,
but they can be really risky at the same time,” says Leech.
She says the way in which buffets are arranged is critical.
“To make it easier for people to make healthier selections, you put
the salads and vegetables out first and that’s what people put on
their plate,” says Leech. “Then they can top up with a source of
protein and then if they need it, a source of carbohydrate for a bit of
fuel. It’s those small things that we can psychologically change how
people do things.”
The International Convention Centre Sydney (ICC Sydney) joined
forces with nutrition scientist and dietitian Dr Joanna McMillan to
help guide the menus ahead of the centre’s opening late last year.
McMillan says she is proud of ICC Sydney’s focus on delivering
balanced menus and supporting local suppliers.
“I love that they were so forward thinking about recognising
the role that nutrition plays not just in our long-term health but
in our day-to-day ability to use your brain, to concentrate, feel
energetic and to feel good,” she says. “What you’ll find at the ICC
is restaurant quality cuisine but much lighter, higher-protein meals,
like ceviche, sushi and salads, that actually help you to concentrate
through the afternoon.”
While dietary requirements aren’t anything new, what’s new is
the approach venues and chefs are taking to ensure these special
meals taste just as good as the real thing. Alcock says The Star
Sydney aims to create “inclusive” dishes that can be tweaked
for certain requirements, rather than serve a completely different
meal to someone with a dietary request.
“The new menu that we’ve created is focussed on how we can
incorporate that dish to be gluten free, or alcohol free, or lactose
free,” he says. “We look at how we can create an amazing dish
and make it relevant to all of our diners.”
BCEC’s solution to the growing trend of dietary requests
was to install a dedicated dietary kitchen, to ensure care and
consideration goes into every meal. The centre has also made
75 per cent of its entrées and mains gluten free to address
increased demand.
McMillan says the gluten free trend is something we probably
won’t see the end of any time soon.
“It’s a major problem for convention centres, for restaurants,
cafes, for any of us holding a dinner party,” she says. “Growing
up I hardly remember anybody ever having a special diet,
other than the odd vegetarian. And now chefs are faced with it
every day.”
She says chefs can tackle the issue by equipping their kitchens
and developing their knowledge about nutrition.
“[ICC Sydney executive chef] Tony Panetta works very carefully
to make sure the same dish can be adapted more or less to suit
several different diets so that’s quite a clever move forward.”
www.cimmagazine.com Convention & Incentive Marketing, Issue 4, 2017 29