Amadeus caters for seven million visitors a year at the NEC Group’s five venues and more than 30 other venues across the UK including visitor attractions, exhibition venues and conference centres. Amadeus’ full venue portfolio has been audited by the Vegetarian Society, including more than 100 dishes and recipes.
As caterer for the NEC in Birmingham, the business thought it fitting to make the special announcement at the venue’s Just V Show Winter, with venue executive chef David Siddall holding a special vegan cooking demonstration at the show, which celebrates vegan, vegetarian and plant-based living.
Marc Frankl, food and beverage director at Amadeus, said: “This accreditation from the Vegetarian Society is testament to the hard work of the people in our business, who are extremely passionate about the traceability of the food that we serve. I’d like to give a special shout-out to Vicky Belton from our purchasing team who really helped drive the accreditation forwards.
“Securing the use of the approved trademark means clients and visitors to our venues have full clarity on our offering, making a clear statement about the food we serve. Whether it’s sourcing the finest local ingredients or using state-of-the-art technology to help drive down food waste, we are putting sustainable practices at the forefront of our work across venues, and this is our latest step.”
Amadeus has more than doubled its vegan offering across venues in the past two years, giving its chefs the tools to innovate in vegetarian and vegan cuisine. Aaron Johnson-Waters, Amadeus’ executive chef at the Vox, played a key role in delivering the accreditation after he recently introduced a new menu pack for the venue with 45% vegan ingredients.
He said: “I’m a proud vegan champion and I was thrilled to be involved in this project. Getting our vegan dishes accredited is testament to how hard our team works on developing our food and beverage offering – we pride ourselves on our quality and service.
“I found that veganism on the whole is such a small part of menu design. It tends to be non-existent, with customers having to request a vegan option, so this is our clear statement and commitment to the development of vegan dishes at our venue.”