Bill Brogan, catering and conference manager at St John’s College, organised a collaborative research mission to China in conjunction with The University Caterers Organisation (TUCO).
The objective was to establish links with a range of institutions, including universities and catering businesses in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
The group of 15 catering professionals saw how Chinese universities cater for their students and customers and gained an understanding of the differences between British and Chinese food cultures.
Brogan said: “Although some UK establishments claim to offer Chinese food, in reality they are just peddling a westernised version which is very far from authentic Chinese dishes.
“Our visits to five Chinese universities also highlighted differences in service trends between the UK and China. There’s a lot we can learn from Chinese universities; the numbers they are catering for are amazing. One university we visited had just served 20,000 breakfasts and Peking University serves around 47,000 lunches each day.
“Members of the delegation have returned full of ideas on how we can take some of the ideas from the trip and roll them out in our own organisations. At St John’s we can use our experience to reassess our organisational processes and ultimately provide a more efficient and tailored service to meet our visitors’ needs.
“This includes looking at our food offer to ensure it is authentic Chinese, training our chefs and re-evaluating how people are now using social media following our visit to Tencent in Shenzhen which owns We Chat and QQ, used by 600 million people at any one time.”