Working to satisfy a feeding frenzy
What does it take to organise one of the biggest bashes of the year?
HOW MANY can you cater for without breaking out in a shvitz? Ten at Shabbat? Seder for 20? Party for 800? The latter is the number Benjamin Gestetner of Kedem Europe and kosher caterer Arieh Wagner provide for at the annual Kosher Food and Wine Experience (KFWE). The event takes place at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane Hotel at that point of the year when the post-Chanukah detoxers are raring for a retox.
The scale of this party is phenomenal. Wagner orders 592kg (yes — five hundred and ninety-two kilograms) of beef to turn into salt beef for his hungry guests. That’s a lot of cows.
“I have to warn the kosher butchers a few weeks ahead, as they would not be able to source that amount of meat — even collectively — at short notice,” he explains.
It’s not just beef being ordered. A carving station will also offer turkey crown and lamb shoulder ready to be loaded onto 1,200 slices of rye bread.
Other buffet tables will be groaning with sushi and sashimi made with salmon, tuna and halibut and a stonking 15kg of sushi rice. A salmon carving station will serve beetroot cured salmon and mustard and dill gravadlax on black bread. For dessert, Wagner’s team will be preparing hundreds of macarons, fresh fruit and fruit and nut clusters.
Home chefs generally have the luxury of knowing in advance how many guests will be walking through their front door. Not so for Wagner, who will not know final numbers — and even then based on an educated guess — until the day before. “We always increase our food orders by 30 per cent just a day or two before the event,” explains Gestetner.
It’s not just the food. There are considerable logistical hurdles to overcome. “We need to hire 40 to 50 young people who are shomer Shabbat to pour the wines, most of which are not mevushal — which means they must be and buffet opens. Event reaches peak capacity around 8pm.
9.30pm: Event begins to wind down.
10pm: Doors close and packing up begins – which can take 3 -4 hours.
2.15am: Gestetner arrives home