Spirit Pub Company hosted a vegetarian taster session as part of National Vegetarian Week (20 – 24 May) to help decide which dishes stand out and will make it on to its future menus.
The taster session, which ran on Tuesday 21 May at Spirit’s Support Centre in Burton, involved five suppliers who showcased 40 vegetarian dishes for Spirit’s Head Office team to taste.
Alongside Spirit employees were Vanessa Brown and Benjamin Orlowski-Hatton from the Vegetarian Society who gave Product Development Manager, Jason Radbourn, (all pictured above) their official point of view on the variety and quality of dishes available.
Vanessa Brown, Head of Business and Catering Services, said: “The vegetarian food market is growing and it’s not just vegetarians who are choosing to buy meat-free meals. Companies need to develop ranges of dishes that offer not only value but tasty and delicious choices. It’s great that the Spirit Pub Company are building on their past menus and looking to improve and develop.”
The top 15 dishes will now go through to a panel vote which is judged by a variety of guests from across five of Spirit’s brands: Fayre & Square, Flaming Grill, Chef & Brewer, John Barras and Taylor Walker. The dishes that are the most popular will then make it on to the next refresh of the menus.
Jason said: “Our taster sessions are a great opportunity for our Support Centre teams to get involved in the menu development of our brands. We held our first one last year which was a huge success and led to nine new dishes making it on our menus, including the Rustic Open Lasagne in Fayre & Square which increased the sales in the vegetarian category by 6%.”