Casino hits the jackpot with home grown beef and lamb
AHDB
| AHDB Beef and Lamb
Quality Standard Mark (QSM) beef and lamb has come up trumps after the UKs largest chain of casinos has committed to using it in its restaurants.
The announcement was made at the final of a cookery competition which gave Grosvenor Casinos chefs the opportunity to create a new beef or lamb dish that will be introduced to menus across the group’s eateries.
To further spread the message of high quality home grown produce, and reassure diners of the source of their food, all menus in the chain’s restaurants will also carry the QSM beef and lamb logo.
Grosvenor Casino restaurants sell over one million plates of food per year across the business, including 5,000 rump steaks per month. The chain’s food sales are currently at an all-time high, experiencing around five per cent growth year on year.
The Grosvenor chef competition was sponsored by Birtwistles Catering Butchers and supported by AHDB Beef Lamb. Hosted by Birmingham College of Food, it saw six finalists create two dishes, one of which had to be a beef or lamb development dish.
The winning dish of roast rump of English lamb with harissa, moutabel and foul moukala was created by Leigh Stark who works in the Grosvenor restaurant at Park Tower Casino in London. He was presented with a trophy from Birtwistles by Michelen Star chef Adam Bennett and Leigh’s dish will now be served to casino customers around the UK.
Hugh Judd, AHDB Beef Lamb’s foodservice project manager, said: “This is great news and means that customers in Grosvenor restaurants can rest assured when they see the QSM logo. The competition was a great way of combining top quality meat and encouraging innovation and my congratulations go to Leigh.”
Kevin Boyle, head of food and beverage development at Grosvenor casinos, said: “The Casino market is diverse and open 24/7. We have deliberately gone down the upscale casual dining route and would like to ensure that our customers realise we can deliver wonderful restaurant dishes, using great home grown ingredients including beef and lamb. Endorsing our menu with the Quality Standard Mark offers reassurance of provenance to our customers.
“We actively support AHDB Beef Lamb and hope that this is the start of a long-term partnership.”
The dishes from the Chef of the Year competition will be available from January 2016.
