Brain Food: How to Keep Delegates Awake

Food needs much more thought than just filling the 1-2pm slot.
Every presenter knows that the worst presentation slot is the one straight after lunch. You can guarantee that at 2pm your guests and colleagues are either drifting off into a carb induced slumber or tapping furiously away at their Blackberry in a sugar craze.

And why? Because someone choose the wrong conference lunch.Your delegates are what they eat and I’m sure that you would rather have a team of lean, mean, energetic machines than a bunch of sluggish doorstop sandwiches.

So how exactly do you feed a group of hungry managers with high expectations? How do you ensure that you choose something to ensure they are full yet focused, satisfied yet (most importantly) awake?

Here are the 10 things to sneak into the menu:

Water - just 2% dehydration reduces the capacity for work by 20% since most water is gained through your food, make sure your menu is fresh.

Wraps - by choosing wraps you can cut out the sleepy carbs and sugar crash ingredients found in white bread and processed baking.

Vitamin E - not just for beauty but for brains too. These ingredients can help boost memory; nuts, avocados, sweet potato, mayonnaise, olives.

Vitamin K - is the vitamin that helps enhance cognitive function and improves brainpower; broccoli, spinach, lettuce.

Berries - Brain boosting blueberries and strawberries as well as pineapple help to improve short term memory and keep you alert.

Tomatoes - contain powerful antioxidants that help protect braincells. Stay organic to get the best from them.

Green tea - both calming and stimulating, used to help Japanese monks endure marathon meditation sessions.

Espresso - yes coffee is good for your brain as long as it is freshly ground, gently roasted, served strong and dairy-free.

Chocolate - cacao contains theobromine which effects cognitive enhancement and can create a blessed out state - the darker the better!

Oily fish - contains that renowned brain booster omega

Chicken - a good as it contains L-Carnosine, a strong antioxidant

In Season - British Asparagus

Be quick! You've not got long to enjoy this superfood delicacy. Asparagus has a teasingly short and notoriously unpredictable season which falls sometime between May and June depending on the fickle British weather. I am reliably informed by the British Asparagus Growers Association website that the 2010 season is well and truly here.

Appropriately perhaps for an aphrodisiac, the key to ensuring the best flavour is tenderness rather than length or girth. Colour is a good indicator, seek light green with closed tips and a hint of purple. British Asparagus is a hand grown crop which requires a huge investment of time and patience for a relatively low yield. Cooking it however, is almost totally the opposite case!

 - Simple: Steamed with a splash of olive oil, black pepper and parmesan

 - Hot: Fresh asparagus soup with crème fraiche and sage and parmesan bread

 - Brunch: Asparagus bundles tied with chives served with a vanilla and pomegranate mayonnaise

 - Fish: Asparagus icecream with salmon toasts - recipe here!

 - Main: Pan roast asparagus with rare roast beef, wild mushroom jus, thyme and talegio potatoes

 - Summer Buffet: Prosciutto or Parma ham involtini of chargrilled asparagus

 - Stuffed: Baby Pousin with fresh asparagus stuffing, lemon risotto, French beans and tarragon jus

 - Vegetarian: Fresh handmade asparagus ravioli with herb emulsion and micro shoots

The Sweet Smell (and Taste) of Success

As you can probably tell, the chefs and I adore any opportunity to work with a client with exacting standards, impeccable taste and high expectations. A challenging (or even impossible sounding) brief fires my imagination, as does the chance to transform a brand into a dish or distil its message into a bite.

Last week we served the result of a really great brief for the private launch of a new scent collection at Leighton House. We had been asked to create a menu to satisfy the tastes of eminent fashion, beauty and lifestyle editors as well as present food that would be a perfect representation of the well-known fragrance brand. Every item served needed to reflect the values of the company and entice the busy journalists to linger on and learn about their fabulous new product.

This bespoke breakfast and brunch menu was served during two separate morning and afternoon sessions. Each item was designed to be especially petite, smaller than a typical bite sized canape. Perfectly cooked, carefully prepared morsels to suit our client's perfectly tailored guest.

(If you are curious about the launch, click here to read a full report)

Breakfast

Tiny crisp new potato filled with sausage, bacon, tomato and mushrooms

Mini waffle cones with creamed eggs and smoked salmon with chives

Fresh blinis with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers

Quails egg Royale

Brioche French toast with orange infused rhubarb

Ricotta cakes with fresh blueberry compote

Prism skewers of morsels of fresh fruit

Shot glass of light granola and yoghurt

Brunch

Seared fillet of beef on watermelon cubes with pickled ginger

Sultana bread croute with Dolcelatté, caramelised fresh fig and pomegranate

Julienne vegetables wrapped in Bovingdons cured salmon

Asparagus bundles tied with chives with a vanilla pomegranate mayonnaise

Cucumber cups of lemon, tarragon chicken

Herb blini with Crayfish tails and mirin spaghetti of cucumber

Ricotta cakes with oven roasted plum tomatoes and basil

Herb ficelle of lime cured cerviche of sea bream

Chilled Juices

Blood orange and grapefruit

Cranberry and watermelon

Fresh pear and vanilla

Refreshing Pressè

Watermelon, cranberry and rose water

Apple juice, elderflower, lime and mint

Pomegranate pressè with sparkling mineral water

Hot Beverages

Espresso shots

Fresh sweet mint tea