Cucina's personal touch and fresh vision serves up three new contracts
Catering expert Cucina is serving fresh food to more than 25,000 pupils up and down the country, taking its number of contracts to 30. Cucina, which now has a turnover of more than £5million after three years of trading, is delivering catering services to a further 5,000 pupils and staff at The Basildon Academy in Essex, Beaumont School in St.Albans and Queens’ School in Bushey, Hertfordshire.
Cucina’s passion for healthy eating won it the three-year contracts where food sales have already significantly increased.
Cucina’s professional and innovative approach, which includes appointing a Head Chef to oversee each site and offering an educational food service which links the classroom to the kitchen, has helped to win the contracts. The new Cucina restaurants include pizza ovens and a new service pod at The Basildon Academy, where breakfast and after school meals can be bought in addition to the Cucina Kitchen food.
Cucina produces fresh food for teachers, parents and pupils to take home after school and parents have also sampled Cucina’s food at after school tastings.
Steve Quinn, Managing Director of Cucina, said:
“We are delighted with our new partners and are pleased that our fresh food approach is separating us from our competitors. We have seen huge growth over the last three years in business which is down to the hard efforts of the whole Cucina team. We are keen to try new ideas, providing more opportunities for pupils to learn about food nutrition. Our chef’s theatre shows pupils their food being made and gives them the chance to take part. We have seen sales as much as treble at our many new school contracts and it’s nice to be enticing so many new customers and bucking the decline being seen nationally.”
Bob Rymarz, Director of Support Services for The Basildon Academies, added:
“Cucina is a fresh company who offer an innovative method for providing healthy food options for our children and staff. Also, Cucina is not a large company and therefore the senior team take an active part in the delivery of catering services for the Academies. With Cucina we get the level of service which a larger company tends to be unable to deliver in the same manner. We regard them as a partner in meeting the aims we have set out for our Academy ethos.
“Cucina provided an extremely professional and innovative approach in the tender process when they presented their ideas to the senior Academies’ team. The new Government nutritional guidelines means contractors must cook food from scratch on the premises making them more nutritional for the students. Cucina’s emphasis is on the students having the most attractive meals possible which meet all the nutritional guidelines and compete favourably with the high street both in terms of quality and price. Working with Cucina we have provided a restaurant environment for our students, staff and visitors, moving away from the traditional school dinner environment.
“The quality of Cucina’s food is excellent. Cucina works to the standards that we might expect for ‘home cooking’.
“In the first month, Cucina have delivered what they promised and the opportunities within the Academy for students, staff and all visitors are such that our new catering team can play their part in making a huge impact on future developments within the Basildon Academies.”
Head Teacher of Queens’ School, Terry James said:
“We have seen a big increase in the uptake of meals from staff and students since Cucina started. The uptake of meals was low before Cucina with many students buying snacks rather than a ‘meal’. Cucina has significantly increased the uptake of all foods, but also of ‘meals’. The endorsement of Cucina by other schools, particularly from Marlborough, carried a lot of weight. Cucina’s approach is heavily geared towards the students, involving and working with the students in the curriculum. Cucina is modern and forward thinking, with lots of initiatives, such as the end of day trolley and take home service. We hope Cucina will become one of the ‘selling points’ of our school and are looking forward to working in partnership with Cucina over the next few years.”
Ed Jones, Assistant Head Teacher of Beaumont School, added:
“Everyone is hyped up and excited with Cucina, who have a new approach to catering in schools. The quality and presentation of the food is excellent and freshly prepared. The pupils don’t like queuing and don’t like the food running out so Cucina have come up with innovative ideas on how to resolve these issues. Cucina is also looking to attract more Sixth Formers into the dining hall with a ‘bistro’ area for them and dining areas outside, such as the kiosk.”
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Notes to Editors
Cucina was founded by Steve Quinn, a food and support services professional with 26 years experience within the industry, working with international hotel groups such as Rank, Thistle, Hilton and Concorde (in France), as well as contract catering firms Sodexho (formerly Gardner Merchant) and the Compass Group. Steve works with a team of top chefs and professionals to ensure that his vision of great food is truly embraced and delivered.
Cucina provides restaurant quality food and have installed professional chefs to run its operations at the new contracts. Cucina has introduced breakfast service and after school Clubs at the new contracts, where the girls have healthy options which they are buying rather than spending on confectionery and chips.
For Cucina’s top recipes:
www.marketingprojects.co.uk/news/cucina/news/recipes-from-cucina
For more information on the Food Based Standards visit: www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk
Case Studies – Cucina Catering – inspiring dissatisfied students to give school meals a try again http://www.schoolfoodtrust.org.uk/casestudy-detail.asp?caseid=103
Please view the website for press releases or photos which are available on request at www.marketingprojects.co.uk in Cucina’s press office.
Press Office: Marketing Projects Tel: 01244 330000
Jane Harrad-Roberts Mobile: 07785 395705
Phil Brotherhood Mobile: 07884 493370
info@marketingprojects.co.uk www.marketingprojects.co.uk
Client Contact: Cucina Restaurants Ltd Tel: 0845 3891320
Steve Quinn Email: steve@cucina.co.uk
Managing Director Website: www.cucina.co.uk
