Gather & Gather, part of Mitie Group, confirms it has signed up as a sponsor of Food on the Edge (FOTE), the two-day world leading food festival and conference on 9/10 October 2017 based in Galway.
Created, hosted and managed by chef JP McMahon, director of Eat Galway Restaurant Group, FOTE has gained a reputation as a food movement, not just a gathering of foodies. It attracts the very best chefs from around the world along with the public and its focus is on challenging attitudes and inspiring new ideas about the future of food.
Now in its third year, FOTE started with JP McMahon inviting forty of the world’s top chefs to Galway, Ireland. Its aim is to create a benchmark for best practice, in terms of food, its culture, and the people who produce it. Presentations, seminars, tastings, demonstrations and great food and drink are the centre of the event, but the focus is always on taking food to the next level.
Gather & Gather is the only sponsor from the contract catering world and it sees FOTE as an excellent opportunity to inspire and influence its own staff and customers – as well as the food industry – about the role that food plays in our everyday lives, particularly at work where we spend so much of time.
Alan Russell, Gather & Gather director of operations in Ireland said,
“Gather &Gather is a firm believer that great food brings people together; it connects them wherever they are. The sponsorship and ongoing commitment to FOTE is about the same thing; educating people to appreciate food, the importance of local ingredients, the skills in its preparation and the joy of sharing a meal, a snack and a drink.
“Our relationship with FOTE complements our chef accreditation programme and gives us access to a network of top chefs giving everyone in the business the chance to learn and share ideas, insights and recipes. It also builds on our work with groups like Springboard in the UK and Chef Network in Ireland. I am really looking forward to October – it’s brilliant to be playing a part in FOTE.”
JP McMahon, director of Eat Galway Restaurant Group and founder of FOTE said,
“It doesn’t matter where we eat: fine dining restaurants, street food, or at work, snacking or in the staff restaurant, we all need to eat better and to do this we need to debate this on an open platform at an international level. Gather & Gather sponsoring FOTE gives the movement access to the workplace catering market and totally backs are argument that it is no longer feasible for chefs to just stand behind the stove. They must reach out to everyone to make food better for the next generation. It’s great to have them as part of our team and I am especially grateful to Mark Anderson, Alan Russell and Allister Richards, Gather & Gather’s MD, for making this happen.”
