Boardroom lunches are quietly high-stakes. The food has to be good enough to be a credit to the host, light enough not to wreck the afternoon, and timed to the minute. After eighteen years catering for senior leadership teams across Richmond, Kingston and Twickenham, here's the brief we wish every operations manager started with.
1. Lock the delivery window first
Pick a fifteen-minute window and tell your caterer to land at the start of it, not the end. A board lunch arriving on the dot looks effortless; a board lunch arriving while the meeting overruns looks thoughtful; a board lunch arriving late looks like you don't care.
2. Pick food that travels and holds
Anything battered, deep-fried at the last minute or covered in delicate leaves will not survive a London delivery. Curries, biryanis, breads, grilled meats and salad-style sides hold beautifully in hot boxes for the time it takes to brief the room.
3. Plan for mixed diets without making a fuss
Assume at least one vegan, one gluten-free and one dairy-sensitive attendee. Build a menu where the labels are clear, the dishes look equally generous, and nobody has to ask awkward questions across the table.
4. Use a single named contact
Cycling through five different caterers a quarter is exhausting. A named account contact who knows your room, your delivery process and your security guard is a quietly enormous productivity gain.
5. Open an account
Single monthly invoice, fixed PO numbers, standing menus you can pull on short notice. It's how our recurring corporate clients work with us, and it removes 90% of the friction.
If you'd like that kind of relationship for your team, open a corporate account or read our corporate catering overview.