Words by Sarah Coster
Until AJ2025, I had never eaten pasta cooked in a deep fat fryer. Now 500 people, including myself, can say we have!
DC Catering company has been taking care of our Service Leaders and Venturers since before the Scouts arrived onsite. With sixteen staff in total they have done an amazing job taking on challenges thrown their way and doing everything they can for every person here. “We do a Plan, Do, Review of sorts every day,” which really shows how prepared this team is and ready to get to work.
With 500 Service Leaders to feed, on Sunday, DC Catering had the challenge of having pasta ready by 5:30pm with only four standard size pots to get the job done. Starting at 10am with only eight staff on duty, they continuously boiled and emptied pot after pot for hours. Late into the afternoon, realising they would not be ready in time for dinner, our catering staff took action.
There are many places in a kitchen can fit large amounts of food, but none of them can heat up and boil water. Nothing, that is, except a deep fat fryer. “We looked for the biggest thing we could find,” said Anita, from the catering team. After emptying and then cleaning the fryer, our catering team filled it with water and ensured the pasta was cooked to perfection before serving it to us on time for 5:30pm.
With work evenly divided between every member of their team, they have been able to ‘divide and conquer’ every task and challenge. Adding in the extra kitchen for dietary and modified meals, the eight people on shift work diligently to ensure everyone has eaten and is looked after between both kitchens.
"It's a learning as we go experience," said Anita, a Rover Scout, when asked working in the team, just like our Scouts do through their own journeys. Though not everyone on the catering staff has been involved in Scouting before, they have the same initiative and creative thinking that every member of Scouts embodies.
Much like Bear Grylls, they were able to “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”, or more accurately, they were able to Adjust, Cook and Feed!
With their pasta problem behind them, the only challenge our Catering Team now faces is the occassional hangry Service Leader. Thankfully this is a problem that can usually be solved with some extra snacks rather than repurposing entire appliances.
With the number of Service Leaders now being close to 1600 for catering, we are happy to have a team as prepared, happy and creative as this one handling our food. We know we are in good hands!
