Thursday, November 5th 2009

By selma al-samarrai

Catherine Brasch

On Oct. 27, Paradise Catering received two prestigious awards, the Gold and Grand Loyal E. Horton Dining Award and the People’s Choice Award both of which were voted by NACUFS members and consisted of Universities and Colleges from all over North American, including UCLA and Harvard University.

Albert Ng, the Director of Hospitality Services at McMaster University explained in greater detail how the awards are judged and organized. “The way the competition goes is they have the small, medium, and large school competition. With the size of McMaster we belong to the large school so we actually compete against the entries for all the large schools. So we are lucky enough that we got the gold metal for the large school. Then you enter into the next round then in the next round all the gold medalist enter for the grand prize, we also got awarded for the grand prize,” explained Ng.

To be considered for entrance into the competition, Paradise Catering had to submit a formal copy of the catering menu, a sample of a typical kitchen production, sheet recipes for specialty items, an essay statement, and marketing materials for catering program/services. After all of this had been submitted, the Paradise Catering was accepted into the competition. In the competition, judges used specific criteria to judge all the schools. The four areas of criteria that are used in judging are menu selection, merchandising and presentation, marketing, and overall impression. The judging committee is comprised of different directors and administrators that are nominated from different Universities and Colleges, so every year the judges are different.

Paradise Catering not only provides catering for on campus but also off campus. However, a lot of services that are provided on campus range from the basic coffee service to high-end functions. Some of these high-end receptions include the major donor’s reception and when delegates from other countries come to visit McMaster University. Some recent events that Paradise Catering has catered is the grand opening of the new Engineering building, where food was providing for the public and then there was a separate function for the VIPs and donors of the building.

Ng takes pride in the service that Paradise Catering provides because they care about their customers and also because they employ a large percentage of students from McMaster. Ng is very pleased with these awards because, “you normally don’t get a lot of thank you, but when you get an award like this it makes everyone feel proud.”

Paradise Catering was established in 1992 and has now grown into a huge success. Ng gives credit to the amazing team that is the foundation of Paradise Catering. “I am really thankful for a great team we have, catering is only part of what we do in hospitality. Day in and day out they are always there. Every single day I know they are doing their best to deliver the best quality and service to the customer.” Paradise Catering is a business that runs 24 hours a day as there is always something going on, especially last year with the Brandon Hall fire in which the company provided food.

Tags: Albert ng, catering, food, Gold and Grand Loyel E. Horton Dining award, NACUFS, paradise catering, people's choice award