Major changes on the menu for catering

Catering across the University's campuses is changing for the better. A major investment of £20 million in catering outlets is well underway and will coincide with the development over the next two years of a catering service which provides greater flexibility on where and when food is available across campus and offering a wider choice.

For students, it will, for example, eventually mean no need to return to a catered hall for lunch. For staff, it will mean a wider range of food options, whether you want a full meal, a substantial snack or just a light snack or drink on the go.

Key to this is the completion of the Central Kitchen this summer and the catering hub, Park Eat, at Windsor Hall, which will be ready for the new academic year.

The developments

• Central Kitchen

The new Central Kitchen, which will be in full operation from the start of the academic year 2010/11, will produce 90% of all the food that is served across the Whiteknights, Bulmershe and London Road campuses.

The skilled chefs will be using brand new, state-of-the-art equipment, to produce tasty food, which caters for all diets. The fact that the majority of the food that will be available across the three campuses has been made in one place, will guarantee its consistent high quality. Also, this means that suppliers will deliver the bulk of provisions to one location on campus instead of delivering to many sites every day. The kitchen is situated next to the Pepper Lane entrance on the Whiteknights campus.

More information can be found within the recent staff portal articles - 'University's Head Chefs cook up a treat' and 'University's new chef is prepped for the challenge'.

• Park Eat

Serving the Park Group of halls but available to the whole university community, Park Eat offers a variety of formal and informal dining and refreshments. Opening in time for the start of the new academic year, this brand new facility is situated between Mackinder and Stenton, and behind Windsor Halls.

There will be three distinct servery counters: a deli bar serving salads, baguettes and paninis; a traditional servery offering hot meals such as lasagne and curry; and a fusion-style chef's theatre counter, where stir fries, pasta dishes and flame grilled meats are cooked to order in front of customers. By day a relaxed coffee lounge area will be available, with comfy sofas and wi-fi, serving muffins, speciality coffees and savoury snacks. By night the licensed bar will be a social meeting place, with a full range of alcoholic and soft drinks and bar snacks available.

Park Eat will offer an alternative for staff and students while the dining areas at Park House, and subsequently Cedars, are being refurbished.

• Park House bar and dining areas

The bar and dining facilities in Park House will be closing from the start of September 2010 and will reopen in January 2011. The Senior Common Room will undergo some cosmetic improvements, including reupholstering of the chairs and a treatment to improve the quality of the floorboards. The menu and service will remain the same, but behind the scenes the kitchen will be modernised, to accommodate the high quality food produced in the Central Kitchen. Cedars will remain open for the duration of the works in Park House, to provide a lunch time alternative.

A new a la carte dining facility is being created in the old newspaper lounge and breakfast room on the ground floor of Park House, to replace the Orangerie in Black Horse House. This restaurant will be bookable for staff wishing to take visitors for a private but informal lunch or dinner.

The toilets on the ground floor will also undergo much needed refurbishment.

Private Dining Rooms

Both private dining rooms will be out of use during the Park House works (September - December 2010). There are a number of alternatives listed below, but if you have particular requirements please contact Matthew White on m.j.white@reading.ac.uk.

- The Senior Common Room in St Patrick's Hall is available for bookings

- Campus Hospitality can deliver high quality buffets to anywhere on campus

- Tables can be booked in the Orangerie in Black Horse House - please contact the Conference and Events team on c.bookings@reading.ac.uk to book any of the above

- There are a number of options available at the Greenlands campus in Henley

- Matthew White can recommend suitable offsite locations

•  Cedars

Cedars will close from January until the end of August 2011. The Blue Room will act as a temporary alternative, and staff and students are also encouraged to use Park Eat whilst Cedars is closed.

Once reopened, Cedars will provide the same service as Park Eat (three distinct serveries - see above), as well as a coffee shop area, perfect for informal meetings, which will be open throughout the day. Work will also be undertaken to improve the acoustics in the venue.

Visit and open days will be catered for in the Blue Room, Park Eat and all the cafe venues across campus as well as areas of RUSU that will be available for booking.

• Wantage

Catering facilities at Wantage Hall will be closing from the beginning of August until Christmas: the servery will be reconfigured to reflect that of Park Eat (three distinct serveries), and the kitchen area will be modernised with new equipment to ensure it is able to receive food from the Central Kitchen. This will reopen in time for the start of the spring term.

• SportsPark

Planning permission has been received for the building of an extension at the front of the SportsPark which will house a new caf├® - Eat at SportsPark. Construction dates are to be confirmed. This licensed, conservatory style caf├® will serve speciality coffees and hot and cold snack items, and will provide a social facility for both users of the SportsPark and passing students and staff.

• Eat and Drink at London Road

The refurbished Cotton Club, now known as Eat and Drink at London Road, opened in May. The venue is so far proving to be very popular with staff, students and members of the local community, including visitors to the Museum of English Rural Life, and both staff and patients from the nearby hospital. The new menu, Wii consoles and intuitive coasters that vibrate when your food is ready to be collected are all popular with customers old and new. The refurbishments are sympathetic to the building's historic function as a dairy, showing off the high glass ceiling that was once covered, and dairy-style lamps hanging from the beams.

Read more about Eat and Drink at London Road in the staff portal article - 'Come and unwind at Eat and Drink at London Road'.

• Index and HumSS Caf├®

Both Index, in the Henley Business School, and the Eat caf├® in the HumSS building are attracting plenty of customers. Index offers the freshest coffee and comfy sofas (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm) and Eat has all the favourites from the old second floor caf├® as well as a popular sunny outdoor seating area (Mon-Fri 8.30am-4.00pm).

Other benefits

• We want to offer food options not restricted by the historic hall catering contracts and extend this principle to the whole campus.
• A flexible, high end food offering will make us a more attractive conference destination.
• All the catering outlets will continue to be wholly-owned by the University and will make a positive contribution to the University's finances.
• We will provide a range of catering outlets located conveniently to places of work and study on campus.
• A wider and healthier choice to reflect different preferences and budgets.
• Universities that can demonstrate high quality services, in addition to a strong academic track record, are more likely to attract and recruit the best students.

The project is driven by the University's Catering Strategy. The investment of £20 million in the catering infrastructure is funded by the University's capital project allocation.