WSSD: A look at behind the scenes hotel catering

EVER wondered what sort of logistics are involved in catering for the delegates to a global event of the magnitude of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) which officially begins in Sandton today (Monday, August 26). Behind the scene catering activities are nothing to be scoffed at, says John de Canha, operations director for Inter-Continental Hotels at Southern Sun "So far we have placed over a million rands worth of extra food orders for the Sandton Sun & Towers alone. We have also hired twenty-four extra chefs for Sandton Sun Inter-Continental who, in addition to catering for hotel guests, will be doing all the catering for Sandton Convention Centre. " During the WSSD it is estimated that delegates will eat their way through a ton of beef fillet, 200kg of salmon, half a ton of bacon and sausages, buckets of caviar, 10 000 oysters, half a ton of shellfish and 40 000 bottles of mineral water. In order to accommodate these huge quantities of food, the hotels have had to park large refrigeration trucks on site. (Adéle Mackenzie)