Alistair Hugo

Alistair Shaw and Hugo Mauthner have been serving natural and wholesome food to their customers since 2000. With long careers in high profile catering businesses, their ethos has always had quality at its heart – of ingredients, flavour and freshness.

Key facts

Award: Bronze (since November 2016)
Meals served: 1000+ dishes a day
Most discerning clients: 
Lunches for 316 children and teachers at a French school – ‘they know what good food tastes like!’

We asked Alistair about his business and their Food for Life Served Here journey.

What was the original motivation for gaining the award?
Sourcing top quality, natural and locally produced ingredients is what we’re all about, so we can deliver some of the freshest food in London. We wanted to have this ethos reflected in an independently verified way, so we could gain recognition for all that hard work and effort. It shows our loyal customers and potential new customer what type of caterer we are and what we stand for.

How did you find the process of gaining the award?
The Catering Mark team were really helpful and supportive throughout the process. We were already meeting a lot of the criteria, but it was an interesting exercise to scrutinise all our ingredients and suppliers to ensure that the provenance of the ingredients was fully traceable.

What has the impact been on your organisation?
As a business, and for me personally, it feels like the right thing to be doing. Supporting a wider civic responsibility in terms of promoting good animal welfare and using ingredients free from bad additives is positive for our staff, customers and the food industry as a whole. We have a very loyal customer, Coller Capital, who helped to sponsor our award so we are grateful to them for that and for introducing us to the process. 


"We are delighted that our corporate caterers Alistair Hugo have been awarded the Soil Association Food for Life Served Here award. Ethical and sustainable food is something that we take very seriously as a business, and we believe the award is a great way to ensure our staff and guests are served high quality food."
Alan Briefel, Senior Advisor to their Environmental, Social and Governance Committee at Coller Capital

 

Next steps: upgrading
We would certainly like to upgrade to Silver and ultimately Gold. Let’s see how Brexit unfolds in the short term …

Top tips
  • At first the process may seem daunting, but you will probably find that there are several criteria that you already meet which give you a foundation to build on.
  • You have to be very proactive and persistent especially with suppliers. It’s a very good exercise that all food providers should carry out so they know the provenance of their produce and what really goes into each and every dish.

"When we started out we thought it would be catering for events’, says Alistair, ‘but we soon realised that corporates care about what they provide for brunches and  lunches too. Though big weddings and private dining are still a lot of fun to do..."
Alistair Shaw

"We are delighted to have been awarded the Soil Association Food for Life Served Here award. Ethical and sustainable food is something that we take very seriously as a business, and we believe the award is a great way to ensure our staff and guests are served high quality food."Alan Briefel (Senior Adviser to Alistair Hugo from Environmental, Social and Governance Committee at Coller Capital)