Christmas Canapés & Festive Fireside Chats – Tuesday 3rd December 2024 – Event Recap
Here is a recap of the Christmas Canapes & Fireside Chats: Our Christmas Party 2024
Women in the Food Industry and The Chefs Forum teamed up with one of West London’s largest catering colleges – West London College – Hammersmith & Fulham Campus, for an evening of canapés, Christmas drinks and insightful fireside chats on Tuesday 3rd December. Guests enjoyed delicious canapés prepared by catering students working with Anjula Devi, Author & Consultant Chef for Manchester Utd and Rebecca Marshman, Group Head Pastry Chef from BaxterStorey, plus wine, Prosseco.DOC & delicious non alcoholic drinks.
Anjula was also assisted in the kitchen by Elisabeth Brown, Rupa Nagamootoo, Mandy Thompson and Wajeeha Malik who helped to manage the students from West London College.
First Choice Produce and Aussie Beef & Lamb kindly sponsored the delicious ingredients and Prosseco.DOC sponsored the bubbles.
Guests also sampled & bought food, drink gifts and party food ideas from a range of award-winning female founders who were on hand to share the background to their products.
The canapés, drinks & sampling were followed by presentations & fireside chats with experts on food & drinks trends for the Christmas season and the New Year. All took place in the award winning Taste Restaurant across the road from Barons Court Tube.
As it’s Christmas, there was a charity raffle where you can win a range of fabulous food & drink prizes. Proceeds will go to Brite Box which sends fantastic recipe kits with all the ingredients and an illustrated recipe guide to families who need assistance cooking healthy meals on a budget.
Introducing the evening was:
Catherine Farinha Founder of The Chefs’ Forum
A CIM qualified and accomplished sales and marketing professional, who is schooled in foodservice and understands chefs’ buying behaviour. Thirteen years ago, Catherine saw the gap in the market for huge food and catering equipment brands to have a familiar face, that chefs could relate to on a local and regional level. Catherine used her marketing expertise and industry insight to create a niche hospitality marketing platform. She built the road for chefs to connect with suppliers, equipment manufacturers and catering colleges, region by region, city by city.
Mex Ibrahim chaired the Fireside Chats
Mex Ibrahim is the co-founder of Women in the Food Industry. She is also a Trustee of School Food Matters, a member of the Guild of Food Writers, Ambassador for Food, Drink & Hospitality Week 2025, sits on the advisory board of New Food Magazine and is an Associate of the Royal Society of Public Health.
More on our speakers
Anjula Devi
Anjula Devi personifies agelessness and health and is a firm believer in the power of food, especially spices. She is author of the upcoming book 15 Minute Indian: One-Pan recipes using minimal steps and ingredients and consultant chef with Manchester United and produces sustainable and authentic Indian cuisine.
Anjula started cooking with her father at the age of eight. At that time the ingredients for Indian cuisine were not as readily available as they are now and Anjula travelled on the number 207 bus with her father to Shepherd’s Bush Market where they would buy a selection of spices, fresh fish and Indian vegetables. Utilising her cookery skills and passion for spices, Anjula launched her own business in 2010, Anjula Devi Authentic Indian Food, providing Indian dinner parties and Indian cookery classes.
She chatted with our co-founder Mex about how to produce sustainable, healthy and authentic Indian cuisine for the festive season and the New Year.
Rebecca Marshman
Rebecca Marshman is Group Head Pastry Chef at BaxterStorey. Her culinary journey started in prestigious establishments including Claridges and Hilton Park Lane. Looking to the future, Rebecca aims to expand her presence in the private sector. She currently oversees two locations for BaxterStorey, and is keen to take on more locations and bring her pastry expertise to a wider audience.
Rebecca shared her story with us and used her chef background to give useful tips on remaining level headed when making your Christmas dinner.
Elisabeth Brown
Elisabeth Brown is the Founder & Director of Coco Labelle Ltd, a catering turned manufacturing food service business. Her company specialises in African & Caribbean meals supplied to the NHS & Food Service industry. In July 2022, Coco Labelle successfully manufactured and supplied over 111,000 meals to the Commonwealth Games 2022.
She is of mixed Mauritian Italian Jamaican family heritage. Born and bred in London, Elisabeth lived in Mauritius & Rome and is fluent in four languages with an LPC & an MA in International Politics & Human Rights. She trained at Westminster Kingsway College and is committed to championing and advocating African & Caribbean food to give it the love and respect it deserves.
Christine Bailey
Christine Bailey is an award-winning Performance Nutritionist, Chef, and Author with more than two decades of experience in the Health, Fitness, and Corporate sectors. Christine has undertaken additional training through the Institute of Functional Medicine and Institute of Optimum Performance Nutrition. As Group Director of Nutrition & Wellbeing at Thomas Franks, she leads initiatives in nutrition, corporate wellbeing, and sports performance. Recently Christine was named the Healthy Eating Champion 2024 for her outstanding work in corporate wellbeing as part of her work with Thomas Franks Ltd.
Christine also continues to run a private clinic, providing support to a diverse clientele, including CEOs and elite athletes.
Her impactful work on children’s mental health with Thomas Franks Ltd was awarded the prestigious Catey Nutrition Award in 2024. Christine is also a respected lecturer in the UK and USA, and the author of over 14 health and recipe books, including The Brain Boost Diet, My Kids Can’t Eat That, Functional Nutrition Cookbook and The Gut Health Diet. Her forthcoming book, A Personalized Nutrition Approach to the Menopause, is set to be released in September 2025.
Christine provided an insightful overview of stress and the impact of stress on the body and how nutrition and lifestyle factors can optimize a healthy stress response and support overall mood and resilience.
You can download a copy of Christine Bailey’s Presentation on Stress & Resilience – Nutrition and Lifestyle Tools here.
Louisa Payne
Louisa Payne is the CEO and founder of The Wine Tap Van, a mobile events bar business and Brixton Wine Club, an e-commerce wine shop and subscription service.
Louisa was inspired to begin her entrepreneurial journey through unrequited love. That is, a love of wine but a serious lack of nice wine at festivals. The Wine Tap Van was started to bring the best quality wines to events and festivals and managed to launch during a tricky 2020. The business is self-funded and has grown to consist of two vintage vans converted to serve the most delicious wines on tap.
Serving on tap is the most environmentally friendly way to serve wine and reduces CO2 emissions by 70% compared to glass bottled wine. The business employs up to 12 staff during the events season. They regularly serve at the F1 Grand Prix, Royal Windsor Horse Show, Park Life Festival and Warehouse Project events to name a few.
Brixton Wine Club aims to help break down the stigmas attached to wine by championing canned wine which also happens to be better for the planet. Canned wine uses 4 x less CO2 than glass-bottled wine. It has been featured in ‘best wine club’ round-ups several times alongside industry giants. The business was launched using a £5k COVID business diversification loan and is currently on a journey to re-brand and fundraise.
Louisa’s vision is to grow the wine subscription business, build a team and start canning her own wines to share with the wine club subscribers.
Louisa spoke about her business and made wine suggestions/pairings for the festive season.
Sampling & Wine Tasting
Guests enjoyed a variety of party food & gift ideas, craft chocolate and drinks from award-winning female founded & co-founded businesses including:
- A platter featuring gluten-free crackers from Seedy Snacks topped with cream cheese, slices of carrot ‘smoked salmon,’ and pickled onions.
- Delicious pickles using ingredients such as watermelon rind from Garden of Eva.
- Craft chocolates from leading chocolatier Chantal Coady who was awarded an MBE for her services to the UK chocolate industry
- Delicious drinks from Luxwells infused with real flowers and plant based ingredients
- Nuts, gluten free granola & sugar free jam from Daily Bites
- Natural sustainable wines from regenerative vineyards from Taste Union
- vegan Humanitea oat-milk teas
- a range of organic Noughty alcohol free sparkling wines
- Canned wines from Brixton Wine Club
- seed mixes from Better Food Mood
- sustainable vodka made from world’s finest potatoes from Royal Mash
- Fresh fragrant and tasty spice kits from Tastesmiths
- Better Food Mood wellness teas & functional hot drinks
- The finest vanilla sourced from around the world – vanilla pods, extracts, pastes, powders & sugars from Vanillamart
Event Highlights:
It was a great experience where guests connected with like-minded individuals, beat Christmas stress with advice, gift ideas and planning from experts, and savoured canapes, bowl food, drinks and snacks that are not only nutritious but also environmentally conscious.
FIND OUT MORE:
Find out more over on The Chefs Forum’s blog post
Also you can download a copy of Christine Bailey’s Presentation on Stress & Resilience – Nutrition and Lifestyle Tools here.