A training day succeeds or fails on concentration. Delegates arrive ready to learn, then spend six hours in a warm room absorbing new systems, new processes and new jargon. If lunch is a plate of beige pastries and a limp salad, the afternoon session is lost before it begins. Catering is not the backdrop to a corporate training day — it is part of the learning environment, and it deserves the same planning as the agenda.

Gather Dietary Requirements at the Booking Stage

The single biggest mistake organisers make is treating dietary requirements as an afterthought, chased up by email two days before the event. By then, the kitchen has ordered, the menu is fixed and someone is going to spend the day eating a plain jacket potato while everyone else enjoys something appealing.

Build the question into your booking form, and make it prominent rather than a footnote. Ask delegates to tell you two things: what they cannot eat, and what they would genuinely enjoy eating. That second question matters. A coeliac delegate does not want to be handed a plate of undressed salad while the room tucks into pie and potatoes.

• Ask specifically about allergies, intolerances, medical diets, religious requirements and lifestyle choices — they are not the same thing.
• Set a firm cut-off, ideally ten working days before the event, and confirm every request back in writing.
• Build a simple dietary matrix: one row per delegate, one column per requirement. Share the matrix with the kitchen, not just a headcount.
• Order two or three extra portions across the board. Last-minute additions are a certainty, and running short looks careless.
• Remember that the fourteen major allergens must be declared by law, and that includes anything served at a mid-morning break as well as lunch.

Build Menus With Substance, Not Just Style

Long workshop sessions demand food that releases energy slowly. Heavy fried food sends delegates into a stupor by 2pm; a handful of crisps and a mini muffin at 11am leaves everyone hungry and irritable.

Lean towards slow-release carbohydrates, good protein and plenty of fibre. Wholemeal wraps, grain salads, lentil or chickpea dishes, roasted vegetables, poached salmon, grilled chicken and falafel all work beautifully and travel well on a buffet. Include at least one hot dish and one substantial cold dish so nobody feels they have drawn the short straw.

Free-from versions should be indistinguishable in quality from the main offering. Plate them individually where possible so they are not contaminated by shared serving spoons, and present them on the same standard of crockery. If delegates are eating at their desks during a working lunch, choose fork-friendly food that does not require a knife or a lap.

Finally, make water freely available at every break. Dehydration mimics tiredness, and a room full of tired delegates is a room full of disengaged ones.

Label Every Dish, Every Time

Clear labelling protects your delegates and your caterer. Every dish should carry a card with the dish name, the key ingredients, and a plain statement of allergens. Add simple dietary markers — VE for vegan, V for vegetarian, GF for gluten-free, DF for dairy-free — but never let a symbol replace real information.

• Position cards directly in front of or above the dish, not grouped at the end of the table.
• Keep a separate serving utensil for each dish, and a separate spoon for every salad dressing and sauce.
• Print a full allergen matrix and place copies at the buffet and on each table, so nobody has to ask awkward questions in a queue.
• Brief your front-of-house team so they can answer confidently — but never rely on memory alone.
• If you cannot guarantee a dish is free from a particular allergen, label it as such. Honesty is always the safer choice.

Match Catering to the Rhythm of the Day

Training days have a predictable energy curve, and catering should follow it. Arrival refreshments should be light: tea, coffee, fruit and perhaps a small pastry. Something heavier first thing slows everyone down before the first session begins.

Mid-morning calls for sustenance rather than sugar. Yoghurt pots, nuts, oatcakes, fruit and breakfast bars keep concentration steady. Lunch is the main event — allow a genuine forty-five to sixty minutes, and seat people properly if the venue allows, because a working lunch eaten over a laptop is barely a break at all.

The afternoon slump arrives somewhere around half past two. Plan for it with protein and texture: cheese, hummus, vegetable sticks, oat-based sweet treats rather than pure sugar. Offer caffeine at the afternoon break, but keep a decaf option alongside it for anyone who would rather not be wired at five o'clock.

Brief Your Team and Prepare for the Unexpected

On the day itself, nominate one person as the catering contact. Give them the dietary matrix, the venue's kitchen access details and a phone number for the caterer. Keep a small reserve of universally safe items — plain rice, gluten-free bread, fruit, unseasoned vegetables — for anyone who arrives with a requirement nobody knew about.

After the event, take ten minutes to note what worked. Which dishes disappeared first, which tables needed more water, which delegate needed something extra. That record, kept alongside the dietary matrix, turns the next training day from a scramble into a routine. Good catering is quiet, generous and invisible — and delegates remember it long after the slides have faded.