Foodservice Cateys 2024: Event Caterer of the Year – Genuine Dining Co

Three years ago Genuine Dining Co set out to provide an exciting new range of authentic street food brands for its clients. Genuine Experiences was created, which offers a wide selection of offerings for events, from buffet-style breakfasts to street food lunch pop-ups, all created in partnership with suppliers to create memorable moments for clients.

Genuine Experiences delivers to more than 80 locations and its selection of three different breakfast and lunch pop-ups rotate every quarter, while its canapé and bowl food menu changes biannually.

Judges were quick to point out that this area of foodservice has changed rapidly in recent years, and traditional operators have had to keep up with changing customer tastes and demands, which Genuine Experiences has proven with flair.

Over the past 12 months, the Genuine Experiences team has hosted more than 1,110 events and served 90,000 customers – in June 2024 alone, the team put on 104 events for 10,500 people. By the end of the year, it expects to have served close to 150,000 guests.

To deliver this high level of service the team has grown with the business. Starting with just three chefs, two front of house, one driver and one rider, the team now consists of 13 full-time employees and 11 part-time, with some peak weeks requiring more than 30 people.

A significant portion of its growth has been down to the success of the events and pop-ups  for clients of flexible workspace provider Fora. While Genuine Dining Co already provides catering across the entire Fora estate – which includes more than 70 buildings in London alone – having an events arm of the business has allowed Genuine Dining to offer something different. This offering has grown to 65 events and pop-ups every month to a variety of Fora clients, ranging from street food such as KFCB (Genuine’s own Korean Fried Chicken Burger brand), through to summer parties.

As a way of increasing sales and uptake, Genuine Experiences created an events brochure for the building teams and introduced a 10% commission for the Fora team, which encouraged them to promote Genuine Experiences to their occupiers. Since this incentive was introduced, bookings have increased by an impressive 40%, while the overall account with Fora has shown an incredible tenfold growth over the last 24 months.

To keep up with demand, the team also constantly develops its offering to reflect the latest street food trends, and takes inspiration from world-renowned street food traders and markets such as Borough Market in London.

Earlier this year, Genuine Experiences launched a satellite kitchen dedicated to Japanese cuisine, which now delivers 15 events a month, ranging from sushi-making to sake masterclasses.

Since its launch in 2021, the business has grown year-on-year and has created a solid new revenue stream in Genuine Experiences.

What the judges said

“The closest of categories to judge. In an area where there has been a step-change in how events are delivered, Genuine Dining Co has created a business structured for growth.”

John Nugent

See previous winners of the award here