The Restaurant Show 2016: This year’s round up

Held over three busy days at London Olympia, this year’s Restaurant Show 2016 technically housed not one, but four separate shows under one roof.

Speakers and exhibitors also gathered under The Bar & Pub Show, the Conscious Hospitality Show, and The Catering Equipment Expo, to give a real insight into the breadth and scale of this vibrant industry. 

In its 28th year, the show also included passionate demonstrations from names across the best of hospitality – including, to name but a few ‒ Claude Bosi, Ashley Palmer-Watts, Theo Randall, Simon Rimmer, Josh Eggleton and Ben Tish.

There were speakers, presenters and coffee – displaying demos on everything from sherry to wagyu beef, to cooking for charity or the importance of appealing to kids in restaurants.

And – as has become traditional at the show – the impressive array of culinary competitions included the unmissable National Chef of the Year and the Young National Chef of the Year from the Craft Guild of Chefs, pitching the nation’s most promising up-and-coming chefs against each other for prestigious and career-enhancing prizes.

The awards ceremonies were a Michelin-star-studded wonder, with so many accomplished chef judges in the room – including Clare Smyth, Simon Hulstone, Philip Howard and many more – that compere Will Torrent joked that should anything catastrophic happen, the British restaurant industry would be in serious trouble.

Of course, BigHospitality reported on the event across all three days, so in case you missed them first time around, here’s our pick of the event’s best stories...