Crown's boutique catering company, Kudos has held its annual awards event to celebrate the successes of 2017 and to recognise the achievements of staff who went above and beyond.
The awards has taken place at Kudos’ flagship venue, Gibson Hall in central London, and featured an awards ceremony, venue videos, live entertainment and a three-course menu created by Kudos’ sister company Mazaa - giving the evening a vibrant Asian twist.
Mazaa boasts an innovative flair for creating unique and imaginative events and prepared the meal for the evening to showcase new business to all venues in the portfolio.
The menu was put together by Mazaas’ Director, Shellin Taneja. The dishes included a trio of starters - bharwan paneer tikka, peshawari kebab & malai chicken tikka - followed by a main of murg makhani, kadhai gosht, saag paneer and dal tadka accompanied by all the trimmings and rounded off with a delicious pistachio kulfi.
Managing Director of Kudos, Nigel Hutson, said, “This invaluable evening recognised the efforts of all teams across a variety of venues, each of whom bring something unique to the table. This year’s awards were a fantastic, well attended night which gave us the opportunity to celebrate achievements and reward staff accordingly. This was a great end to what was a fabulous year for KUDOS, while cementing a positive start to 2018.'
The ‘K Awards' consisted of six categories and the winners were chosen by a panel of Kudos’ senior management team. The winners are as follows:
Chef of the Year - David Stewart-Pybus, John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield
Venue of the Year - The Brighton Centre, Brighton
Sales Person of the Year - Emily Shakespeare-Jones (pictured), Royal Leamington Spa
General Manager of the Year - Daniel Rawlings, RAF Museum, Cosford
Support Person of the Year - Richard Woodard, Crown Partnership
Employee of the Year - Jason McGarry (pictured), Royal Leamington Spa
In addition to the above award winners, Gareth Wilson (Catering Director of Central Hall Westminster) received an award for notching up 25 years at the company this March, while Sarah Rose (Kudos PA and Administrator) won the MD award for contributions to the business.
Sarah Holland, Head of Venue Reservations, said, “It was a lovely surprise and huge honour to be nominated in such a tough category for Support Person of the Year. I think these awards are so important, as they bring everyone together and it’s the perfect opportunity to learn more about each department and how we can all work together to ensure the business goes from strength to strength”.
It is great to be recognised within Kudos Emily, Event Maker at Leamington Spa said: “It was huge honour to be shortlisted for the Sales Person of the Year award alongside some excellent KUDOS sales people. It was an absolute honour to win this award. The award means a great deal to me and I couldn’t have achieved it without the help and support of my amazing colleagues on Leamington”.
