SPRING | FEATURE
Food for thought “ Tour catering used to consist of people getting fed by wives and girlfriends or at service stations ,” says May . “ Tony ’ s offering was a whole new concept , and very quickly he realised there was good money to be made from it .”
Eat To the Beat swiftly gathered momentum and was soon out on the road with acts such as The Cure , Cliff Richard , Van Morrison and Joe Cocker . Says May , “ When I first met him , Tony was running the business out his home office in Rickmansworth – his neighbours must have been beside themselves because 52-foot trucks would regularly arrive at this rather nice little housing estate to pick up all the gear to go on tour .”
With the business expanding rapidly , Laurenson bought a 3,000 square foot unit in Watford and it wasn ’ t long before the business grew to take over the adjacent unit next door .
Home from home While the length of time spent on tours has been reduced over the years , with artists tending to play fewer but larger shows , Shelley- Smith says another major change has been the increased availability of food types to satisfy artists ’ appetites .
Bonnie May
“ I first went out on tour in 1990 , and there was a thing called guacamole on the rider . I ' d never heard of it . I had to go and buy a Mexican cookbook and get a recipe . In Europe you couldn ' t get avocados , so I hadn ’ t any experience with them . I remember grating an avocado and putting it in the poor band ’ s room . They must have been horrified .”
May says the team has worked hard to meet artists demands over the years , and the aim has always been to make people feel relaxed and looked after : “ As Tony said from early on , it ’ s about creating a home from home on the road . When people are away touring for three months , just having that one room where you ' re going to see familiar faces and you know you ' re going to be looked after – that was key in the early days and that ' s continued , even now we get clients asking for specific people .”
Eat To The Beat has been catering at the Royal Albert Hall for decades and CEO James Ainscough OBE says it is an integral part of the team there : “ We trust them implicitly – they never let us down and they really care , not just about the quality of their food and service but also their impact on the environment and the Hall . Our longstanding event manager Mo Crowe says they cater
Mary Shelley-Smith
The team at 10 Downing Street
for the stars and the crew with the same love and care . Those are the values we look for in all our partners , and that ’ s why we love it when Eat To The Beat are in the building .”
Serving success In the past 40 years there has been no shortage of landmark moments for the Eat To The Beat bosses . Shelley-Smith has presented a birthday cake on stage to the Dali Lama at Glastonbury , met the Queen on her 90th Birthday , made her mum ’ s soup for Barry Manilow and baked scones for the Pope . When asked , the first highlight that comes to mind is Roger Waters ’ Berlin Wall Concert in 1990 : “ It was the first job I did abroad , and it was like nothing I ' d ever seen in my life . It was a massive spectacle ; I was so privileged to be there . That experience has really stayed with me .”
For May , who has worked on events around the world , from Outer Mongolia to Korea , one of the most momentous events of her career was the 2012 Olympics . “ I can
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