Magazine: Mass catering: What is the state of play?

Zoltai Anna
szervező, szakmai
védnök
KÖSZ 2019–2020

While the level of Hungarian gastronomy is improving, certain areas of mass catering are lagging behind very much. We asked Anna Zoltai – she is the organiser and patron of the Public Sector Catering Competition (KÖSZ) that will take place at the Sirha trade show – about the biggest problems and the fields where things did get better. Every day 1.5 million people are served food made by mass catering companies. Approximately 3,500 public sector catering kitchens cook for 6,000 serving kitchens.

Consumer expectations are growing and currently people’s opinion about public sector catering isn’t good. Technological development is more and more frequent, but it isn’t enough in itself. Cooks working in mass catering should participate in further education programmes and their salaries should be increased. It would also be necessary to increase the per portion budget of meals cooked in public sector catering, so that fewer cheaper, ready-made products will be used in cooking.

The lunch served at certain large firms is of good quality, but obviously better quality means higher prices. At the same time there are still competitions where the task is cooking a three-course meal from HUF 350! It shouldn’t be forgotten that eating is a source of joy, and if the person who eats in mass catering stays hungry because they didn’t like the food they were served, they won’t heal in a hospital or work well at a workplace.