A catering war is going on Island-wide to get business from the country's top exempt companies.

That is the view of Ian Friedman, corporate executive chef and director of catering at Bermuda Hospitality Group, who has used every tactic in the book to steal a march on his competitors, including tracking their deliveries, going into their customers' workplaces and taking clients off them.

And he is not content with stopping there — carrying on until he has sewn up the whole of the corporate catering market.

"Basically there is a catering war going on and we are dead smack in the middle of it," he said.

"This company has emerged as one of the premier catering companies on the Island and has superseded the expectations and quality of most other catering companies, yet we are jockeying for position on a daily basis to get business from a lot of exempt companies.

"These companies have busy executives holding board meetings, lunch meetings and lunch-and-learn sessions for their staff and they all need catering."

Mr. Friedman reckons that he has produced a winning formula based on a high quality product with a lot of creativity put into it, featuring a central kitchen based at Indigo Restaurant in Flatts Village where 100 percent of the dishes are produced from scratch and are distributed to offices across Bermuda, as well as its four Upper Crust pizzerias and two concessions at Somersfield Academy and the Bermuda Aquarium & Zoo.

The catering company also prides itself on baking its own bread and cakes (birthday, wedding and anniversary), with Four Seasons-trained pastry chef Prassat specialising in baklava and classic French pastries, as well as the art of pulling sugar.

The chefs rustle up pizza, pasta, Indian food and sauces in a 3,700-square foot preparation area, under the leadership of Pradeep Singh, chef de cuisine, and PS Sugara, head chef of Indigo. In addition, Bermudian Patrick Reid has continued the family tradition of pie making using a recipe passed down through the generations for beef and chicken pies, which are supplied to supermarkets and gas stations across the Island.

Mr. Friedman has worked as the executive chef at a number of leading restaurants for many years, including the award-winning Barracuda Grill and Café Cairo, as well as The Palm in New York City, prior to joining in June 2009.

He said some of his staff has worked in top hotels from London and New York to Dubai and even the Swiss Alps, as well as cruise ships in the Mediterranean.

But his main focus for the moment is on the catering — dealing with everything from overseeing the cooking and delivery process to making bookings and taking on new clients.

"We are going through a tidal wave of requests for our catering because word has got out that we are so high on quality and we are able to keep our prices reasonable because of the facilities we have got here," he said.

"I am very aggressive when it comes to the sales side of the business — making the transition from executive chef to director of catering I took on a whole new level of responsibility and attention to detail. With that comes a level of salesmanship and I am fortunate that I have that degree of experience in sales that I am able to go out and creatively find ways to get clients in the door.

"If that means I have to follow around competitors in a van to find their clients and then go in and give my pitch then that is what I am going to do.

"There has been no response from the competition so far — as a matter of fact we are taking new business. It is fresh for the picking and we are going out and taking it and we are not going to stop until we get it all."

The cosmopolitan mix of workers from the likes of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Philippines has proved to be one of the keys to the business' success and that is the same kind of work ethic that Mr. Friedman is looking to instil in keen young Bermudian chefs seeking a new challenge and to become part of an exciting and fast growing industry.

"The days are long and the work is extremely hard and demanding and if the client wants something then it has to be done quickly and to a high quality and the guys that work here certainly live up to and indeed exceed that standard flawlessly," he said.

Meanwhile the catering business, which is backed by a 65-strong team of staff and four delivery trucks, extends beyond offices to private jets, with the firm providing food to Bermuda Aviation Services.

Mr. Friedman, who plays football for BAA, also juggles running a consultancy business for a restaurant in Tobago and a hotel in Europe with working on a television show based in Los Angeles entitled 'Bachelor Pad', which he hopes will air soon on one of the top US network channels.

Bermuda Hospitality Group, which is run by CEO Marico Thomas and specialises in everything from new American, and classic French, Middle Eastern and Pan Asian cuisine, with a focus on Californian dishes, plans to open a new New York-style pizzeria called Tony Tomatoes on Bermudiana Road on May 1, which will be open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and is currently looking to recruit new staff.

The company is also looking to roll out its new website soon, with a listing for all of the services available.

For more information contact 534-2831 or email catering@uppercrust.bm