United's catering needs in safe hands
Catering infrastructure specialist PKL and Oxford’s Complete Catering have teamed up to provide nutritious, scientifically planned meals for members of Oxford United’s playing staff this season.
Complete Catering, a successful commercial caterer from Oxfordshire, became the official team caterers for the U’s this summer. They instantly knew they wanted to shake up the setup to help the players and the team get the food they deserved and needed.
“The team had been having food brought to their training ground each day, which restricts what you can do as a caterer,” said Jon Kay, Complete Catering Director. “We felt there was a better way - having a full kitchen on site that would allow us to provide freshly cooked meals that were healthy, tasty and nutritious.”
Jon and his chef Simon Crispin-Coomber knew the solution for this problem: a modular kitchen from PKL that could be delivered and be operational in hours - and PKL certainly lived up to their expectations, with a six-metre kitchen delivered direct to the training ground, allowing them to fulfil the nutritional needs of the team thanks to the top-quality equipment in the kitchen.
The pair work closely with Oxford’s team of sports scientists and trainers to create meals geared towards the team’s training schedule and match days, helping individual players with their personal training plans or even on their route back from injury.
United’s Lead Sports Scientist Scott Daly said that the new regime had helped them to use the menu at the training ground to help boost the team’s physical performance.
“We gave Complete Caterers an idea of what would be good foods and types of meals to have at different points of the training cycle, and they have created a lovely menu which we can then choose from,” he said. “The right nutrition is absolutely vital to a top-performing athlete. The players here at Oxford all know the lifestyle choices they need to make to benefit their training and performance, and it’s great we are now getting this support from our caterers to make that even easier.”
Simon Crispin-Coomber, chef for Complete Catering said he was delighted to be working on site, so close to the players.
“The PKL kitchen really is a home from home for us, with great quality equipment that allows us to cook exactly what the players need fresh to order,” he said. “We believe strongly in sourcing local ingredients and cooking fresh each day. The feedback we are getting from the players and staff is brilliant to hear. We are very proud of the job we do, and it’s been made possible by our PKL kitchen.”
PKL Managing Director Lee Vines said: “We are dedicated to providing the best catering infrastructure to our clients that allows them to achieve their targets. Food and good nutrition is vital to the success of any professional sports team and I’m delighted our modular kitchen has played an active part in Complete Catering’s revamp of the U’s food provision. It certainly seems to be helping the team perform!”