The close links between the hospitality industry and the Royal Household were highlighted when the Queen invited personalities from all levels and sectors of the industry to Buckingham Palace. Janet Harmer joined them at a very special canapé party

Being invited to attend a function at Buckingham Palace as a guest of the Queen is a once-in-a-lifetime occasion for most people, and the pressure on the royal brigade of 21 chefs to ensure the food served on the day matches up to the splendour of the occasion and the grandness of the location is, undoubtedly, relentless.

On Tuesday 6 May that pressure was even greater than usual when 370 members of the hospitality industry arrived in the Palace's state apartments for an unprecedented function. The Queen had invited key personalities from the industry into her London home to celebrate and recognise the major contribution they make to the British economy. She has previously hosted similar functions to mark the achievements of other sectors, including publishing, broadcasting and the emergency services.

"There will be more food critics here than there have ever been before, so we're very conscious about getting it right," said Royal Chef Mark Flanagan a few days before the event. "But it will be no different from any event that we cater for. We take as much care in our food preparation whoever we are serving, as we know the expectations of guests are always very high."

When it came to selecting which canapés to offer guests, Flanagan presented two menus with several alternative suggestions to the Queen, who then made the final choice. "We might want to impress everyone on the night, but we are not a fashion organisation, and so it is important that we stick to what we normally do - which is the service of wholesome and seasonal British food."

So the selection of nine savoury and seven different types of sweet canapés incorporated the first English asparagus from Cambridgeshire, cured ham from Cumbria and Scottish langoustines.

The task of drawing up the guest list began nearly a year ago when the idea of the function was first discussed. Then, once the date was confirmed and the occasion was incorporated into the Queen's diary six months ago, the guests and the format of the event were finalised.

"The idea was to focus on members of the industry who have made a contribution towards education and training initiatives," explained Edward Griffiths, who as Deputy Master of the Household is responsible for overseeing all the catering and hospitality at Buckingham Palace, as well as at the other four royal palaces - Windsor Castle, Sandringham, the Palace of Holyroodhouse and Balmoral. "We in the Royal Household are proud to play our part in the development of education and training in the profession."

The guests came from all levels - as well as all sectors - of the industry, as the Queen did not want to invite just managing directors and chief executives. So, while there were many famous faces arriving at the Grand Entrance, there were also a whole host of lesser-known personalities.

Gordon Ramsay meets the Queen (photograph by Julian Dodd)

Alongside the likes of Sir Rocco Forte and Gordon Ramsay were the winners of the Fish & Chip Shop of the Year, Gordon and Sandra Hillan of the Townhead Café in Biggar, Lanarkshire, and the AA's Friendliest Landlady of the Year, Rosemary Reeves, of the three-bedroom bed and breakfast the Grey Cottage in Leonard Stanley, Gloucestershire.

It did not matter who they were, they were all thrilled to be there. "I can't quite believe it," said Alison McCree, associate director of facilities at County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, who, as past chairman of the Hospital Caterers Association, worked tirelessly to improve standards and raise the importance of hospital catering. "The invitation arrived on my birthday, and I thought it was a joke."

"It's such an honour to be here," said Paula Middleton, receptionist at Premier Inn Peel Park, East Kilbride, just minutes after being introduced to the Queen.

State apartments

After being formally introduced to the Queen and other members of the Royal Family, including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Earl of Wessex and the Duke of Kent, in the White Drawing Room, the guests were free to wander through five other rooms within the state apartments and enjoy drinks and canapés.

The royal party then mingled and chatted informally with their guests for the duration of the two-hour reception. A display of items - old menus, watercolours of state banquets, porcelain and china - from the Royal Collection depicting royal hospitality through the ages highlighted the connection between the Royal Household and the industry.

"We're not a commercial part of the industry, but we are very much linked through the Government and state entertaining that we do," said Griffiths.

A letter on display, dating from 1854, showed how the composition of the royal brigade had changed since those days: Master of the Household Major Thomas Biddulph writes about the appointment of a second master cook, under the direction of the chef de cuisine, suggesting that it should be a Frenchman "and if he spoke English, it would be an additional recommendation". Today, all 21 chefs in the royal brigade are British.

Victor Ceserani, former head of the school of hotelkeeping and catering at Ealing College of Higher Education, was delighted to meet the Queen again, having previously met her when receiving his MBE in 1975. Now aged 88, he said the occasion was a tremendous boost for the industry and was no more than it deserved.

"I made the Queen laugh when I told her that Edward Griffiths had been one of my better students and that I only remember those students who were either good or bad," he chuckled.

For newer recruits to the industry Jon and Cynthia Coomb the experience of being invited to Buckingham Palace was awe-inspiring. The couple had won the Rémy Martin Restaurant Excellence Award in 2007 during the first year of opening their bistro, the Westerly, in Reigate, Surrey. "I can't believe I'm surrounded by all these Rembrandts and Canalettos," said Jon.

"Stupendous", was how Bob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, described the evening. "It is an honour and hugely significant that this is the first time that the industry - which employs 1.8 million people - has been recognised as a significant industry in its own right.

"The breadth of people invited shows just how widely spread the contributions are to the industry. And to see the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh work the room for two hours is a superb message to us all."

Canapés at Buckingham Palace (photograph by Julian Dodd)

Catering and hospitality in the Royal Household

The Master of the Household's department is responsible for catering for more than 50,000 covers a year at garden parties (35,000), diplomatic receptions (1,000), receptions (5,000), investitures (6,600) and a mix of lunches and dinners for small parties of up to 12 guests to larger events for up to 200 (6,000).

Spend on catering and hospitality amounts to £2.2m a year. Salaries account for £1.1m, with £700,000 being spent on garden parties and £400,000 on food and kitchens.

Staff training at Buckingham palace

Like other sectors of the hospitality industry, the Royal Household has come a long way in recent years in recognising the importance of sound and proficient training as an essential tool in developing business.

"We suffer from the same recruitment difficulties in finding trained and skilled staff as anyone else," says Deputy Master of the Household Edward Griffiths. "Our most important asset is our people, and we recognise that we have to take our responsibility in training them."

Royal Chef Mark Flanagan (pictured) agrees, pointing out that the Royal Household has moved closer to the rest of the industry in the way it trains its staff. "It used to be an institution that was an island, removed from everywhere else. Now, through its training links with industry, it is reflecting what it is happening in the real world," he says.

In the past, many of the 240 staff in the Master of the Household's department - incorporating chefs, sommeliers, event planners, pages, footmen and housekeepers - were either trained in-house or in one of the Armed Forces. Now, more of the staff have entered the Palace having trained and gained experience elsewhere, while others benefit from a mix of in-house and external training.

Griffiths and Flanagan are themselves both products of the industry. Griffiths worked as managing director of Roux Fine Dining until he joined the Palace in 2001, while Flanagan was head chef at Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey until 2002. The recently appointed head chef, Mark Fromont, originally trained at the Savoy and Chewton Glen, but has worked in the Palace kitchens for 26 years, while a more recent recruit, Stephen Gourmand, assistant to the master, services, joined the Royal Household in 2006 from London Clubs International.

As well as running an exchange programme for staff in the kitchen and front-of-house service with a number of top restaurants and hotels, two major training programmes highlight the Palace's links with the wider hospitality industry.

First, a new diploma for butlers has been written by Palace Steward Nigel McEvoy, who is responsible for all liveried staff within the Royal Household, including footmen, pantry staff, the Yeoman of Logistics (responsible for movement of luggage and staff transportation) and Yeoman of the Cellars (looks after the receipt and service of all beverage). McEvoy has put together the course after working with a focus group made up of the Savoy Educational Trust, the Lanesborough hotel and Thames Valley University (TVU).

The training is being delivered in conjunction with TVU, with City & Guilds as the awarding body. Open to personnel with basic restaurant and hotel skills of any age, the course is being run as a pilot programme with four members of staff from Buckingham Palace and five from the Lanesborough.

Second, an in-house apprenticeship scheme for chefs has been replaced by taking on trainees enrolled on the specialised chef course run by the Academy of Culinary Arts in conjunction with Bournemouth & Poole College. The three-year programme, combining two years' training at Buckingham Palace with three stints at college, culminates in a diploma in professional cookery.

Jenny Brett, training co-ordinator of the specialised chef course at Bournemouth & Poole, was enormously impressed by the Queen's knowledge of the training programme when she was introduced to her at the Buckingham Palace function. "She was fully aware that one of our students, Alister Gooding, is currently in the second year of his training at the Palace," she says. "We also have a graduate of the course, Ross Doick, now employed as demi chef de partie in the Palace kitchens."

A glimpse of a state banquet

For the first time, visitors to this year's summer opening of Buckingham Palace will be able to gain a glimpse of the spectacle of a state banquet. A horseshoe-shaped table, traditionally used at state banquets, will be set up in the ballroom and laid with the silver-gilt from the Grand Service - first used to celebrate the birthday of George III in 1811 - and adorned with magnificent flower arrangements.

Film footage will show behind-the-scenes work of the Royal Household staff, including chefs, footmen, pages, florist and housemaid, as they prepare the highest standards of presentation and delivery.

Held in honour of a visiting head of state, a state banquet is the occasion when the Queen entertains about 170 guests on the first evening of a state visit.

During the Queen's reign, 77 state banquets have been held at Buckingham Palace, 18 at Windsor Castle and one at the palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. The recent state banquet at Windsor for the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his new wife, Carla Bruni, on 26 March, was the 96th hosted by the Queen since her accession to the throne in 1952.

Sumptuous banquets have been an integral part of royal ceremonies for two centuries. When it came to entertaining, no monarch has rivalled George IV. In 1811, when he became Prince Regent, he famously gave a supper for 3,000 people at his private residence, Carlton House. The single dining table, which extended the entire length of the building, incorporated a stream with live goldfish.

While the displays and menus for state banquets today are more constrained - guests are typically served one choice for each of the four courses - George IV's spectacular gilt tableware is still used.

Entry to the state banquet display is included in the admission price - £15.50 for adults and £8.75 for under-17s - to the summer opening of Buckingham Palace. To book, telephone 020 7766 7300 or visit www.royal.gov.uk.