The Caterer Blog

A strong performance - that was the general verdict from the 300 diners at London's Dorchester Hotel who watched Compass Group UK managing director Ian El-Mokadem grappling with Alastair Stewart's questions at today's Arena lunch.

Elmo, as he's known in business circles, had a few factors against him - not least the fact that most of the audience owned up to having worked for Compass at some time, so of course knew exactly how they would run the catering giant.

But despite that, El-Mokadem put in a confident performance after almost a year in the job.

The newspapers are full of the demise of investment bank Lehman Brothers, which went into administration in the UK on Monday after its US parent applied for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The knock-on effect is expected to be widespread, with share prices already tumbling and the effects of the credit crunch set to intensify.

The news is also a blow for Restaurant Associates, the fine dining arm of Compass Group, which ran the catering at Lehman's European HQ in London's Canary Wharf.

As well as feeding many of the 5,000 staff, RA provided events and fine dining catering at the rather swanky office block.

RA this morning confirmed to Caterer that it is in discussions with Lehman about the contract.