In my current work I have attended a number of conferences across the years, around the UK and internationally as well. Virtually all the time you are sitting at a table being served three courses and coffee. There have been some exceptions, some of these are better some are worse. I remember one conference dinner in Leeds where we had to get up from our tables and head to the servery to pick up our food, in the “day” it was a canteen, but it didn’t feel very much like a formal conference dinner. Earlier this year I was at a conference in Brighton and for the conference dinner we had fish and chips in a box on the pier, which doesn’t exactly sound like a conference dinner, but it was awesome. Another nice conference dinner was when we had our dinner under the wings of the BOAC Comet at RAF Cosford. I can’t recall what we ate, but the atmosphere was very different and special. Back in 2006 I was in Helsinki for a conference, and I was expecting that the conference dinner would involve some local cuisine, well the reality was that we ended up in an Italian restaurant for the conference dinner, though the food was excellent, it wasn’t really very Finnish. The best conference dinner I remember was in Athlone in Ireland, where the dinner was in a restaurant and we could choose from the menu. I thought this was incredible, as most conference dinners had a fixed menu. I didn’t fancy anything sweet for dessert, so I cheekily asked if they could do me cheese and biscuits, and they did. It was a lovely meal.
So, attending a conference in Delft in the Netherlands, I was intrigued by the notion of a walking conference dinner, which is a Dutch thing. The meal was at the Vakwerkhuis which has a garden, as well as a range of interesting rooms. The concept was quite simple waiters would bring the food out and you could eat standing up, sitting down, or even walking around (not really advisable that last one). This was a lovely way of engaging with fellow delegates at a conference dinner, you wouldn’t be stuck on one table for all three courses. It certainly helped the food was excellent as well.
The first dish I had was an aubergine dish, I think it was the vegetarian alternative. Regardless it was rather tasty.
A little later the second dish arrived, and this was burrata with pickled tomato, wild peach, and crispy Parmesan. This was another tasty dish. Burrata and tomato is something I do, however here I did enjoy the addition of the peach and crispy Parmesan. There was a nice freshness to the dish.
The main course was entrecôte steak with corn cream, green asparagus, and chimichurri. I did wonder how they would serve the steak, but it came sliced. The steak was delicious, tender and full of flavour. The accompaniments worked well in enhancing the dish.
The final plate was the dessert, and this was a passion fruit mousse with chocolate crumble and coffee ice cream. It was nice, but I thought it was a little too busy.
I liked the format of the conference and the food was delicious.