Sodexo puts NI food on the menu at The 148th Open

77,000 slices of bacon, 28,000 beef burgers, 14,000 fillets of MSC haddock, 1,000 rolls of butter, 220kg of sliced ham and 200kg of artisan cheese along with delicacies like dulse and eels are just some of the delicious ingredients that have been locally sourced by Sodexo for The 148th Open at Royal Portrush.

Award-winning Sodexo chef Fritz Machala ‘teed off’ at a photocall in Ormeau Golf Club in Belfast to highlight the company’s support of local food suppliers, which include the North Coast Smokehouse, Abernethy Butter, Ballylisk Dairies, Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil, Burren Balsamics, Irish Black Butter, Lough Neagh Eel, Morellis Ice cream, Causeway Prime Meats and the French Village Bakery.

It’s the twentieth year for Sodexo looking after The Open and the team has been planning for the Royal Portrush venue for over 18 months. All the public retail, on-course and hospitality catering goes live from Sunday 14 July and continues until 21st July.

1,200 staff from Northern Ireland, Scotland and England have been recruited to serve more than 215,000 expected visitors over the seven-day major Championship. In addition, 20 individuals from the Prince’s Trust will also be employed on-site, benefiting from training, mentoring, support and valuable work experience to provide future job prospects post-Open.

Sodexo is the catering partner of The R&A, which organises and stages The Open. Both organisations are committed to supporting local food businesses in the region of the host venues as part of the GreenLinks sustainability programme for The Open.

The initiative incorporates procurement policies that focus on ethically and sustainably sourced food and drink, such as MSC haddock and Fairtrade tea, coffee, sugar, hot chocolate and bananas. Wherever possible, the catering team also buy from local suppliers to deliver a broad range of menu choices that reflect the regional cuisine.