Luxury hotel gives guests a taste of the Orient
With an extravaganza of authentic cookery, Carden Park was the place to welcome in the new Chinese year of the rabbit.
The four-star hotel, golf resort and spa, near Chester, invited its regular business customers to a complimentary celebration of all things oriental, complete with a master class in Chinese cooking from executive head Chef Graham Tinsley followed by a “stir fry challenge” to win a year’s leisure membership.
Guests enjoyed the surroundings of a ‘far east’ themed Carden Suite, which recently received a £400,000 revamp making it one of the best corporate facilities in the north west.
Hotel general manager Hamish Ferguson said: “What better way to celebrate the new Chinese year than with a wonderful evening of food and friendly competition in one of our premier events suites at the hotel.”
More than 40 customers enjoyed a selection of Chinese starters before being introduced to two of the newer members of the Carden Park team – director of sales Simon Heartfield and returning executive head chef Graham.
Four volunteers were then tasked with the challenge of creating a King prawn stir fry, which was judged by Hamish, Simon and Graham. The winner, who received a 12-month leisure membership for Carden Park, was Stephanie Bean of Shotton.
Everyone who joined the challenge took home a bottle of Carden Gold, the hotel’s very own sparkling wine, which is produced using grapes from the onsite vineyard.
The guests then enjoyed a selection of Chinese dishes expertly prepared by Graham’s team of chefs followed by Jasmine tea and fortune cookies.
“The event was a great success and we even learnt a few tips for wok cooking from Graham – including why never to use raw bean sprouts in your stir fry!” said Hamish.
The invitation-only event was held to showcase Carden Park’s facilities to some of the hotel’s key corporate clients. The Carden Suite now includes a state of the art Bose sound system, a magical 6,000 starlight optical fibre lighting system and nine 60 inch plasma TV screens all around the room. It can accommodate up to 400 conference guests or 350 diners. The hotel also has 17 other conference and function rooms of varying sizes, plus 196 bedrooms, luxury spa, two championship golf courses and full onsite team building activities.
Carden Park will be exhibiting as part of the Visit Chester and Cheshire stand at International Confex 2011, Earls Court, March 1 – 3. Visit stand B444 to find out everything the hotel has to offer and meet director of sales Simon Heartfield and the team.
For more information on corporate facilities at Carden Park visit: cardenpark.co.uk
