01
Purpose before menu
The commission is built backwards from what the meeting needs to achieve — close, thank, retain, decide. Without that reading, everything else is simply good food served in an office.
Strategic Hospitality
When the table is part
When the table is part
of the strategy.
Leadership lunches, client dinners and executive meetings, handled with the same rigour already applied to every other decision in the room. One point of contact, fixed pricing agreed in writing, and a level of discretion that never needs to be requested.
One point of contact
Fixed pricing
Discretion
24h response
The exposure
The risk nobody budgets for
No leadership team questions the bill for a consultancy, the cost of a brand campaign or the investment in retaining a key executive. All of those lines of spend have the same purpose: moving a relationship forward.
The table is where many of those relationships are decided — and it is often the one part awarded on price alone.
In front of a client
What was close to being agreed, and the margin lost when the conversation cools at the wrong moment.
In front of the board
The credibility of the person who called the meeting. A board member remembers how they were received long after forgetting the agenda.
In front of the team
The unspoken message about how a company looks after its own people. Nobody says it aloud, but everyone registers it.
When something fails at the table, the food is not what fails: the meeting does. And when it works, it can be the reason a client signs, an executive stays or a relationship holds.
The method
Strategic Hospitality
Every commission starts with the meeting rather than a menu: who is hosting, who is being received, what needs to happen and what should not be interrupted. The food follows from that reading.
A good meeting already has enough moving parts. The hospitality should remove some, not add more.
Four principles, no exceptions
02
Discretion by design
It is not a promise; it is a design decision. Staff, access, timings and the journey of the produce are planned in advance so little needs explaining during service.
03
Reliability without variance
Timings, access, allergens and protocol are settled before service, never improvised during it. In front of a board, predictability matters more than surprise.
04
The host remains the host
The table reflects the person hosting, not the person cooking. The chef steps out of the scene so the host remains fully present — which is precisely what the meeting requires.
The context
Two curves pulling apart
€4.885bn
Size of the Spanish catering market in 2025, up 6% year on year.
45%
Of that market is held by just five operators. Ten account for 60.5%.
€645m
The high-end segment: the fastest-moving part of the sector, driven by business activity.
Demand for a higher standard is growing while the market becomes more concentrated and standardised. The space between those two curves is where Strategic Hospitality operates.
Source: DBK Sector Observatory by INFORMA (Grupo Cesce), “Catering” study, 2025 closing data published in May 2026.
The diagnosis
Everything that tends to go wrong, resolved before it starts
The failures in corporate hospitality tend to repeat across the same seven points. None happens at the table: they are decided weeks earlier, in how the commission is prepared.
What tends to go wrong
How it is resolved here
The set-up runs late and disrupts an agenda that was closed to the minute.
Set-up times, access and timings are confirmed in the briefing and agreed in writing. The kitchen adapts to the agenda, never the other way round.
Someone with an allergy or specific dietary requirement is left with nothing to eat in front of everyone.
Restrictions are collected before the menu is signed off and built into it, rather than treated as a separate afterthought. Nobody has to explain at the table what they cannot eat.
The team does not know the menu or protocol, so someone has to improvise in front of the guest.
The team arrives with the menu and protocol worked through in advance. If a guest asks, there is an answer — and if they do not ask, they are not interrupted.
Information is split between several contacts and something gets lost on the way.
One point of contact from briefing to close: the chef. What is agreed in the briefing is what reaches the table.
The venue lacks the necessary equipment and it is discovered on the day.
The space is assessed beforehand: access, water, electricity and available equipment. Anything missing is resolved in the proposal, not during service.
The budget grows with items that were not in the original proposal.
Fixed pricing is agreed in writing before service. One figure, one invoice, no items to reconcile afterwards.
Co-ordinating everything ends up consuming the hours of the person who has least time to spare.
One 30–45 minute conversation. After that, there are no suppliers to chase and nothing else to manage.
If you recognised three or more of these seven, the next meeting is already carrying unnecessary risk.
The advantage
Why a chef rather than a supplier
The method can be explained. These three things only come from a structure like this.
Technical identity
Garums, lactic fermentations, smoking, curing and house pickles, with provenance verified. It is what separates a memorable table from one that is merely correct.
Direct contact
You speak to the person who will cook, from briefing to close. No sales team, no account intermediary, nobody translating the commission along the way.
Continuity
What is learned at each service is not lost: who does not eat what, what worked, what is worth repeating. Over time, that accumulated memory becomes the hardest asset to replace.
Who decides
Three different desks, one less thing to worry about
The decision to commission rarely sits with one person. Each role is looking for something different.
Fewer variables when there is no room for error
The table stops being an unknown and becomes another tool within the strategy. The meeting is prepared around what it needs to achieve, not simply what will be served.
One conversation and the commission is closed
No chain of suppliers, no last-minute calls, no figures to reconcile afterwards. One point of contact, fixed pricing in writing and a response within 24 hours.
A gesture people remember long after the meeting
For boards, leadership teams or internal milestones that deserve more than a room booking. With a clear invoice and a concept that is easy to justify internally.
Formats for business
One standard,
One standard,
adapted to each meeting
Four formats are available for business. Gabinete is the one designed specifically for it.
Gabinete
The executive format
Board meetings, leadership committees and due diligence sessions, served at your premises without event-style production. Fixed pricing: the figure does not change if the meeting runs over.
Fixed service fee · plus 10% VAT
Up to 4€800
Up to 6€1,150
Up to 8€1,550
Up to 12€2,300
Up to 16€3,100
Up to 18€3,450
Rates plus 10% VAT, subject to applicable law. Includes produce, staff and travel within Madrid city. Travel outside Madrid city is priced by mileage. Any kitchen equipment the venue does not have available (oven, bain-marie, induction, etc.) is assessed during the briefing and included in the fixed proposal. Larger groups or formats outside these reference bands are scoped during the briefing and quoted in writing.
Vanguardia
The reference format
Client dinners, institutional celebrations and multi-day programmes. A chef-led menu with house fermentation techniques, full front-of-house service and integrated event co-ordination.
195 €per person · plus 10% VAT
Esencia
The entry point
The same technical standard in a more agile format: team lunches, client visits or meetings that do not require the full Vanguardia set-up.
135 €per person · plus 10% VAT
Atelier
The commission without limits
Full experience design — menu, setting, pairing and team — for commissions where standardisation does not fit: institutional openings, state dinners or specific family-office requirements.
By briefingaccording to scope
For recurring requirements
Annual Contract
If hospitality is part of your calendar — monthly committees, partners’ lunches or regular visits — the Annual Contract reserves priority availability and groups several Gabinete services each month under a fixed monthly fee: from €1,800/month + 10% VAT, with two Gabinete services for up to six people included.
How we work
The engagement process
01
30–45 min
Briefing
An initial conversation about the commission: purpose, guests, location, restrictions and the level of protocol required.
02
Max. 48 h
Proposal
A menu and fixed budget, with the taxable base and VAT clearly itemised.
03
In writing
Confirmation
Written acceptance and a 50% deposit, which secures the date in the diary. The balance is settled according to the individual agreement.
04
Agreed protocol
Service
The commission is delivered by the team and to the protocol agreed during the briefing.
05
Follow-up
Close
A post-service check-in and, where relevant, discussion of recurring availability under the Annual Contract.
The signature
Every corporate commission is treated for what it is: an extension of the reputation of the person signing it.
Training
Kitchens recognised with 3 Repsol Suns and a Michelin mention. The same standard applied to boards, clients and leadership teams today.
Responsibility
Every commission carries a name. There is no structure behind which to hide a mistake, and that shapes every service decision.
Coverage
Madrid city is the usual base. Any travel beyond it is agreed and closed during the briefing, never afterwards.
Documented method
The journal covers practical cases on dietary requirements, important client lunches, common corporate dining failures and Christmas company dinners in Madrid.
The next step
The next meeting that cannot go wrong
Tell me what the occasion is and when you need it. I will reply personally, with a proposal and fixed pricing agreed in writing.
01
I reply personally within 24 hours.
02
A 30–45 minute briefing to understand the context of the commission.
03
Menu and fixed pricing agreed in writing, within 48 hours.
The initial briefing carries no obligation — and it will tell you whether this method fits what you have in hand.