Global Infusion Group’s catering divisions, Eat to the Beat and GIG, are giving a team of Year 9 students the chance to see their menu served backstage at BST Hyde Park, as part of a real-world live event catering experience.
The students from Sir Thomas Fremantle School, winners of Buckinghamshire Business First’s Menu Masters challenge, have worked with Global Infusion Group’s executive chef Patrick McQulligan to refine their dishes for service backstage on Friday 10 July 2026, when Pitbull headlines BST Hyde Park.
Eat to the Beat and GIG have been delivering backstage catering at Hyde Park festivals for more than 30 years, feeding artists, production teams and crew across numerous iterations of the event. This latest collaboration brings together the group’s long-standing live event catering expertise with a project designed to inspire the next generation of hospitality talent.
Menu Masters is an initiative created by Bucks Skills Hub and Buckinghamshire Business First in collaboration with Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar and Karim Kassam of Horwood House Hotel to champion the next generation of culinary talent. By bringing together industry expertise, education and real-world experience, the programme supports young people to develop the skills, confidence and connections needed to succeed in hospitality while strengthening Buckinghamshire’s future workforce.
The students were asked to develop the menu including food and non-alcoholic drinks, front-of-house experience, customer profile, marketing approach, menu presentation and social media promotion for their concept, while demonstrating teamwork, creativity, problem solving and presentation skills.
The final took place at Horwood House, where four school teams pitched their ideas to a judging panel that included Bonnie May, CEO of Global Infusion Group. Inspired by the quality of the entries and the commitment shown by the winning team from Sir Thomas Fremantle School, Bonnie invited the students to Global Infusion Group’s headquarters in Aston Clinton to explore how their concept could be adapted for a large-scale live event environment.
During their visit to GIG HQ, the students were introduced to the operational demands of backstage catering, from menu planning and ingredient sourcing to production logistics, service flow and the need to deliver high-quality food at scale for artists, touring teams, production crews and event staff. They returned in June for a dedicated tasting session with Patrick McQulligan, where their dishes were refined and finalised for inclusion on the BST Hyde Park backstage menu.
The final menu includes the students’ Supreme Green Burger with Sweet Velvet Chimichurri, Teriyaki Glazed Beef Skewers, Sweet Chimichurri Beef Skewers, Chimichurri Loaded Fries, Classic Churros and Dulce de Leche and a Signature Churro Trio. Their Caesar Salad with House Vinaigrette will also feature as part of the menu.
Bonnie May, CEO of Global Infusion Group, said: “I was so impressed by the students from all the schools, and the standard across the board was incredibly high. Having seen all the hard work that the boys from Sir Thomas Fremantle School put into the competition, I wanted to make sure that we were following that up with something tangible and giving them an opportunity for it to come to life.
“The dishes, which include signature sauces they have developed themselves alongside our executive chef, will be served backstage to artists and production crew, so there’s a real chance that Pitbull himself could be tucking into one of their dishes come Friday, which would just be amazing. “As business leaders, we have both an obligation and an opportunity to inspire the next generation. This was such a positive experience for me on both a personal and professional level.”
Headteacher of Sir Thomas Freemantle School, Francis Murphy, commented: “We are incredibly proud of what our students have achieved. Opportunities like this show what can happen when young people are challenged to think creatively, work collaboratively and apply their learning in a real-world context.
At Sir Thomas Fremantle School, we believe education is at its most powerful when learning extends beyond the classroom. This experience has shown our students what can happen when education and industry come together. We are hugely grateful to Buckinghamshire Business First for creating the Menu Masters competition, to Karim Kassam and the team at Horwood House for their unwavering support of the competition and for creating such a memorable experience for our students, and to Bonnie May and Global Infusion Group for building on that success by transforming our students’ winning concept into a live event menu.”
Marina Jackson, under 19s skills manager at Bucks Skills Hub, added: “Menu Masters is about opening doors for young people and giving them meaningful experiences that bring learning to life. By working alongside leading chefs and seeing their winning menu served backstage at BST Hyde Park, these students have experienced first-hand the opportunities that exist within hospitality. It’s a powerful example of what can be achieved when education and industry work together to inspire ambition, develop talent and create pathways into rewarding careers across Buckinghamshire.”
For Global Infusion Group, the project is a practical example of how the live events industry can support early careers engagement and give young people meaningful insight into the scale, pace and variety of opportunities available across event catering and hospitality.
May added: “What stood out was not just the quality of the food ideas, but the confidence, creativity and professionalism the students showed throughout the process. Giving them the chance to see their dishes move from concept to competition, then into development and finally onto a live event menu is exactly the kind of experience that can open young people’s eyes to what this industry can offer.”
