The International Centre is preparing to open a new conference centre with a 17,000-square-foot ballroom, multiple meeting rooms, and a high-tech kitchen next week. “The concept was to add a contemporary identity to the International Centre,” said Richard Swayze, director of business development. “It’s a facelift of sorts in the sense that we’ve created a new entrance for the property.”
The new conference centre adds 48,000 square feet of event space to the airport strip facility, which already has more than 500,000 square feet of exhibit space. The conference centre, decorated in neutral tones with a patterned taupe carpet, cream walls and dark wood accents, features a covered stainless steel and glass entranceway that leads to a curved rotunda. “We want to create a mood from the minute people arrive,” Swayze said. “It makes a statement.”
Skylights and chandeliers run the length of the grand lobby, and LCD reader boards informing guests of what’s happening where are posted at the entrance and outside each meeting room, all of which are named after constellations. The centre also features hands-free restrooms, built-in projectors and screens, two loading docks, and free parking for 5,000 vehicles.
The venue, which began operating an in-house food and beverage service last year, has also added an 8,000-square-foot kitchen, which utilizes Alto-Shaam’s cooking, chilling, and serving equipment. The combi-therm convection oven steamers can cook food rapidly with high degrees of heat and steam. The process enables executive chef Joe Levesque to do most of the prep work for an event a day or two in advance because the food is blast chilled after being partially cooked. On the day of an event, Levesque can then have 1,000 plated dinners ready to serve in as little as 20 to 30 minutes.
The completely wireless kitchen allows Levesque to control the ovens from his Blackberry or home computer, and includes a private chef’s table for tastings. The menu features dishes such as pan-seared medallions of milk-fed veal tenderloin served with braised short rib ravioli, celeriac and new potato pavé, creamy morels, and seasonal baby vegetables. “The idea is to deliver that restaurant quality in a banquet setting,” Levesque said. “There’s no reason you can’t do it.”
