Inside the ‘Observatory Team’

In the latest of our profiles of staff at Green Templeton we feature the work of the catering team through the eyes of Food and Beverage Manager Harriet Quint. See also our earlier interviews with the Lodge, Development and Alumni Relations and College Office teams.

Today’s interview: Harriet Quint

Harriet has been at Green Templeton for five years this month. She joined after a sabbatical, looking for a new challenge and to hopefully kickstart a change in career direction – to working for the university in academic and student events.

What led you to your current role?

I came from a background in bespoke events, mainly weddings and private catering having spent nearly ten years, on and off, working for a small outfit in rural Oxfordshire whilst completing my degree in Essex. This involved many, many hours on the 17:00 train from London to Oxford (and back) each weekend!

Initially, I was only supposed to be here on a 12-month maternity cover contract as a Catering Supervisor, and they just haven’t managed to shake me off ever since! Shortly after my first year here, the department underwent some restructuring and I was promoted to my current position of Food and Beverage Manager.

Could you tell us a bit about your day-to-day work running the Food and Beverage team?

My role is incredibly varied, which I really enjoy – no week is ever the same! My day-to-day tasks include managing the front of house team: we have five wonderful full-time members and approximately 20 casual staff, as well as the college bar team currently made up of four casual staff. I also manage all college dinner bookings and oversee every event on site involving catering – my days go by in a flash! We have a regular calendar of college events such as our weekly dinners and lunches, welcome events for new students, degree celebrations, the GTC Ball. But we also have a full-time external conferencing and events calendar that keeps us increasingly busy too!

How do you and your team work with others in college?

The beauty of things moving to a new normal following the lifting of restrictions in England is that we are back working with many departments across the college. The most obvious of which is the college kitchen – we simply couldn’t do what we do without them!

Similarly, we work very closely with the events team who hand over the operational catering elements of their bookings to us. Together we work with the Graduate Common Room (GCR), College Office, Academic Projects and alumni teams to put on a huge range of events for the whole community.

We love seeing everyone from staff, students, fellows and alumni coming through college at lunch times – we certainly missed this during the pandemic!

It’s fair to say that your team are engaged with students throughout their time at college?

I think it is an immense privilege to see the whole cycle of a student’s experience at Green Templeton – some of whom spend years here. We see them nervously making new connections at the welcome events, dressed up to the nines for our black-tie college exchange dinners, partying until the early hours at the Ball, grabbing a quick bite at lunch before heading back for many hours in the library and finally, celebrating with friends and family at their graduations! Some students come from thousands of miles away and I like to think that through our catering and events provision, we provide a little bit of comfort, familiarity and some opportunities for fun whilst they complete their studies.

One of my favourite parts of this cycle is the Degree Days at college. Seeing the proud families here to celebrate with their graduands and hearing what everyone is going onto next is such a joyous occasion! The day often features a talk from a member of our alumni community  –speaking fondly of their time at Green Templeton and what a great basis it gave them for going out either into work or further studies. On a personal level it gives me an enormous sense of pride to have been involved in their time with us even if it is just the smallest of ways!

You’re very much seen as creative force in college, could you tell us a bit about how you see that aspect of your role?

Firstly, I am incredibly flattered to be seen in that way! I suppose many would not immediately consider creativity to be at the forefront of my role here. But when you churn out as many events as we do, I like to think we have a duty to make as many of them as special as we possibly can!

I am fortunate to work alongside our events team on the creative vision for many of our events and dinners, together we can bounce ideas around and multiple hands really do make light work! I am also extremely fortunate to have a very sociable and successful group of friends and colleagues, between us we have probably attended/created/read about every possible event/dinner/Ball/conference you can think of and it is from those experiences that I draw creative ideas.

Sustainability also plays a big part in my creative ethos, I think we all have a duty to embed sustainability into our lives and it is imperative that we as an institution lead by example. Online engagement on the @Observatory_Team Instagram, using Canva and our weekly Catering Bulletin have given me a way to instantly connect with the community. These provide alternative channels to shout about our initiatives, local produce, events and updates to our services, which has been invaluable over the last few years.

How do you manage to stay so cheerful in what is an often-unrelenting flow of activities?

I think my team would likely disagree with the cheerful demeanour some of the time! Jokes aside, the credit must go largely to them. They are wonderful people to work with – our days are often long and we operate six days a week, most weeks, between us.

The team are dedicated, hard-working and keep me going through the really intense weeks. It also helps that I thrive on being busy, I am not one for letting opportunity pass me by and I genuinely love being a part of such a special institution. Everyone at Green Templeton works incredibly hard and I think that is reflected in the level of service that we provide.

How do you relax outside work?

I love to travel, something that has been rather on hold for the last few years. However, I am now taking full advantage of the relaxing of travel restrictions and have been lucky enough to get abroad a couple of times already this year, most recently a trip to Amsterdam in celebration of my 30th birthday with my two best friends from school. I consider myself very lucky that despite an incredibly demanding work schedule, the college supports and encourages us to take time out and maintain a work-life balance!

Aside from travel, I am also mid-renovation of a little cottage I bought last year! Getting by with a little help from my friends, I only have a couple more rooms to go before it is completed, but it seems to take up most of my free time! I live in a small village on the River Thames called Lechlade. I, like many others it seems, took up paddle boarding in lockdown – I am incredibly lucky to have riverside access on my doorstep and I am looking forward to a (hopefully) long hot summer on the water!

What’s ahead for you over the coming months?

I am looking forward to welcoming the last few phases of establishing a new normal. I hope this will see more and more in-person events and dinners opening up to the whole community. I have particularly loved seeing alumni returning for long-postponed graduations. These have felt extra special for me – to see as those whom we often only saw with a mask on finally getting their day of celebration.

I am also taking on some additional responsibilities over the coming months and we are recruiting for new team members, which is very exciting for us. As always, our dining room remains in high demand and I hope that we will continue to be able to provide as some say ‘the best food in the Oxford colleges’.

I may be biased but I wholeheartedly hope we can keep that up for years to come!

Find out more about the work of Harriet and her colleagues by following @Observatory_Team on Instagram