Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Company of Cooks, a private catering company, has won the contract to serve food and drinks to opera and ballet-goers at the Royal Opera House in London, replacing Searcys 1847, which held the franchise for more than a decade.

“Company of Cooks will manage the opera house’s numerous restaurants and bars and provide the catering for the large numbers of events held at the iconic building in Covent Garden,” the opera house said today in an e-mailed statement.

There are currently about 180 members of the Searcys team whose jobs will remain secure in the transition process, the statement said. The opera house said Company of Cooks offered contemporary ideas and a fresh approach to food.

Company of Cooks operates venues in English Heritage sites and around London, including the Central Bar & Central Bar Terrace at the Southbank Centre, the Lido in Hyde Park and the Museum Cafe in the Imperial War Museum. The company was founded in 1996 by Mike Lucy, who this year hired Gillian Thomson, Gordon Ramsay’s head of operations, as managing director.

Searcys has outlets in London at the Gherkin, St. Pancras station, the Barbican and Mansion House. Searcy traces its history back more than 160 years.

(Richard Vines is the chief food critic for Bloomberg News. Opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Richard Vines in London at rvines@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 4, 2009 11:41 EST