What you might have missed on The Caterer this week

One in 12

This week we talked to Isabella Condon about her year as the 2025 Gold Service Scholar. The assistant restaurant manager at the Dorchester in London sailed through the finals, which puts competitors through an interview, a service skills exercise, wine-decanting, table preparation and table service to four judges, all while finding opportunities for salesmanship and keeping her cool. 

 

This was her second attempt at the competition – she says she didn’t really feel ready for the first time – but this year was different: “I went back, let my guard down and put my personality forward,” she says. As a result, her confidence has soared, or as she more modestly told us: “The redirection and reimagination of my self-belief this year has been a nice change.” Now, she has her eye set on improving her service skills and setting an example as one of just 12 Gold Service Scholars.

 

Cold comfort

 

As endless drizzle fills the forecast for most of the UK over the next few weeks, we asked operators how they bring some sunshine to their winter menus and draw in the punters. Alex Aitken of the Jetty restaurant in Dorset acknowledged that the hardest part of getting through the winter months was tempting people to leave the house. His weapon of choice is two special anniversary menus (two courses for £20, five for £39) celebrating the Jetty’s 15th birthday, and which have tripled the number of January diners. 

 

Similarly, the Cinnamon Club is celebrating 25 years of business with a retro menu at 2001 prices, serving up breast of Gressingham duck with sesame tamarind sauce for £16 and seared calf’s liver with masala mash and spiced onion chutney for the bargain price of £6, resulting in 3,000 guests booking a table.

 

Obviously, these menus are time-restricted, with Aitken returning prices to normal when spring has sprung, but he seems to have got a taste for offering a little something extra: “We’re going to extend our offer to 12 February,” he says. “We’re already full for Valentine’s Day, but perhaps after that we might offer diners a glass of fizz for each booking.”

 

Essex boy

 

We also paid a visit to Stark on Mersea Island in Essex, the new site for the restaurant owned by Ben and Sophie Crittenden that was once located in Broadstairs in Kent. The couple have basically lifted the restaurant and resettled it on the island, keeping the decor, painting the walls in similar dark shades and running the place themselves: Ben in the kitchen, Sophie front of house. They even kept the Michelin star.

 

Ben describes his cooking as "not that technical", but this may be chef-speak for “takes less than week to prep”. His pre-dessert course – a regular fixture but one that still divides a crowd – is Jerusalem artichoke ice-cream (pictured), where the veg is cooked in hazelnut milk and sugar to make an ice-cream, served with hazelnut sponge, goats’ curd, truffle honey, a brioche crumb and Parisienned Granny Smith: “I reduce the apple trim down with some Bramley until the sugars start to caramelise, then I vac-seal everything and thicken slightly with Ultratex. You get both the raw and cooked taste,” he says. See, not technical at all. 

 

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