A big production number

Imagine 70 tables in your restaurant all wanting to pay their bills at the same time. Or worse, having to feed 650 people in 30 minutes.

These are two of the daily headaches facing Mark Ward, operations manager for Letheby & Christopher at Glyndebourne, East Sussex, every year during the May to August opera festival.

"The biggest headache is judging how many people you have to cater for. We usually know within 50 or 60 either way," he says.

"It's an à la carte banquet for 600 people in an hour-and-a-half," adds Sean Hall-Smith, Letheby & Christopher's regional director.

The problem of people paying with plastic is easily solved - they are asked to inform their waitresses in advance. It was only two years ago that Letheby & Christopher, which has been running the catering at Glyndebourne for 12 years, decided to accept credit cards.

Other problems during the opera season are not so easily solved. If the opera starts late, the 80-minute interval when people eat is cut back. If opera-goers make a mistake with their reservations, the rule is to try to accommodate them anyway.

Last year there was an electricity failure and the show was delayed for two-and-a-half hours. Consequently, Letheby & Christopher had half-an-hour in which to feed 650 people and get them on the last train to London. "In the end, we had to hire a coach to take them to Gatwick and put them on the last train from there," says Hall-Smith.

Although guests are asked to book tables and confirm menu choices in advance, sometimes the system fails. On occasion, a party of seven has turned up at one of the restaurants, only to find they have booked for the wrong month.

Ward has every eventuality covered: "The customer is politely made aware of their mistake and our restaurant managers are told they have to find a table without fail," he explains.

Until this year, the Nether Wallop carvery and the Middle & Over Wallop à la carte restaurant served Glyndebourne. When the new opera house opened in 1994, however, a younger audience started attending the festival. This new crowd were looking for lighter and less expensive food.

A new crowd

These people were bringing their own picnics so, to tie in with Compass's acquisition of Leith's the year before and to capture this market, Leith's at Glyndebourne was born. "It's a relaxed, informal brasserie with a cheaper menu. We wanted to attract more of the picnickers to the restaurant," Ward says.

The three restaurants are controlled by a complex reservations system. Opera-goers reserving seats for a performance are sent a brochure containing information on the restaurants. Menu details and order forms are also enclosed so that food can be pre-ordered.

These forms are then put on a planning sheet which is prepared every day. Back and front of house staff then know how many of each dish to make and which wines to put out on which tables. Waitresses are also provided with a photocopy of the guest's hand written order form, in case any problems arise.

Last-minute table-seekers can sometimes reserve a table at the restaurant desk, open for an hour before the performance. The desk is also used by those people who have not chosen their menu in advance.

The setting up of Glyndebourne starts at the beginning of April, six weeks before the season. Rehearsals for the opera itself are held in the same month so Letheby & Christopher begin feeding staff, singers and the orchestra then.

Staff recruitment begins in the second week of April. A staff of 135 is made up of 17 chefs, 75 waiting, 25 back of house, eight bar, five supervisors and five cashiers. Employees are shipped in every day from the surrounding region by bus.

Recruitment is done locally and no agencies are used. Many of the staff have been working at Glyndebourne for 30 years. "We have a sous chef who started as a kitchen porter. Roughly 65% of our staff come back every year," says Ward.

Dress rehearsals

Once staff have been recruited, other details have to be dealt with. From mid-April to the beginning of May, the electrics are sorted out, and plants to display in the restaurants are brought in. When the restaurants have been brought back to life, catering dress rehearsals take place at the same time as opera dress rehearsals. Three dry-runs were held this year because of the newly introduced Leith's at Glyndebourne.

Supplies are delivered every day, including Sundays. All produce is fresh and local suppliers are used wherever possible.

A total of six operas run for the season but for the first couple of weeks there are two or three performances. This then increases to four or five and for the last few weeks there is an opera every night.

On the night of the show, everything is done to a formula. One hour before the interval, tables are laid, then the wine is put out on the tables. Fifteen minutes before the interval, cold starters are placed on tables and, five minutes before dinner, the candles are lit.

Despite the dress rehearsals and fine tuning that goes on right up to the start of the festival, there are always some unpredictable hiccups. This year the biggest problem so far has been the rain. For the first couple of weeks of the season, picnickers had to be accommodated in the new Leith's at Glyndebourne. "We didn't have enough tables and chairs so we hired some," says Ward.

Looking brighter is the financial side of the business. The introduction of the Leith's outlet and the new members to Glyndebourne have helped boost restaurant business by 15% on last year. On average, 45 picnics are ordered each night and Letheby & Christopher hope to increase the total picnics catered for this year by 1,000, to 3,500.

"We hope people will try it this year and see it as a viable and easier alternative to picnics next year because it's as cheap," Ward says.

August 15: Tour de France