Chefs give restaurant guides a bad review

The only honest restaurant guide would be one compiled by chefs and privately funded so that no fee was required to be listed.

That was the consensus of speakers at the inaugural ScotHot Chefs' Conference, many of whom severely criticised the way current guides were compiled.

"The Michelin guide is there for ego trips - the type of chef who pays attention to it is a dying breed," said Antony Worrall Thompson, chef/proprietor of dell'Ugo in London.

"Once you get a Michelin star people's expectations rise, but for every two new customers you gain, you lose one because you are perceived to be too posh," said John Webber, chef at Kinnaird House, Pitlochry in Perthshire, which recently lost its Michelin star.

But there was some support for the guides from Peter Jukes, chef/proprietor of the Cellar at Anstruther, Fife. "I couldn't survive without them as they let people know I'm here," said Mr Jukes. "The situation is obviously different down in London."

Mr Worrall Thompson claimed that food was becoming a less important element of the eating-out experience. "Customers these days are equally interested in the whole ambience of a restaurant," he said. "Eating out is a much less formal affair, we are becoming more of a café society."

Speakers at the conference also criticised catering colleges for not tailoring their courses to the needs of the modern market. There was too much emphasis on fine dining and not enough on industrial and contract catering.

"It would be a great incentive for all students if we could get top chefs to come into colleges one day a week to keep us all in touch with what is going on in the industry," said Willie Pike, lecturer at Glasgow College of Food Technology. "Many lecturers are out of touch with the real world."

Mr Worrall Thompson praised the idea but claimed that in reality chefs didn't get asked. "I think that all too often lecturers are too scared to invite professionals in for fear of being shown up," he said.

The speakers agreed that the most likely route to raise standards was through private colleges such as the one being launched by Sir Terence Conran.