Dome catering chief in sudden resignation

The man in overall charge of catering at the Millennium Dome resigned last week.

Operations director Ken Robinson left following the departure earlier this month of chief executive Jennie Page. She was replaced by Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, who used to work for Disneyland Paris.

Gerbeau has decided that all senior managers will now report to him directly, effectively making Robinson's job redundant. "With his arrival and his being a specialist in operations, I can understand that he wants to take on the operations role," said Robinson.

Asked about the effect on catering at the Dome, Robinson said: "As far as I'm concerned, they will lose an enthusiastic observer and customer."

He added: "When we began this, I desperately wanted to ensure that we would not have the narrow range of limited facilities normally found on a leisure site. The enormous challenge was to find good quality at reasonable prices in something that will only last for a year. It's remarkable that we've ended up with the range we have."

Catering at the Dome had been "very well received" by visitors, Robinson claimed. "The top-end restaurant critics are not complimentary and there are some people who ask why the catering has only achieved the sort of thing you find in railway stations and airports," he said. "But the reality is absolutely different. There's a wide range of restaurants, everything from a contemporary pub to a restaurant serving food from around the world."

He added: "I think it's succeeded and I think it's terrific that it has done so. It's very good for the general standards of catering in the country."

There was little scope for major changes to catering at the Dome, Robinson claimed. "The opportunity to change is in the detail," he said.

He said of Gerbeau: "I can't help thinking that anybody with a Disney background would find the catering that's been achieved is very good."

Andrew James, head of catering at the Dome, is to stay on.

Robinson plans to take a short break before returning to the tourism and leisure industry.

by David Shrimpton