Face to face with AWT in Ramsay's whites

In the past few weeks we have been involved in events as diverse as a lavish buffet for 300 with a generous budget and a finger buffet for six with the usual request about whether we can do anything cheaper than our £4.50 working lunch. Do these people not understand about wage costs, food costs and delivery?

On the subject of delivery, the duty increases on fuel in the Budget have done us no favours at all. We run 40ft articulated lorries converted into kitchen units. We have worked in venues as far apart as Scotland and Continental Europe and the diesel bill is fairly high: consider that our artics do six miles or so to the gallon and you may start to see the problem.

In addition, the fridges are diesel-powered and, while we could run these on duty-free "red" diesel, the risk of theft from our yard outweighs the possible benefit, and we therefore fill the fridge tanks with duty-paid diesel at the local petrol station. A three-day event will use £120-£140 in diesel - and so costs mount.

A few weeks back my operations manager Matthew O'Donnell and I attended one of the set-piece demonstrations that are offered to the great unwashed - an audience with Antony Worrall Thompson. Having admired his writing, recipes and work, and as we both enjoy his enthusiasm for the industry and our craft, it was a pleasure to meet the man face to face. We were, however, slightly perplexed that someone so friendly and unassuming should appear wearing a set of Gordon Ramsay-logo'd whites. Careful, AWT - the Ramsay logo on the back could well be there as a target!

We watched the Ramsay's Boiling Point series with particular interest on the occasion he got involved in an outdoor catering event in Paris.

Offer me £25,000 to take on Ramsay's 14-table restaurant? No thanks. My feelings for that format of operation would probably mirror his head-in-hands musings on the prospect of future event catering - you really couldn't make it worth my while. However, 700 covers in France would be a pleasure; and all I can say to Ramsay is that if they do offer you double the money for the next event, ring me and I'm sure we can have a deal. n

Robert Alvarez is proprietor of Phoenix Catering event caterers in Towcester, Northamptonshire

Next diary from Robert Alvarez: 27 May