Fine dining must learn to relax

Tomorrow's fine-dining restaurants will lose the last vestiges of formality in service style and offer good food in a relaxed restaurant environment. That was the verdict of a panel of the UK's top chefs at the 2004 Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference, held in association with the British Pig Executive (BPEX) at the Brewery in London's Chiswell Street last week.

The panel - a starry line-up comprising Heston Blumenthal, Philip Howard, Raymond Blanc and Anthony Demetre - were taking part in a debate chaired by Chef editor Amanda Afiya on the thorny issue of whether or not there is any future for traditional fine dining in the UK.

Demetre, chef-proprietor of the one-Michelin-starred Putney Bridge restaurant, in London, said: "There's no question that people will always want good food, which is well-sourced, when the they go out, but they don't want waiters watching them eat every mouthful any more. We've taken the stiffness out of service, lost sommeliers and dumbed down uniforms at Putney Bridge because people used to say that we were too formal."

Blanc, chef-proprietor of the renowned Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, agreed. He said: "Today when people go to restaurants they want to enjoy themselves and have fun. They don't want hush around a table." He added that the prototype for front-of-house style was emerging from America, where you often got waiters in jeans and aprons who had a great knowledge of the food and wine they were selling.

The quartet of chefs agreed that the knowledge and personality of front-of-house staff was key to achieving a relaxed, professional style of service. Blumenthal, whose Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, Berkshire, (one of only three three-Michelin-starred restaurants in the country) is renowned for his molecular approach to gastronomy, sounded a note of warning.

"One of the hardest things to do is to create service that is friendly and relaxed but knowledgeable and technically correct," he said. "Get the wrong type of personality for a room and that makes it even harder."

Howard, chef-proprietor of two-Michelin-starred London restaurant the Square, agreed: "There is no way a human being can be confident, informed and relaxed [when waiting on tables] unless he or she is really knowledgeable. I do worry that there is a massive explosion of restaurants but that we are drawing on a vacuous pool."

The four chefs acknowledged that closures of high-profile restaurants such as John Burton-Race at the Landmark and Bristol's Harvey's inevitably made proprietors look closely at their own operations.

Howard said: "I've thought a lot about what defines a fine-dining experience and have concluded that it is a restaurant that is a food-driven operation with professional service in comfortable surroundings. But you have to remember that a restaurant has to achieve first and foremost as a business."

Responding to comments about the high cost of eating in fine-dining restaurants, Blumenthal said: "There is a public misconception about what correctly reared chickens cost, as opposed to battery reared chicken, and it's the fault of the supermarkets who have fought to drive down food prices when everything else around us has gone up."

Broadening the debate out, one conference delegate from the audience maintained that discussing the future of fine dining was missing a more important dining-out issue. The UK, he said, was lacking restaurants putting out simple food cooked with integrity that slotted between fine-dining establishments at the top end of the market and fast-food outlets. "There's a massive opportunity - particularly in pubs," he concluded. n

Blanc wants change Chefs must do far more to educate the British public in the value of healthy, seasonal and ethically responsible food, according to Raymond Blanc, chef-patron of Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire.

During his keynote speech, Blanc said the British attitude to food in the past had cost the country dear. He added that chefs had a role to play in passing on their knowledge and changing consumer attitudes.

"The relationship has been sick, and consumers know that and are driving change. We got it wrong in the past - agriculture has been under crisis management for 10 years - and we now know the relationship between food and ill-health because we can measure the damage."

He said the faults of the past stemmed from treating food as a "single commodity" that could be produced and bought cheaply. Blanc added this had bought misery for the whole food chain, including the environment, farmers, livestock and governments.

"Why should I be concerned about issues of food production? After all, I am a chef and not a farmer? However, it is clear that today's consumers are deeply worried about the safety and goodness of the food they buy.

"Food touches every part of our life. Society needs to reconnect with food, our health and our environment."

Blanc added that understanding the value of food would benefit a society that no longer had time to sit down and eat.

"Family interaction around the dinner table is fast disappearing, only to be replaced by television, and since the family is the nucleus of society a breakdown there results in social dysfunction. Often our heath can be repaired, but the damage to society can be irreparable."

Blanc will be discussing these subjects further when he hosts the American Food Revolution, a food festival being staged at Le Manoir next month, featuring leading chefs from the USA, the UK and France (Caterer, 18 March, page 38). For further details go to www.manoir.com.

Ark foundation
The link between chefs and footballers doesn't begin and end with Gordon Ramsay's salad days as a player at Glasgow Rangers. Delegates at this year's Chef Conference heard "ex-drunk, ex-drug addict, ex-drug dealer" and ex-chef Peter Kay warn that, like footballers, catering professionals share a susceptibility to alcohol and drug dependency.

Both are entertainers operating in an arena where drinking and drug taking are often part of the culture, and customers are quick to express dissatisfaction. Both are under great pressure to perform, be it for a 90-minute match, or a full service. And both need to release pressure after work has ended for the day.

Kay is director at the Ark Foundation, a dependency awareness body, now a part of Hospitality Action, which aims to tackle alcohol and drug addiction in the hospitality industry through education in colleges and kitchens. He is also chief executive officer of the Sporting Chance Clinic for sportsmen with similar dependencies.

He described how a lack of self-esteem first turned him to drink and drugs. When he was drunk, he said, "I felt I belonged, I was good enough, like a man. I didn't believe I could cook - or cook without drink and drugs inside me".

He challenged the catering industry to dispel its misconception that no one who had a competitive salary and a decent standard of education could suffer from a dependency problem. Chefs, he said, must recognise that they are role models to their brigades, and set high standards for their staff to emulate.

He added that chefs should be alert to physical signs of dependency in their teams, such as being unshaven, reporting late for work and mood swings.

Kay was joined on stage by Ian Holloway, manager of Queens Park Rangers. Holloway, who recently turned to Kay for assistance when he discovered that one of his most promising players had an alcohol problem, stressed the need for chefs to support their teams and lead by example.

For more information, visit www.thearkfoundation.co.uk

British Pig Executive The British Pig Executive (BPEX) is delighted to have sponsored the 2004 Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference. Working in conjunction with the Meat and Livestock Commission, BPEX is committed to enhancing the image and driving the value and demand for quality pork and sausages.

The annual Chef Conference presents an ideal opportunity for caterers from all sectors of the food service industry to come together to share ideas and to learn from one another's experiences. This year, the lively debates, inspirational masterclasses, and interesting and informative presentations and demonstrations all contributed to an event that was both educational and motivational for the caterers who attended.

The inspirational pork dishes produced by exemplar chefs were certainly one of the highlights of the conference; the chefs showed a great deal of enthusiasm and passion for pork, carefully sourcing ingredients from local suppliers.

Throughout the day, from the morning masterclass to the evening meal, it was shown that quality assured pork is an extremely versatile ingredient that can lend a unique blend of flavour and succulence to any dish, from exotic fusion cooking to traditional British dishes.

For further information please call 01908 844 114, or visit www.mlcfoodservice.com