Learn the business of food in conference workshops

Launching your own restaurant involves far more than just acquiring premises, getting in the kitchen and serving good food, according to chef-proprietors David Ryan and Alan Thompson, respectively of Bistro on the Bridge in Bournemouth and the Royalist in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire.

It is a fact that both will be stressing when they co-host a workshop entitled "Setting up your own business" at this year's Caterer & Hotelkeeper Chef Conference, being held at London's Dorchester hotel on 19 March in association with British Meat. "Food is just one of the items that make up the entire picture," Thompson told Chef last week. Ryan added: "You've got to have a very clear idea of what you're going to be about before you start. You can't just copy somebody else."

The duo aim to make the workshop a practical guide to the process of opening a restaurant, drawing on their own experiences of launching and operating two successful businesses. On the agenda will be an insight into how, and in what order, to go about approaching banks, estate agents, insurers and business advisers, as well as pointers toward the legal niceties of running a restaurant.

"You have to get a team of professionals around you. If you don't get everything legally right, then it'll be taken away from you two months down the line. You've got to have your back covered right down to hazard analysis," said Thompson.

Ryan and Thompson's workshop is one of six being staged at the conference. The other five include a wine and fish pairing seminar hosted by wine importer Percy Fox; a discussion and tasting of Indian cuisine and spices and the art of developing Indian-style menus, hosted by Meena Pathak, managing director of Pathak's; and cookery workshops hosted by Jason Atherton, chef-proprietor of Kensington's L'Anis restaurant, and Marcus Wareing, chef-proprietor of one-Michelin-starred Pétrus in London's St James's district.

The fifth workshop, hosted by leading West Indian consultant chef Orlando Satchell, will highlight modern Caribbean cuisine. Based in St Lucia, where he is executive chef of the Dasheen restaurant at the island's exclusive Ladera Resort, Satchell has been on a one-man mission to popularise Caribbean-style on the international cookery scene.

"People think that Caribbean food is all about rice and peas and jerk chicken," he says, "but it isn't - it's about the distinctive marinades and sauces from all over the islands." Satchell describes his cooking style as nouvelle Caribbean - a fusion of local West Indian ingredients and cooking traditions and classical French techniques. Delegates attending Satchell's workshop will have the chance to taste some of his trademark dishes and discuss how to give menus a West Indian edge.

For a full programme of workshops contact Sarah Sutton on 020 8652 8349.

by Joanna Wood

The Chef Conference is now sold out.