Letters
Good pay and proper hours - no problem
This industry talks at length about skills shortages and staff turnover, constantly trying to convince itself that long hours and low pay are only part of the problem.
The final straw for me came as I read the article on the crippling effects a minimum wage could have on the industry. How can we justify paying less than other industries?
As a manager, I appreciate fully the effects of a minimum wage on the account sheets, particularly for small businesses, but surely this is just what this industry needs to force it to develop a more professional attitude towards recruitment and selection - particularly at the front line.
How anyone can expect to recruit self-respecting, professional individuals at today's hourly rates is mystifying. It is with pleasure, then, that I notice that JD Wetherspoon is now committed to a 48-hour working week. I hope that this proves to be a great success.
When will the industry leaders take the bull by the horns and accept that this is the only solution to the problem?
Matt Hudson Address supplied reasons behind the under-16 rule.
In response to Malcolm Scott's letter, "And don't turn away the young", regarding the entrance of children into Hospitality Week 1997 there are a number of points I would like to explain.
First, the entrance policy to Hospitality Week, which includes not allowing in children under 16 years old and restricting the number of students each day, has been in existence since the show's inception in 1989. As such, it is clearly stated on all material used to promote the event to potential visitors.
This policy is designed not only to cater for the customers of the future (students) but also to ensure that the companies exhibiting gain the maximum benefit from what is and always has been a business event.
Our "no children" policy, however, also exists to protect the children themselves in an environment where there is working machinery and continuous live cooking which carries with it the potential for accidents. I take issue, therefore, with the suggestion that these children, aged 11 and 12, were treated "with contempt".
In this instance the decision was taken to allow these two youngsters into the exhibition in a controlled manner, thus protecting both the children and the exhibiting companies, and fulfilling Mr Scott's objective of bringing the children to view the Toque d'Or competition.
While I sympathise with Mr Scott's frustration and am pleased that the final outcome was a happy one, Hotelympia and Hospitality Week are the leading business events for our industry and as such will not allow entrance to children or students under 16 years old.
Samantha Ebbens, Group Marketing & Sponsorship Manager, Reed Hospitality Exhibitions, Richmond, Surrey.
Dining alone in albert square
Bob Gledhill makes the observation that many hotels have 100% occupancy of rooms but only a small proportion of those guests are using the hotels' restaurants. As a planner of high street restaurants and frequent customer of hotels I have some thoughts to share.
Most rooms are occupied by one person, usually on business. Hotels and, indeed, most restaurants fail to appreciate the needs of the lone diner. Too often one is given a "goldfish bowl" table - right in the middle of the room or crammed in a tiny space between other groups of diners.
Lone diners generally prefer tables on the periphery of the restaurant where they can read a newspaper or otherwise occupy themselves without feeling self-conscious.
A second consideration is that the hotel restaurant often does not open until 7pm. Not all of us want to eat that late, especially when it is likely to take until at least 8pm for the meal to be concluded. Also, many of us have favourite TV programmes we don't wish to miss.
Third, the more health-conscious lone diner does not want to eat a large meal so close to bedtime. He may well spend much of his working life sitting in a company car or an office.
Snacking is our lifestyle these days and very few restaurant menus cater for this. However, the room service menu very often does have snacky items. Link that with the privacy and the day-round availability, plus a TV, and you have the reason why so many people eat in their rooms and Bob Gledhill sees so many empty trays outside rooms.
People want to relax, not sit fidgeting in a restaurant wondering what is happening in Eastenders.
David Harris, Didcot, Oxfordshire.
Luck does not come into it
While reading Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 30 January, I came across the letter "The rewards don't match the effort".
I am writing as someone who has been in the trade for some 20 years, and who has worked hard, damned hard, and achieved what I wanted to achieve - to become a restaurant manager.
How can Ms Philippakou claim to have been "lucky enough" to have worked her way up to the position of assistant restaurant manager? The way I was taught might have been the hard way: I did not go to college for an HND or degree. I qualified with a 706/1/1, then, after working in industry, decided that, being a people person, I wanted to work in close contact with the public, so I chose the restaurant.
In the beginning it was hard, starting from scratch in a five-star restaurant, long hours, six days a week, but I was learning. I am learning even now, and still working long hours - who needs a degree?
How can someone who is a graduate not expect to work long hours? They are learning the trade. Any apprentice is learning and, especially in this industry, working long hours to achieve the position they deserve.
I have always expected hard work and long, unsociable hours - that's catering isn't it? But there again, I am of the old (classical?) school. Hats off to that!
L McKenna, Fulwell, Sunderland.
Let your cuisine attract the custom
Like Bob Gledhill I am equally dismayed by the large chain-operated hotels' attitude to serving quality food in their establishments. Why is it that they have so consistently got it wrong?
Over the span of my career in the food industry - more than 30 years - I have spent an average of at least two nights a week in hotels in the UK or Europe. When I go to any other European country I always eat in the hotel restaurant and I always enjoy the meal.
Last week I spent two days at the Italian Catering Fair in Rimini and stayed at the Hotel Imperiale. Like here, it's the middle of winter, and apart from Russian entrepreneurs filling the cheap hotels, the place is very quiet - the equivalent of Blackpool in February.
The hotel restaurants were packed, not just with hotel visitors, but with people who came in knowing that they would get a meal of the highest standard.
Would I do the same in the UK? Not likely! Even though it is technically not my money I am spending, I must still be responsible. Being ripped off by purchasing a substandard, expensive meal is not my idea of being responsible.
At a time when British restaurants have achieved one of the best reputations in the world for serving quality food, it leaves me nonplussed that large hotel chains are so indifferent.
Last summer I spent some time touring around the south-west of France. Wherever we stayed it was the same: excellent restaurants in the hotels, which were full of local people and overnight guests.
The amazing thing was that the hotel beds were cheap and the food bill expensive. Quality, but expensive. I was so confounded by the comparison with the UK that I started to ask the managers why this was so. Each time the answer came back, "But sir, a bed is the same in any hotel, but the food in the restaurant is what makes people keep coming back to my establishment". I could not agree more. I don't want to book into a hotel, go to my room, change, and then get back into my car and drive to a restaurant down the road. I would not be able to enjoy a glass of wine.
Three weeks ago I had to stay in Manchester for the night. As I was late arriving, I could not be bothered to go in search of a good restaurant. Result: I ate in.
I was treated to a 1960s carvery of the worst type. Overcooked (dramatically), tasteless, fatty, awful food.
Good food does not take more capital investment than bad food. Good chefs are not paid dramatically more than poor managers. So come on, hotel groups - don't keep letting the side down.
I blame the accountants for this situation, the moguls at the top, people who have no empathy for the industry and who have been led to believe that property prices and room rates will go on rising forever.
Trevor Benson, Foodservice Director, CPC (UK), Esher, Surrey.
