Letters
an exercise in motivation
FURTHER to your article relating to the café in Grimsby that is used to provide training for people with learning difficulties (Caterer 1 April, page 7), I would like to mention a similar venture at the Café Horizon in Walthamstow, London.
It saddens me to hear the constant griping from catering staff about doing X amount of hours for X amount of pay and under X conditions.
Although in many instances there may be a genuine cause for grievance, it still pales in comparison to the dedication and hard work that has to be shown by both staff and pupils in what can be at times a very trying and testing environment.
Operating an extremely busy café as a viable business (albeit non-profit making), and also educating the kids from both a practical and academic point of view in liaison with parents, carers, social workers and various other departments, encompasses the need for an entire spectrum of skills.
Also, this is undertaken on a shoestring budget and with what, from an outside point of view, appears to be extremely limited assistance.
A closer look at this kind of establishment may make a lot of catering staff who at present feel demotivated realise that life is not so bad after all.
Craig Cherry
London E17.
give customers more information
MY WIFE and I watched Big Kevin, Little Kevin on television recently. From the USA, we were shown both Kevins fishing for prawns and alligators before cooking a tasty dish. From this country, we were shown a superb piece of monkfish already skinned and with its head off - very English.
We began to wonder whether cooking programmes should include education as well as entertainment. For example, does the British public know what a whole monkfish looks like?
Everywhere else in the world, it seems, we see fresh produce shown from its source. But in this country, we show it in either a supermarket trolley, or miraculously appearing from another room, or under a towel, as in this instance.
English food is the quality of the product left in its simplest form. English cooking is knowing what not to add.
We should try very hard to educate the public, offering to show how to take fish off the bone instead of doing it for them. Unless the public and especially children pay more attention to what comes out of the sea, they will never care what they put in it.
Edwin Cheeseman
Proprietor,
The Carrington Arms,
Buckinghamshire.
help all staff handle complaints
IT WAS interesting to read Stephen Evans' Viewpoint on managing director and chief executive involvement in complaints (Caterer 29 April, page 18).
As a training provider to the hospitality industry, running a course on handling complaints is a fairly regular request.
From feedback I receive during the delivery of courses, customer satisfaction could increase substantially if communication were improved between individual departments and the management chain, and if everyone was "singing from the same song-sheet".
I totally agree that all complaints should reach the managing director's desk - but let's make sure that staff are empowered, kept informed and given the confidence to handle different situations without the need for the customer to feel that the only way for their voice to be heard is by writing a letter.
Lynette Lloyd
Principal Consultant,
Professional People Training Service,
Ashington,
West Sussex.
no excuses over using eggs
CHEF Antony Worrall Thompson says "When we crack an egg into a bowl we cannot tell if there is anything wrong with it." ("Celebrity Chef welcomes council climb-down in salmonella case", Caterer 29 April, page 7).
If restaurateurs and caterers do not know the state of a raw egg, then why do they still play Russian roulette with them?
Their customers' health is reason enough for restaurateurs to use pasteurised eggs whenever the raw egg is not cooked in an oven for more than three minutes above 70ºC.
Until such time that we can tell if a raw egg is diseased, culinary purity must be sacrificed for the health and safety of the customer.
Rather than blame misfortune, pasteurised eggs should be the norm if the industry is genuine in its concern to diminish the risk of a salmonella outbreak.
Esperanza Martinez-Zurita
Zurita Hospitality Consulting,
London W2.
cost cuts can put staff at risk
PIZZA Hut and Pizza Express have decided to cut costs by telling staff to pay their own taxi fares home and regard tips as part of wages (Caterer 22 April, page 4).
So female staff now have to find the cost of getting home late at night. If they can't afford this, they risk walking home when no other transport is available.
Pizza Hut is wrong in the assumption that other outlets don't bear the cost of staff getting home.
My experience shows me that many caring employers make the hotel/restaurant minibus available for this purpose.
Perhaps people can live on £3.60 per hour, but I'm sure the respective chief executives don't have to get by on such a paltry sum - it's more likely that they have to survive on £360,000 per year.
G Blwyddin
Leominster.
does anyone know what I do?
I WILL shortly be taking up the post of Guest Relations Executive in a newly opened hotel. At the moment, no one is quite sure how this post will develop.
I would be extremely grateful therefore, to receive comments on the role and job descriptions if possible from colleagues within the industry who are in or have held this position.
John McShane
Flat 1-2,
3 James Nisbet Street,
Glasgow,
G21 2LS.
