Letters
It's only make-believe, but food poisoning is serious
I realise that your Info Zone story "Coping with staff crisis" (Caterer, 15 June, page 37) is a theoretical exercise, and recognise that the whole process and solutions are all about keeping the holiday camp running.
There is, however, no mention of food safety or the procedures to be adopted in such a case.
This is obviously a serious outbreak of food poisoning, and the procedures followed show a total disregard of compliance to Food Safety Regulation 4(3) Food Safety Act 1990, and a total disregard of the clientele at the holiday camp.
Food safety is paramount, and management and owners of catering establishments should bear in mind that all persons involved directly or indirectly in food preparation or production should be trained to a competent level in food safety.
Staff training to a basic competence level takes six hours at a registered college or university.
The conclusion of this case study should have ended in the temporary closure of the holiday camp by local environmental health officers and heavy fines for the owners and the catering manager if found guilty of not complying with food safety regulations.
Owen McGrory, Paisley, Scotland.
Running a one-stop shop in an imperfect world
In response to the letters from Ms Lee of Halifax and Mr Maud of Lea Manor Hotel & Restaurant, (Caterer, 22 June, page 20), our business is just that, a business.
We serve clients by providing a one-stop shop for hotel accommodation at cost-effective prices and we supply the hotels with guests to occupy their rooms.
In a perfect world, this service would be free to all. However, this is not a perfect world and we are not a charity. In reality, our clients want a professional service and the hotels want guests.
We run our business as a business, and we have to make commercial arrangements that will allow us to continue servicing our clients and still make a profit. For hotels it comes down to the old equation on commission: is it better to have 100% of £x or 85% of £2x?
On balance, the hotel sector lives in the real world and we work constructively in partnership with them, helping them to generate significant business.
Maurice Segal, Group Chairman, Expotel, London NW6.
‘Chequebook' guides disappoint caterers
After eight years trading, my wife and myself felt that it was time our achievements were recognised by a wider market. As part of our "awareness" campaign we decided to approach Les Routiers for a possible inclusion in its 2000/01 guide.
After paying a £75 application fee we were visited by an "inspector" who immediately launched into his sales speech, casually mentioning the annual £375 "membership" fee.
He showed little interest in viewing the premises and only sampled a sandwich for lunch.
When I expressed my dismay he informed me that he was under no obligation to sample the food at all, relying upon his "considerable experience" and "the warmth of welcome" to assess the quality of the establishment.
Needless to say we feel conned and, although we decided not to accept the offer of membership, allowing Les Routiers the opportunity to send in their "sales rep" has cost us £75.
We naively believed that Les Routiers was a quality organisation with standards based upon rigorous independent monitoring and not merely a "chequebook" entry.
If this is how our industry is advertised to the public, how can the consumer accurately assess the true quality of any establishment?
David North, the Red Lion Country Inn, Hampshire.
Mobile phones turn peace into bedlam
I couldn't agree more with Michael Milburn's comments regarding mobile phones (Caterer, 6 July, page 16).
Like most licensees, we work extremely hard but are lucky enough to get a day off occasionally. We regularly choose to go to a local country house hotel for a relaxing lunch and to unwind.
Imagine our horror, while dining in the conservatory on a lovely sunny day with the windows and doors open, to see a dozen or so people suddenly burst on to the lawn - every one of them sporting a mobile phones that proceeded to go off with all the loony tunes you can think of.
Like clones, they then all started to walk up and down the lawn with these things stuck to their heads. It was like being in a lunatic asylum.
We felt most cheated that we had spent a lot of money only to sit, listen and watch this spectacle on our much-valued day off.
Upmarket hotels like this should make a rule for conference and business people that if they really feel it necessary to use these anti-social objects, confine it to the bedroom, car or car park.
Michele Vernon, the Red Lion, Litton, Derbyshire.
