Letters
FSA needs more catering experts
May I add my personal disappointment and an industry despair that the board of the Food Standards Agency has only one member with a cooking or catering background.
Prompted by leading figures of the industry, I applied for a post on the board. I am currently chairman of the Master Chefs of Great Britain, have been an external examiner and committee member, and have often been asked to take the chair at the Restaurant Association and the British Hospitality Association and many other organisations over a 25-year period.
I have also run four successful restaurants, two hotels and am currently embarking on a new project.
As a cook, my restaurants gained 11 Red Ms, 20 rosettes and 23 years in the Good Food Guide. Surely I am qualified not only to understand the food industry but to cope with committee work?
However, after reaching the last stages of selection, my application was deemed unsuccessful "at this time".
The industry deserves more strength at this level and needs its special problems and requirements to be understood. After all, this influential and strong organisation could change the face of catering without anyone on the board who understands our problems.
Somerset Moore, the Old Passage Inn, Arlingham, Gloucestershire.
That priceless gift
My letter "Why must we pay for support of top chefs?" was published last month (Caterer, 15 June, page 18). Since then I have received a letter from Albert and Michel Roux Jr, who have kindly donated prizes of work experience and tuition, including accommodation and air fare, for each of our three competition winners. I would like to thank the Roux family and Brian Turner for their overwhelming generosity.
I still, however, ask myself where most high-profile chefs' true responsibilities lie when it comes to attracting new and aspiring chefs to the profession? Other high-profile chefs would not attend the competition without payment, and it is apparent they seek only financial gain from a profession in which they too were once students.
Turner and the Roux family are giving something back to the industry that's worth much more than money - respect.
C Wood, Chef of the Year, Co-ordinator and Chef-lecturer, Sherwood, Nottingham
Ace worker waits for a break
After reading the article "Worth waiting?" (Caterer, 13 July, page 24), I must say that classical training among waiters is very rare these days. Employers no longer look for these skills - a fact I am finding to my cost.
I have been out of work for five months, looking for a restaurant management/assistant manager position in London where I can use the skills I learnt 20 years ago.
I wish people would look at the complete picture of what these skills mean in terms of commitment and understanding of the industry. All it seems to be about these days is making money and paying low wages.
We need to bring the industry to the forefront of society, and that means bringing back the skills of communicating with customers instead of just putting down a plate and walking away.
Jonathan Brown, East Dulwich, London SE22.
An old-fashioned success story
We hear all the time about new trends and developments in the industry, but I write in defence of the status quo in hotels. I am against the idea that if a property isn't changing all the time, then there is something wrong.
At the 300-year-old George hotel in Penrith, Cumbria, we delight in being quaintly old-fashioned rather than brashly new-fangled. Our guests seem to like the creaking floorboards, sloping corridors and leaning stairs. Our afternoon tea regulars are very protective of their special chair in their favourite spot.
Our loyal customers demand the same room because it's their "home from home". They want to see the same hotel staff (who, on average, have been here at least a decade, in some cases up to 25 years) rather than new faces or even young faces.
When we restyle bedrooms, we make sure our clients approve of the designs.
So who says new is best? Record business at the George suggests that a hotel should be like a pair of comfortable old slippers - a cosy, familiar and welcoming end to the day.
Alex Borg, General Manager, the George hotel, Penrith, Cumbria.
Relief chefs are cooks and not clairvoyants
There is a stigma attached to "relief chefs" as being mercenaries who care little for the work done and rather more for the money earned. Well, I have been working as a relief chef for some time now and have made some observations about the industry.
As many professional bodies adopt initiatives to attract the young to the industry, it seems that few make any effort to keep the ones they have. The serious lack of chefs staying in the industry is increasing the need for relief chefs.
The role of the relief chef is to offer relief, so why is it that so many reliefs cause chaos in the establishments they visit? The reason is that we are not all clairvoyant; we don't know exactly how all the food is prepared and presented in every establishment in the land and we require help on our first few days because, believe it or not, we don't know where everything is!
There is often little or no direction given to relief chefs when they arrive and I often hear the comment "the kitchen is all yours".
All too often, working as a relief can be an impossible task. No one said it would be easy, and I don't expect it to be, but I do expect that when I turn up to offer help it is a two-way street. I am not clairvoyant, neither do I have two pairs of hands, but I do love to cook.
Vic Rowling, humble Relief Chef, Shrewsbury, Shropshire.
