Letters

Venues' seal of approval leaves caterers cold

I feel driven to write about a situation that I believe is stifling development and competition in the industry.

We are a fast-growing event catering company. During the past year, we have doubled our turnover and rapidly expanded our corporate client base, which includes several household names. Of course, finding venues is an integral part of our services to such clients.

Given that background, I am surprised and frustrated at the reception I have received from many venues - including some that claim publicly to have adopted an open-door policy to new caterers.

Despite our excellent references and firm commitments from clients, I find that the managements of many venues are unwilling to consider new business or build new relationships.

We find ourselves in a catch-22 position where we are expected to prove our suitability to cater at the venue, and to gain the honour of inclusion on the venue's approved list, without being allowed any opportunity to do so.

One venue kindly suggested that I pass the business on to one of their approved caterers and take a commission - hardly a solution when the client has already chosen us as their preferred caterer.

I would be interested to hear the views of other businesses looking to break in to the top end of the market. Ultimately, I feel that the blinkered and defensive attitude I have encountered among the management of several venues does both the industry and its clients a serious disservice: it makes the entry of new talent even more difficult than it needs to be.

Anne Aitken

Sales and Marketing Manager,

Jackson Gilmour,

Croydon,

Surrey.

The Caledonia must figure it out

Net sales figures for the Caledonia pub, Caterer's Adopted Business, in its first 22 weeks made interesting reading (14 December).

The gross profit percentage on a total turnover of £35,056 for drink and food is 42.26%, which I am afraid is not enough to make the pub viable at a rent of £334 per week (excluding VAT).

Jon Maslen-Jones should try to eventually aim for a 55-60% gross profit on his total non-VAT turnover. Let us hope he can do it, as he has taken on a difficult estate pub.

John Gomersall

Independent Business Consultant,

Worminghall,

Buckinghamshire.

Corkage row is a battle of words

Chris Bone's argument that the Earl of Bradford should have charged corkage on a "bottle equivalent" basis is equally flawed (Letters, 14 December).

A customer is quoted a price for beer by the barrel, and purchases it as such, or in fractions thereof, on the assumption that "barrel" refers to a quantity of 36 gallons.

This is despite the fact that, by definition, a barrel is a "wooden vessel of hooped staves with ends", with no defined capacity.

Ultimately, the problem lies in communication rather than semantics.

Neil Spencer

General Manager,

The Stonor Arms,

Stonor,

Oxfordshire.

Chefs' workload is boiling over

On behalf of my colleagues and myself, I wish to thank the sender of the letter "Long hours are kitchen torture" (14 December). At last someone has spoken out about real kitchen violence.

The past two months have been extremely demanding. After completing five 17-hour shifts back-to-back, our main office (management and financial control) said there was a rumour the chefs were being "unproductive".

There was no evidence to support this: we had just fed 200 guests after only one hour's notice on top of the usual batch of Christmas parties and regular service. Over the festive period, no customer left without having eaten and no-one complained about the quality of the food.

Chefs no longer get the respect they are due. It is a stressful job that requires skill, teamwork and enthusiasm to keep going, despite constant pressure, long hours and heat. The main criteria to do this job is the love of creating beautiful food and the ability to do so.

Restaurateurs and hoteliers should remember that stars and ratings are awarded primarily on the quality of the cuisine and service provided by the employees.

By treating chefs as inferior personnel they are driving the profession to the wall. Young people are unlikely to seek a career in the kitchen until chefs are given the wages they deserve.

We believe the real kitchen violence is the way chefs have to work long hours for low pay and are treated as second-class employees.

Name and address supplied.

Temporary work pays dividends

At present, I am unable to secure a permanent post and so I am temping in a bar and at functions.

Apart from securing some income, it has given me experience of the range of ways in which our profession operates.

I have worked at many venues, from factory canteens to executive dining rooms, and worked alongside new recruits and the traditional black-and-white "extra ducks" - a selection of the good, the bad and the ugly, from organised to organised chaos.

Yet, we always seem to turn impending failure to success and send the customer home happy. Even with a brigade of vastly differing backgrounds and skills, there has been rarely any ill feeling, always a great sense of comradeship and an overall fun atmosphere.

At least that has been the case up to now - tonight, I am due to serve at a function for 1,000 students!

I think the whole area of temps working in catering would make an interesting series of articles for Caterer.

Name and address supplied.

Roadchef leads on motorways

In a recent news article (7 December) it was claimed that Blue Boar was the largest independent motorway services operator.

I wish to point out that RoadChef is, in fact, the largest privately owned company in this field and is the third largest of all such operators.

Turnover in 1994/95 was more than £102m and RoadChef has 11 sites nationwide, as well as six lodges catering for business and leisure travellers.

Peter Saunders

Sales and Marketing Director,

RoadChef,

Gloucester.