New year honours

Some of the industry's unsung heroes were to be found among the great and the good on the New Year Honours list.

So-called "people's choices" for national honours included Joan Clarke, a general assistant for the last 46 years in the dining hall of Worcester College of Higher Education; catering manager Richard Flegg, who has worked at Nottingham City Hospital for 40 years; and head waiter at St Thomas' Hospital, London, Joaquim Cubertino. All three were made MBEs.

"I've been to the palace as a tourist but I've never been above stairs," said Miss Clarke, who was nominated for the honour by Worcester College principal Dorma Urwin.

Another veteran of the hospitality sector, John Leckie, managing director of the 222-bedroom Crieff Hydro Hotel in Perthshire, Scotland, for 40 years, was also made an MBE.

Mr Leckie's son Stephen, who has succeeded him as managing director following his semi-retirement, said his father had been overwhelmed by the number of staff, suppliers and customers who had written to the Scottish Office nominating him for an honour.

"At first he insisted the honour was for the hotel and not him personally," said Stephen, the fifth generation of the Leckie family to run the hotel.

Richard Morley, catering manager at Ring & Brymer, Gardner Merchant's event catering business, was also made an MBE, along with Sheila Miller from the British Tourist Authority (BTA).

Mrs Miller is to fly from New York, where she works as assistant to the BTA's US director, to collect her honour. She has worked for the authority for 39 years.

Michael Pickard, founder of the Happy Eater chain of roadside restaurants, was knighted, while Don Curry, chairman of the Meat and Livestock Commission, was made a CBE.