Paul Slattery

Revealing all this week is Paul Slattery, director in research leisure UK at the Kleinwort Benson Group

1. What was your best subject at school?

History

2. What was your first job?

Navvy

3. What was your first job in catering?

Commis waiter, Royal Hotel, Ventnor, Isle of Wight

4. What do you normally have for breakfast?

Cereal, toast, tea

5. What do you do to relax?

Watch TV, watch rugby, eat in restaurants, drink in bars, sleep in hotels

6. Which is your favourite restaurant?

Brasserie Beaux Arts, Toulouse

7. What is your favourite drink?

Claret, especially Pomerol

8. What ingredient do you hate the most?

Coconut

9. What do you always carry with you?

Wallet, mobile phone

10. How would you best describe your desk?

Wooden

11. Which person in catering have you most admired?

Bryan Langton, chairman, Holiday Inn Worldwide

12. Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?

Karl Popper

13. Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?

Internet

14. What daily newspapers do you read?

Financial Times, The Times

15. If not yourself, who would you rather have been?

No one

16. If you hadn't gone into catering, where do you think you would be now?

Oblivion

17. Describe your ultimate nightmare?

The next recession being as bad as the last

18. Where and when was your last holiday?

Italy, July 1995

19. Tell us a secret…

Hospitality companies will perform better in the next recession than they did in the last

20. What irritates you most about hotels?

Empty lobbies with Muzak

21. When did you last eat a hamburger?

September 1992, Hard Rock Café, Orlando, Florida