Restaurant ‘award' arouses suspicions

Trading standards officers in Barnet, London, are again investigating the activities of an organisation calling itself the Hotel and Restaurant Academy, after receiving dozens of enquiries from suspicious restaurateurs from all over the country.

Since February, restaurants have received letters from the academy to say they have won its Millennium Award of Distinction for Excellence.

Winners are invited to pay £20, within 21 days, for which they receive a certificate of merit and one year's membership of the academy, which guarantees them "free editorial coverage" in the "soon-to-be-released" Dining at the Dawn of the Millennium magazine.

The council started investigations into the academy's promotion of a similar scheme in 1997, when the magazine was called Food for the Millennium (Caterer, 29 May 1997, page 7). In both cases, the letters were signed by Alex de Bouvoir.

The 1997 investigation lapsed as complaints dwindled. However, neither trading standards nor restaurants such as Cardiff's Topo Gigio, which paid for a certificate, saw copies of the magazine.

Earlier this year, trading standards were told by the man who said he was heading up the UK operation on behalf of de Bouvoir that the magazine would appear by the end of 2000, once enough advertising revenue had been raised.

He also told trading standards officers that inspections were carried out by students who questioned diners as they left restaurants.

Restaurateurs were wary about the latest mailing because they had not heard of the publication, the letter gave no phone number, and the academy address (at Laynes House, Mill Hill, London NW7) differed from the freepost address on the pre-paid envelope, also in NW7.

Trading standards established that the academy, said to have been formed in Idaho in 1952, had not been registered at Laynes House since March.

Barnet officers said they would investigate any enquiries from restaurateurs. They can be contacted on 020 8359 4916.

by Angela Frewin