TOP of the Pops
ANTON Mosimann and Lord Forte are admired by readers more than any other hospitality industry figures.
Gleneagles is far and away the hotel readers would most like to visit - with the Savoy and the Dorchester vying closely for second place.
And Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons also commands a big lead as the restaurant readers would most like to visit. The Roux brothers' two restaurants - Michel's Waterside Inn and Albert's Le Gavroche - dispute second place.
These league tables are the second instalment of research findings from the Caterer & Hotelkeeper Lifestyle Survey 1994.
A careful reading of the league tables reveals that Caterer readers are, as you might expect, overwhelmingly interested in food. Chefs and restaurateurs dominate the "most admired people" list. And the hotels in which people would most like to stay are - as well as being mostly five-star hotels - those renowned for their food.
Some people might be surprised how high Planet Hollywood appears on the restaurant list. This placing is achieved mainly because it is a favourite restaurant of young people employed in the industry.
Outstanding people - or their establishments - appear in all three tables. The Fortes - Lord Forte and son Rocco - both figure in the most-admired people list; Grosvenor House, the Waldorf and Browns are Forte properties on the hotels list; and the Café Royal is on the restaurants list.
Raymond Blanc, who takes third place in the "most admired people" stakes, can take pride in seeing Le Manoir listed not only as top restaurant but high up on the hotels league table.
Similarly, Francis Coulson and Brian Sack both attract enough votes individually to be on the top people list, and their "restaurant with rooms", Sharrow Bay, is rated both as a restaurant and as a hotel.
Marco Pierre White is confirmed as the superstar chef of the moment. He takes fourth place in the "top people" list and his establishments, The Canteen and The Restaurant, and Harveys (which he no longer runs) collect between them an impressive 118 votes.
There are frivolous elements to the voting: several readers voted, on the "most admired people" question, either for "my boss" or "myself".
There are also plenty of points of agreement with the judges of the Caterer & Hotelkeeper Awards. A glance at the Catey Academy, on page 16 of the awards supplement, published within thisissue, shows at sprinkling of names which appear on both in our awards and the survey. n
NEXT WEEK: the Caterer & Hotelkeeper Lifestyle Survey 1994 - life at work in the hospitality industry.
