Trading standards probes certificate scheme
Barnet trading standards officers are again looking into 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 stump up £20, within 21 days, for 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 titled 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, 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 with Laynes House since March.
Barnet trading standards says it will investigate any enquiries from restaurateurs. They can be contacted on 0208 359 4916.
by Angela Frewin angela.frewin@rbi.co.uk
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