Work in catering advertises itself
Niki and I have taken advantage of the quiet times in August to eat out on several occasions. Two very different meals have reaffirmed my belief in the benefits and pleasures of catering.
One was a gourmet evening at a local restaurant, Bruerne's Lock, set in a stunning location on the side of the Oxford and Grand Union Canal. We were treated to superb food, fine wines and Champagnes (supplied by Laurent-Perrier) and irreverent service. This last may seem a contradiction, but the team knows us well and we now feel very much at home when eating there - in fact, they joined us for a drink while we waited for a taxi.
This fine line of offering hospitality without over-familiarity is down to personality, and something that many business must cry out for. If I had a wish list for staff qualities, it would include personality and confidence. We can train simple craft skills, often in minutes, but the confidence and assurance of a professional take far longer.
I was delighted to find this confidence, however, on a visit to Pizza Hut in Kings Lynn - even though it's hardly the culinary centre of the known world. We walked in early on Saturday lunchtime to find a warm welcome, concern as to whether our sleeping two-year-old would need a high chair on waking and swift attentive service.
Suddenly the place was packed, and yet the service never wavered. Most tables were full of families, and it struck me that these people would go away with a positive image of catering (no matter how subconscious); and that they were the guests or, better, the staff of the future.
After the excesses of June and early July, we have found the lull of August a useful time to catch up on outstanding maintenance jobs and to plan for the future. We have reviewed the successes and lows of the past few years, and used this information to create a vision of where the business could be in five years' time. I find it easy to get carried away with the image, less easy to form a plan with a chance of turning it into fact.
However, we have great aspirations, and we now have the task of taking the business into the 21st century.
ROBERT ALVAREZ is proprietor of Phoenix Catering event caterers in Towcester, Northamptonshire
