School caterers must move with the times
I find Irene Carroll's lambasting of Jamie Oliver as the sole cause for the drop in school meals take-up laughable and obviously self-serving (Caterer, 3 November, page 12). Oliver simply crystallised many people's thinking on the issue. Now it is simply parents and students deciding for themselves that what they had been ingesting from an early age may be less than healthy. Paraphrasing Roger Denton, Local Authority Caterers Association (LACA) members should be happy the drop hasn't been more severe.
Ultimately "all these underlying problems" are largely of the industry's own making. If the margins offered by local education authority catering contracts were truly unsustainable, then there would be far fewer companies in the industry, and there would likely be no industry to speak of. If Carroll is sincere, she would acknowledge that traditional working practices and business strategies will have to change.
It is a given that centrally funded catering budgets will probably only increase marginally over the next 10 years, given the current demands on the public purse. It is, therefore, incumbent on Carroll and her fellow LACA members to challenge the status quo they have created. These companies run some of the most sophisticated supply chains in the UK - surely they have the intellectual and financial resources to restructure and optimise them to meet changing customer demands? If supermarkets can build multibillion-pound businesses on the back of 4% net margins, why can't you? The customers are voting with their feet - catch up!
Bob Spence, director, New Culinary Ventures
No need to panic over EC regulation
Your two articles about the new food safety regulations need further clarification (Caterer, 10 November, pages 10 and 81). The EC regulation 852/2004 will require implementation and maintenance of permanent food safety management procedures based on the principles of HACCP. In Harriet Simmons's piece about "John Jones" and his hotel with a restaurant there was an inference that a full HACCP system would be required.
The Food Standards Agency's own "Safer Food, Better Business" toolkit would probably be of use to John Jones. Any system in place should be proportionate to the size and nature of the business. The toolkit, as Geoff Ward indicated, is free and can be obtained via the FSA. Visit www.food.gov.uk/catering. The system is designed for small catering businesses, although its specific use is not a legal requirement. Whatever system is in place must be workable and demonstrable. The FSA expects a 60% compliance by 2012, and expects that HACCP as a culture will take at least a generation to be fully taken up by caterers.
So before panicking over 1January 2006 and rushing off to develop a full-blown HACCP system, read the FSA's website and contact your local authority. It might save you a lot of time, trouble, confusion and money.
Euan MacAuslan, environmental health training co-ordinator, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Safety limits miss the mark
Once again the regulations imposed by the EC go unchallenged by our supine Food Standards Agency. The EC regulation 852 (on the hygiene of foodstuffs), compulsory from January 2006, states temperature-control limits of 8°C and 63°C. We all know that safe refrigeration starts below 5°C - and the nearer the refrigerator operates to 1C the safer food will be - and safe reheating starts at 75°C (82°C in Scotland).
The FSA had a superb opportunity to eliminate all doubts and set clear and safe temperature standards, but chose not to intervene.
Furthermore, the FSA's "Safer Food, Better Business" campaign targeted at small businesses does not explain the dangers. Sadly, this sector poses most risks to consumers. The businesses are told to base their food safety management system on a compliance diary, but are not informed about how pathogens survive.
So, they write: "Today's temperatures of fridge number 1, 7°C and fridge number 2, 7°C." Technically right, but, unfortunately for the consumers, wrong. Both fridges (likely to be the domestic type) hold, sometimes for days, cooked rice, cooked scrambled eggs and defrosted prawns: ingredients for menu item 123. This mix is then reheated - for how long and at what temperature nobody knows - and either delivered by motorcycle or handed over at the counter to the consumer, who will eat it, probably lukewarm, later on.
Result? Joy for the shareholders of toilet tissue companies. Given the fact that millions of pounds are being given to local authorities to spread the message and that two-thirds of the same authorities cannot, by their own admissions, provide adequate policing, one wonders if priorities are recognised - never mind applied.
E Nuonno di Agnone, principal, ENDA Consultants
Hotel dining can excite
Further to your article "Hotel restaurants are losing market share" (Caterer, 10 November, page 8), I would like to point out that although these figures must, indeed, paint a true picture, as they derive from an independent source, I am still of the strong belief that hotel dining is only boring if it's approached in an unimaginative way.
Jumeirah operates more than 60 restaurants within its portfolio of just eight hotels, and our food and beverage revenues amount to a substantial contribution to the overall bottom-line success. Our most successful operation is the Noodle House, Dubai, which contributes more profit per square metre of occupied floor space than a bedroom.
At Jumeirah Carlton Tower the Rib Room is a restaurant that has served the same quality and style of food for over 40 years and consistently grows its market share each year. This year it will see a record 3m turnover - not bad for a room that seats just over 80 diners. Its success is directly due to the following factors:
- Dedicated and well remunerated colleagues who are passionate about what they cook and serve.
- Uncompromising food purchasing.
- A common-sense approach to the dishes, which concentrates on timeless favourites and simple cooking methods.
- A room where every diner can hear each other - but not be overheard by others.
- Decor that is stylishly themed and lit to be flattering.
We have not yet needed to resort to César Ritz's technique of ensuring a full hotel dining room. Callers in the 1920s were always told the restaurant was full - but this was because he removed empty tables, only bringing them back into the room when he thought someone of sufficient quality was standing by the restaurant podium.
Derek Picot, regional general manager, Jumeirah Carlton Tower
Goring bucks the trend
I'm sure the article "Hotel restaurants are losing market share" is correct for most of those ghastly, chilly, vast, West End hotels around Oxford Street, but things are completely different in Belgravia.
The Goring is full, full, full and has been since it reopened on 1 September after being completely redesigned by the Queen's nephew, David Linley. After winning the accolade of Best British Restaurant at the ITV awards earlier this year, and having received rave reviews from the likes of AA Gill and Fay Maschler, people are voting with their feet. The restaurant is fuller than it ever has been in the 95 years of this family-run hotel.
So, the Goring bucks the trend, and I would be so grateful if you could tell your readers all about this wonderful success story.
Ian Scott, Ian Scott Associates
Our back pages: stories from the Caterer vaults
Caterer & Hotelkeeper, 21 October 1971
One of London's top restaurateurs has asked half a dozen medical officers of health to help him halt a new complaint among the well-fed - "Mayfair tummy".
The warning comes from Captain Owen Cunningham, whose broadside is aimed at banning the use of scallop shells as containers in which to serve first course au gratin dishes.
Says the Captain: "As containers in which to serve food they make fine ashtrays. The surface of the shells is lined with thousands of tiny cracks.
It is impossible to clean them thoroughly and in no time at all they become breeding grounds for bacteria. I want to see them banned before 'Mayfair tummy' becomes a real threat."
At his own Curzon Street restaurant the Captain uses the shells once only - to serve scallops. "Then they are thrown away."