Don't tar all colleges with the same brush
Prue Leith said at the European Catering Association conference that "college restaurants that pretend to be realistic only damage the industry's image" (Caterer, 12 June, page 9).
And not so long ago there was a comment from a Michelin-starred chef criticising colleges for not filleting fish any more (Caterer, 1 May, page 12).
Catering students who hear such comments are getting the feeling that their education and training are not going to help them once they leave college.
Along with other catering lecturers, I'm sure, I am sick and tired of industry "figures" demeaning colleges. Have these people visited every college in the country? I think not.
I am sure that there are plenty of other colleges like my own that do have a successful restaurant that is open to the public, and that these colleges do teach people how to fillet fish, make stocks and all the other things we are reported not to be doing anymore.
I never see comments in Caterer from lecturing staff demeaning the skills of day-release students who are being trained in industry, some of whom have been working for a good number of years but do not have the basic culinary skills.
Please, all you industry "figureheads", don't lump all colleges together. Choose your words carefully (students also read Caterer, you know) and, in future, maybe the word "some" before the word "colleges" would be appropriate.
Phil Brown, Catering and hospitality lead tutor, Tresham Institute of Further and Higher Education, Corby, Northamptonshire
You're only as old as the job you feel you can dotable talk
Caterer's cover asks the question: "Can you ever be too old to work in the industry?" (12 June). The answer, if you are old, is: "No." If you are recruiting (and, as most people in the industry like to think they are young and happening), the answer is: "Yes."
There is a perception that older people should be content in the jobs they have; that it's OK for young people to move jobs on the stairway to glory, but a person in their fifties should have got there and have stopped looking.
This is not to say that young people coming into the business should not be looking to get that top spot - we need many more young people - but it is counter-productive to ignore the older worker. As your article points out, B&Q has shown the benefit.
Like many older people, I had to become self-employed as my age became an issue when applying for jobs, even in my forties. Time and again, I heard the old put-down: "You're too qualified for the position." I have never really understood what that means. Either you have the experience to do the job or you don't.
I have worked over the past few years with a number of younger senior managers. They are very good with the theory, but their young years sometimes let them down on people skills.
And that is a problem, as we are a people-skills business.
Dudley Seale, Consultant, Minehead, Somerset
Maybe experience is this year's enthusiasm
My own observations are that those over 50, and maybe in a "third-age scenario" and fortunate to be in meaningful employment, can work in perfect harmony with the young.
There's a lot of scope for older managers to be employed as consultants, lending their experience and knowledge of the industry to younger entrepreneurs.
After more than 40 years in hotel- and leisure-related industries, I now have a successful public relations company representing several privately owned hotels, some with Michelin stars, the owners of which like to see a few grey hairs around. My associates are all young and energetic, teeming with ideas, are fun to work with, and we exist happily together. Their exuberance keeps me young.
Someone once said: "Getting old is getting younger all the time," and it is sad to know of well-qualified people in the hotel and catering industry who have been passed over because of age discrimination. Will the ageism legislation proposed for 2006 really solve all this?
Michael Blanchard, Chairman, MBA Hotel PR Consultants, Broadway, Worcestershire
People who use MSG are the salt of the earth
Following the article "Stock options" (Caterer, 8 May, page 40), I would like to highlight the beneficial role monosodium glutamate (MSG) can play in stocks and cooking in general.
As you may know, monosodium glutamate is the salt of glutamate, an amino acid found naturally in protein foods such as meat, vegetables and milk. The body treats glutamate from these sources and the glutamate used for seasoning in exactly the same way.
MSG is known mostly for its flavour-enhancing ability, but it does have other benefits.
In certain savoury foods and stocks, MSG can help to reduce sodium content without compromising taste. Taste tests have shown that when the salt level in food is reduced, food palatability decreases.
Although glutamate is not salty itself, using a small amount of MSG in a low-sodium product can make it taste as good as its higher-salt counterpart.
MSG contains only one-third of the amount of sodium in table salt and it is used at far lower levels, which means that sodium content can be reduced by as much as 30%.
Susan Scott, International Glutamate Information Service, London
Accessible Accor deserves disability distinction
In this, the European Year of Disabled People, it was encouraging to note that Accor Hotels was an exhibitor at the Mobility Roadshow 2003 at Castle Donington, 12-14 June.
It distributed a leaflet entitled: "Accor for Accessibility," which highlighted what steps the group has taken to make its properties more accessible. It refers not just to the adaptation of facilities but also to staff training.
As a specialist provider of accessible accommodation and a regular exhibitor at disability exhibitions, I hear frequently from people with disabilities that they find it difficult to find information on accessible facilities in the mainstream.
Accor is, therefore, to be highly commended for this initiative.
The leaflet also contains the following statement: "As a company, our commitment is to work within the requirements of the disabled traveller more than within the simple letter of the law."
Given the statistical evidence that 8.6 million people in the UK have a disability, but also have a combined disposable income of £40b-£50b per year, this makes sound commercial sense.
Stephen Springer, General manager, Grooms Holidays, Cowbridge
You can't teach an old dog new advertising tricks
A Spanish-speaking Chihuahua named Dinky has made two Americans very rich. A federal jury has ordered Taco Bell to pay two Michigan men $30m because they claimed Taco Bell advertising execs stole their idea of the cartoon dog and never paid them.
The plaintiffs sued the fast-food chain in 1998, claiming that they had pitched the idea for a character named "Psycho Chihuahua" more than a year before Taco Bell began airing its doggy commercials. The Chihuahua went on to star in TV ads for three-and-a-half-years, earning a cult following for its catch phrase: "Yo quiero Taco Bell."
Yum! Brands, owner of Taco Bell, says it will appeal against the verdict.
Delia's Elk-Burger Bar, established 8,000BC
Delia Smith has come into uncomfortably close contact with her ancestors at Norwich City Football Club. A set of flint knives once used by a Stone Age cook has been discovered beneath the stadium, owned by the celebrity chef.
The 10,000-year-old tools, which were used to butcher animals and prepare food, were found by archaeologists digging on the site of a new stand at Carrow Road. The discovery has forced the club to delay work on the £6.5m, 8,000-seat stand while the archeologists dig on.
Smith is the majority shareholder in the club, which could lose thousands of pounds if the extended dig delays the new stand's opening.
"But, Your Honour, we use the really soft brand..."
Will the trials of fast-food corporations at the hands of their litigious patrons never end? First, it was lawsuits from obese customers, now it's injury from tumbling toilet rolls.
Burger King is facing a $10,000 lawsuit over an allegation that a customer was injured at a Texas restaurant when a toilet roll holder fell off the wall, hitting her on the head and poking her in the eye.
Burger King declined to comment on the pending civil action.
All those peas - and me with no fish supper
Travellers in the UK are used to bizarre excuses for transport delays, but events on the A1 last week really took the biscuit. Motorists got stuck in a jam around Grantham, Lincolnshire, because of mushy peas on the road.
Following a collision with a bus, a lorry shed 18 tonnes of garden peas. A police spokesman said: "There were peas all over the carriageway. An extra three lorries were needed to shove all the loose peas into."
The route was obstructed for more than 12 hours while the vegetables were cleared.
Leaked bill is a burning issue for firemen's union
Leaked news of a £3,000 hotel bill run up by Fire Brigades Union general secretary Andy Gilchrist has led to a union official resigning and the hotel being criticised. Gilchrist and six colleagues ran up the bill for a two-night stay at Kit Champan's Castle Hotel in Taunton in May.
One of the officials, Somerset branch secretary Steve Underhill, has now quit his union position, accepting that the hotel bill is "totally indefensible".
Following his resignation, the hotel came under fire from the FBU, which said: "The underhand way this was dealt with is nothing short of disgraceful on behalf of the Castle Hotel - that the bill should get into the hands of the press."
In a statement, the hotel said the matter was extremely regrettable but it did not know how the leak happened.