The Caterer Blog

Absolutely, yes. This blog is a place to debate, agree, disagree, argue and above all for you to comment on anything you read. It's your chance to interact with the Caterer team directly - and ours to find out what you really think. Any good blog exists to stimulate it's community. That's why comments are open on every single post we make, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on the topics under discussion.

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Hi - I'm James Garner, managing editor. This is a posh title and doesn't really explain what I do, which is editor of CatererSearch.com. My role is to oversee site content and our blogs....but more about me later.

Firstly, a brief explanation of the caterer group blog and what it aims to give readers and users. We hope you'll gain a useful insight into the editorial team at Caterer and what interests us about the hospitality industry. Hopefully, you will enjoy this behind the scenes look at what goes on in our newsroom or on our features' desk, or maybe you'll like finding out what our editor Mark Lewis is thinking about....Mostly we hope you will enjoy our take on the industry we all love and work in...

And about me. Well if you're interested read on....

Hello. I'm the editor of Caterer and Hotelkeeper. It's my job to plan things, go out and meet people around the industry, speak at events like next week's Hospitality Show in Birmingham ... oh, and I do the occasional bit of writing. This is the first time I've contributed to a blog, so bear with me. Here's a link to my favourite local restaurant in south London, Numidie - what Serge doesn't know about cooking meat isn't worth knowing.

If you' re involved in school meals provision, you'll want to check out a new website, www.yougo4it.co.uk, which aims to promote healthy eating and school meals to secondary school students by making food fun. You could do far worse than alert the headmaster and teacher in your school to the site.

Anyone know any similar sites worth shouting about?

Hi I'm the business editor at Caterer and Hotelkeeper. I look after the Infozone section of the magazine which is all about helping you make your business more efficient and successful. As you all know, hospitality is such a fast moving industry that it can be hard to keep up to speed with new employment laws or the latest technological innovations but at . That's what I'm paid to do.Tough job eh?

Luckily I have a great team of experts who contribute their advice and you can also find more info at CatererSearch.com. For example if you want to tighten up your recipe costing and menu planning, take a look at StarChef.

To read more of my blog.....

Hello – I’m Kerstin, reporter on the news desk of the Caterer & Hotelkeeper and I cover the fine dining sector and look after the new openings and Caterer Loves sections of the magazine.

I’m originally from Cape Town, South Africa, but have been living in London since April 2003. While I've been working in magazines for a number of years, it wasn’t until recently that I joined the hospitality sector, as previously I was involved in covering the design and advertising industries at publications including Frame magazine in Amsterdam and Design Week in London.

A very warm welcome to The Caterer Blog. I'm Amanda Afiya, deputy editor of the magazine, and I've been working here far too long to mention.

How long? Well, let's just say that when I joined Caterer Marco was still at Harvey's in Wandsworth (now Chez Bruce), Gordon was a chef de partie in Paris (now he’s looking to open his own starred restaurant there) and gastropubs were just boozers that sold a decent ploughmans.

Hi. I’m Emily and I’m the deputy news ed. I’ve been here for just over two years now, although it seems like only yesterday I started here.

Anyway, as many of you will already know, on the news desk I mainly deal with the hotel sector, it’s my speciality if you like, and my passion too.

I’m frequently admonished by my husband on holiday for just ‘popping into’ random hotels to see what they’re like. Before you know it, of course, we’re having a full-blown show round, I’m loving it and the ‘old man’ is dragging his heels behind me grumbling.. Tragic or committed, I’m not sure?

Still, what’s there not to love, there’s glamour, there’s graft, and there’s customers, which of course drive everything - and sometimes you, nuts.

The reason I know this is that apart from talking to hoteliers all the time, I also used to work in the industry. I spent eight years working my way up from stagiere to events manager and everything in between.

Welcome to Caterer's blog.

Hi - I'm Katherine Alano. I am CatererSearch.com's senior sub-editor and I look after the day-to-day stuff on the website. Unlike my colleagues, who are out and about meeting all you people, you are more than likely find me at my computer making sure that all the editorial content is live and up-to-date on the website. So if you can't find what you are looking for, I'm the one to call!

Hi there,

I'm the news editor at Caterer, which gives me a great overview of what is going on around the hospitality industry. Unfortunately, it also means that I am the contact for every public relations bod under the sun desperately trying to get their client into the magazine....

But before I begin ranting, a little background. I have been a business journalist for more than six years, working on an IT title and one covering HR before joining Caterer last August. So, as you can imagine, covering an industry as interesting as hospitality is great for me.

Oh missus! Well this is the brave new world of the Caterer Blog and I, for my sins, am the online news editor, which on good days means I co-ordinate the news coverage for CatererSearch, write a fair few stories and produce newsletters, such as the Friday Wrap.

I've been knocking around Caterer for a number of years, initially covering the areas of careers and recruitment and most recently working as a reporter covering the pub and bar industry (yes I like a drink).

I breakfasted at the House of Commons this morning, where the Ark Foundation was launching Ark for Business, a dedicated alcohol and drug consultancy resource for hospitality employers.

Since 2000, the Ark Foundation has worked tirelessly to educate hospitality students, employees and managers on the dangers of drug and alcohol dependency. Ark for Business offers a ‘company health check’ to establish an organisation’s specific needs, then assists with drug and alcohol policy design, employee education and awareness, and management training.

The Ark has some pretty high-profile supporters, including Jamie Oliver, who says:

"the Ark is a vital part of our industry, a training tool as imperative as learning how to make pasta or braise a piece of lamb. Alcohol and other drugs are out there, and what the Ark does well is make it a topic which can be discussed".

If you've ever seen Michael Quinn or Peter Kay present the Ark's seminar on the effects on the brain and the body of excessive alcohol consumption and drug abuse, you'll know how thought-provoking and hard-hitting their accounts of their own experiences are. If not, maybe it's time you gave them a call to arrange a visit to your college or place of work, on 0870 351 0160.

Hello and welcome to the Caterer Blog. I’m Diane Lane (no sadly not the Hollywood actress, although I have trodden the boards on more than one occasion in guises such as a PVC-clad, cabaret-performing witch in pantomime, and a neurotic spliff head in a comedy drama).

But enough of my nocturnal activities, by day I’m the products editor on Caterer and Hotelkeeper which means I look after all the coverage of products and equipment so Inside Kitchens, Inside Beverages and the brand new Buy It! are all in my remit, along with some of the content of Inside Food. Lots of pages I know, but at least it keeps me out of mischief. And I get to test out lots of products that come in although there’s a limit to how many bouillon mixes a girl can make use of...

My favourite thing to make for dinner, however, is reservations. I do love to eat out and let’s face it, there’s definitely no shortage of great places to eat in this green and pleasant land. Which is where all you guys come in and the amazing job you do – it’s the reason I’ve stayed with this fantastic industry for the last eight years instead of penning romantic novels à la Barbara Cartland by the seaside like a writer should. Really, there’s no better industry for a journalist to be in and, as Timberlake would say, I’m Lovin’ It…

Hi - I’m Joanna Wood and I’m the chef editor on the magazine. I’ve worked on Caterer for nearly 10 years now, so I guess that makes me one of the longest serving members of the team (oldest, too, but let’s not go there, please).

I initially came to the magazine as a freelance journalist and joined six years ago, as deputy editor of the section before taking over from Amanda Afiya as chef editor three years later. My patch, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, deals with in-depth features on all things cheffy: profiles, recipes (like the recent bumper crop from some of our Michelin starred pub chefs), and craft-based features like our monthly Masterclasses (watch out for our next one on veal, coming up in our 15 Feb issue).

At this stage, I think I need to front up and tell you all something. When I first started writing for the magazine it was as a journalist, rather than as a specialist food writer. I had a passion for good, fresh food and produce (doesn’t every one?), but hadn’t a clue what being a professional chef entailed. I soon found out. Long hours, comparatively little pay for most people – not to mention fallen arches, even a lovely condition known quaintly as ‘chef’s arse’ (which, thankfully, I’ve not seen in the flesh).

Hello, I’m Rosalind Mullen and my job title is “acting” features editor… And no, that doesn’t mean I’m assessing theatrical performance in the hospitality industry – what it does mean is that I’m looking after the features desk on behalf of Helen Adkins, who’s on maternity leave until the summer.

It’s familiar territory for me as I was features editor for countless years until 2003 when I went freelance to spend more time with my son. Less familiar is the wonderful world of blogging, so you’ll have to bear with me while I wrestle with what is now bewilderingly called “multi-platform journalism”.

Reading this article in the New York Times about the unbelievably haughty nature of some restaurants (and in some cases their celebrity chef owners) prompted me to post. It's a great read, but really what I'm interested in is - are the UK's restaurants and celeb chefs like this too.... and are we helping to boost these inflated egos by dancing to their every tune?? Please let me know by posting some comments, no answers on a stamp addressed postcard please!

I’m features writer Tom Vaughan. I’ve always enjoyed food and I’ve always enjoyed writing about it. Aged eight I even wrote a 4000 word food-based book, without blinking as I remember, about a farmer. It was called Memoirs of Cabbage. It was rubbish. Literally, as my father later composted it.

I joined Caterer as features writer in September 2006 and help deal with the Menuwatch section of the magazine as well as compiling the real news section of the magazine: fans-favourite Food File. While my main area of focus is restaurants I have also leant my hand to a wide smattering of topics from school food to tourism.

Fashionable beat combo the View were last week banned from every Travelodge in the country after trashing a room at a Liverpool Travelodge last November.

A Travelodge representative said:

"This rock and roll behaviour is not acceptable. People come for a good night's sleep and we have to be mindful of that"

One suspects the band will bounce back from this setback. They can, afterall, write off the £7000 bill they are facing against the PR their bad behaviour generated. But if they want to be considered real bad-boy rock and rollers, they'll have to do more than leave a few taps running. Keith Richards was known to throw televisions off his hotel balcony; Led Zeppelin used to ride motorbikes along the corridors; and Ozzy Osbourne once gutted a pair of sharks on his hotel bed.

Have you had any naughty rockers round your way? If so, we want to hear about it.

Chefs keen to promote the use of british produce might want to check out the Dalemain Marmalade Festival, which is being held on February 18th, in the Lake District. Sponsors, Sharrow Bay Hotel are offering dinner for two for the makers of the marmalade judged to be the best in the world.

As faithful caterer readers will see, this week Grant Hearn - Travelodge's head honcho - has written an opinion piece for us.

A new recruit to Red Ken's board for developing skills and employment in London, he's looking to promote our side of the story, our issues, opinions and ideas.

So if you have any views, insights or schemes you think should be put forward, reply to this blog and they'll be forwarded direct to Grant for ammo when dealing with the powers that be.

For my own tu'penny bit worth...

Frank Bruni, restaurant reviewer of the New York Times, has published his review of Gordon Ramsay's new Manhattan address. Frank's reviews are said to make or break a restaurant, so this posting is worth reading.

A letter has arrived at Caterer's offices highlighting a recent visit to Post, the Banstead-based restaurant launched by Ready Steady Cook's Tony Tobin at the end of last year (you might remember it on Caterer's cover just before Christmas). The reason for the letter? The author was expressing his dismay at being greeted in the restaurant's foyer by a "board of fame", ie a selection of signatures from football players and other minor celebrities. The board also included the signature of the owner, Tobin. Do you think we're all rather seduced by celebrities and do you think chefs are the main culprits for wanting to become celebrities themselves?