The Editor's Hospitality Blog

The staff restaurant in Caterer Towers is offering Morroccan lamb and Hungarian pork chops today.

Some wag from around the office has ringed the two dishes on a copy of the menu pinned up in the lift, and scribbled "food miles!!" next to them. Evidently, they thought the dishes had been sourced from North Africa and Eastern Europe, rather than merely drawing inspiration from the regions' respective cuisines.

I mention this, because it's symptomatic of the customer's growing knowledge - or in this case perceived knowledge - about food and the issues surrounding its provision. The days when lunchers and diners got what they were given and were glad of it are long gone. Now, customers want to know which gradient of the Po Valley the balsamic vinegar on their salad was created from, and whether their basmati rice is of the Pusa or Ranbir variety.

As if that weren't headache enough, they are increasingly aware of ethical issues such as food miles and organic crops.

Who'd be a professional caterer?

The manny in question, Steven King, will operate out of the hotel's Ofsted-registered playroom, the Woolley Bear's Den. Says Steven: "I get to play all day and I think it's good for the boys to have someone to play with and who really understands them."

In the press release announcing King's appointment, hotel GM, Clare Hammond does her bit for reinforcing gender stereotypes: "Who could be better at setting up a race track, building Lego space ships or running an arts and crafts session than a boy!" she enthuses

Strange goings on at Visit Wales, whose marketing department has just pinged me an email flagging up its idiosyncratic new website.

"Do a spur of the moment walk", implores the email; "do a really ancient castle. Do funny-looking mushroom picking. Then do surfing. Really. We have bigger waves in autumn that at any other time of the year."

Click through to the Visit Wales site, and you're dazzled by a riot of colours and numbers. Apparently, the Principality boasts 20,273 shades of green, among them mushy pea green, apple green and olive green; 107,000 plant species; 3,388,000 things to do; yellow hotels, green campsite, purple B&Bs, blue hostels and turquoise self-catering options.

Methinks the copywriters responsible for the site might have been sampling a few of those funny-looking mushrooms ...  

In it's early days I wasn't exactly compelled to watch Masterchef, the BBC2 series, but I did find it easy, Sunday afternoon viewing if I happened to be in. 

Over the past few years - as it has slowly increased the involvement of the professional trade - I have found that I have enjoyed it more and more. But I wouldn't say I plan my social diary around it - unlike some of my friends.

In the last week, however, I feel like I've been receiving subliminal messages from the makers of Masterchef. Last week I attend the London Restaurant Awards, where John Torode presented an award with recent Celebrity Masterchef winner Liz McClarnon. Yesterday, at a bash in the 'burbs, a woman was telling me that she records every programme and religiously watches it in bed (I bet her husband loves that).

This morning, I went to the official London Games website to sign up to the Volunteer Programme. Having inputted my personal details onscreen, imagine my surprise when a box flashed up informing me that I had already registered to be a volunteer and had logged a password with the system.

Now, anyone who knows me will know that I am more than capable of creating a profile on a site and then forgetting that I had ever done so. On the other hand, it does strike me as odd that I should have had zero correspondence from the same event organisers who, four years from now, will be relying on peope like me to herd our global guests around the capital.

At a time when there is so much talk about how we can improve the standards of customer care around the hospitlity industry, I confess to feeling rather miffed at having been left, ignored, on the back burner until it suits the games organisers to mobilise me. meanwhile, I await my fitting for myOlympics 2012 waterproof jacket and beanie hat ...

The concept of personal responsibility featured heavily in the inaugural Ken Hom Lecture, delivered by Lord Chris Patten at Oxford Brookes University earlier this week. The annual lecture will form a central plank of Oxford Gastronomica, a vehicle for debating society's dysfunctional relationship with food and drink, founded by the university's Head of Hospitality, Donald Sloan. Lord Patten painted a grim picture of global water shortage, depleted grain crops, global warming and badly-allocated development assistance. But he concluded that "there are many things we can and should do, as individuals, to make a difference. What we eat and drink can have a considerable impact on what other people can eat and drink". 

Given this glimmer of hope, it is encouraging to read the Food Standards Agency (FSA)'s positive progress report on the joint commitment of the big five contract caterers to helping their customers make healthier workplace eating choices. 

In January, Aramark, BaxterStorey, Compass Group, Elior and Sodexo, along with suppliers Brakes and 3663, signed a commitment to provide healthier meals in the workplace. All have progressed in such areas as developing new recipes for popular dishes to use ingredients lower in fat, salt and sugar; increasing training for chefs and kitchen staff on healthy cooking techniques; and offering customers more information on the nutritional content of food and promoting healthy eating messages.

As Lord Patten said, globalisation is about choice. By enabling their customers to eat more healthily and, by extension, more responsibly, our caterers are helping them to make informed meal choices that just might make the tiniest difference to the world.

At the Catey winners' reception at the Dorchester Hotel last week, talk turned to where the restaurants, hotels and other hospitality operators that have won the industry's ultimate accolade, a Catey, keep their statue.

David Sharpe, Managing Director of the London Eye and winner of this year's Leisure and Tourism award, told me that his Catey took pride of place in the trophy cabinet within the ticket office. Sure enough, when I dropped by the following morning, there stood Catey, looking resplendent and in plain view of the 3.5 million people that ride the eye each year.

Meanwhile, the rumour is, that there are so many Cateys lined up along the front desk at the Vineyard at Stockcross, that guests are having trouble communicating with reception staff.

Have you ever won a Catey? If so, where do you keep it? Office? Mantelpiece? Dining room? In a safe in a Swiss bank? Beside the pond in your garden (hope not)? let us know or - better still - send us a pic of your Catey.