Talk to us about being proactive with Big Data. We now live in a hugely connected world driven by Big Data. At one end of the scale we have smartphones listening to us and serving up ads for that gadget we've been mulling over, whilst at the other end of...
If you’re looking for food awards, beware the journey ahead.
If I had a penny for every chef that told me that they were targeting food awards (AA Rosettes or Michelin Stars), it's likely that I wouldn't be writing this blog! The fact of the matter is that chefs more than most enjoy targets, achievement, recognition, advancement and career growth...
Agency Chefs – Discuss (& Resolve)
With the shortage of chefs affecting the UK Hospitality industry what impact are agency chefs having on restaurant kitchens nationwide? For starters, at £20 an hour on a 40 hour week you're looking at a pro rata chef at £40k per year and that's just for a junior chef. Head...
Is Big Tech struggling to meet the agility demands of industry change?
We live in unprecedented times. Before Brexit, Covid, the war in Europe, the cost of living crisis, record inflation and rock bottom consumer confidence, life was positively rosey. Pre the global turmoil, the QR code and the masks most businesses had stable P&L's, intuitive forecasts and budgets and a stable...
How to always nail your board presentations.
For the young emerging GM the prospect of presenting to the board on a regular basis can be an exercise fraught with anxiety and sleepless nights, especially when results aren't always going to forecast and budget. There are a variety of board environments but the main two affect the group...
Keeping your best managers is more about width than height.
Keeping your star managers engaged and preventing them from leaving for pastures new is a constant challenge. Over 35 years I've lost count of the people I've trained and also those that seized amazing opportunities and never looked back. But with everyone of these stars (you know who you are),...
Do you focus on your unsung heroes enough?
Whether a room attendant or a board director, everyone is worthy of your respect. Every business has its stars and it's these stars that inevitably grab the limelight. Whether it's the team member creating dazzling cocktails, your head chef for delivering award winning food, or an amazing host in the restaurant that...
The recipe for kitchen success is in the… recipes!
A kitchen without consistency is going nowhere fast. Having dined in literally thousands of restaurants, many on multiple occasions, I've always had my eye on whether the chef producing the dish(es) is in tune with the scientific constraints of his ingredients and the recipe, or whether the artisan in the...
Awaken the innovator in you!
Innovation is a concept that needs demystifying to solve your problems and create solutions. Innovation is just a concept but it needs to drive accountability and responsibility around structured creativity and priority driven ideas to deliver growth. Innovation is about creating value out of ideas that are new to you....
The team training enigma. Who, when what and why?
There is no doubt that there are some great examples of focussed, progressive training programmes around hospitality today. You can see silky cultures guided with training as soon as you walk through the doors of some properties. That said, there are vast voids of areas with minimal training or no...
Is friendliness a science and how can it be commercially measured?
I must have asked this question a 1000 times to all levels of the industry - and I've yet to receive a clear answer. The Hospitality Industry as we know it used to be called the Catering Trade until the early 90's. As an industry we selected the word Hospitality...
The Anti-Solutions Bias
There's a delicious old Chinese proverb that goes something like - 'If you're treading water in dark, shark infested waters, don't necessarily think the thing to touch your foot was a shark, it could actually be the shore and your way to safety'....
