Hospitality Influencers

Hello everybody! It’s been a little while since my last blog. I hope you are keeping safe and well as we all try to navigate our way through this very difficult time. I think it would be safe to say that this is probably the most difficult challenge to face the international hospitality community in a generation, one which we did not see coming, but now one which we must push through with our end goal in mind… To get back to normality as quickly as possible and revive our temporarily flattened livelihoods.

Over the past 25 years, I have had several different job roles in the food industry, which have varied in hours, shift patterns and expectation.

In one of my previous blogs, I mentioned that the main factor that always influences and encourages consumer patronage is the quality and consistency of a restaurant's food.

For as far back as I can remember, moving from job role to job role, I have usually had to navigate my life around split shifts.

Who has inspired me? Thinking back to my very early years, I suppose my first interests in food came from weekends spent at my grandmothers.

Due to the nature and versatility of the hospitality industry, it is easy to see why it has always appealed to people both as a career choice or perhaps as a career stop gap from time to time.

Whether you are an entrepreneur starting up your own businesses or a head chef out there looking for ways to improve your current menu, it is essential to remember your single most important and valuable tool. If executed right, it will provide variety to the consumer while at the same time market and push your business and its products forward.

Climate change is, and has been for some time, a huge issue facing our planet. Every day we are learning more and more about the impact our practises as a population are having on the environment, and we constantly have to think of new and innovative ways to play our part and do what we can to reduce our carbon footprint.

Changes to a menu, although necessary to keep options current and new and to compete well with your nearby rivals and the internet, are always I find, a balancing act.

According to ‘The Caterer’ magazine “a staggering 3.3 million tonnes of food waste from hotels, restaurants and bars goes into landfill sites every year, with probably the same amount being discarded by hospitals, schools and other mass catering outlets”.