Hospitality Influencers

Everyone should become more sustainable, not just restaurants. This has been a “hot topic” for a while, and I am glad the media in the UK are putting a little more weight on the issue at present.

The one thing I wish I knew when I started in the restaurant industry is that you need to be confident and take action/decisions on your own.

There are many elements that make a restaurant a success, some are clearer than others however some are perhaps a little less obvious. For example, you need to have a good team of staff from the front of house to the cleaner.

...but they are still the customer.

My aspirations were to always work in the highest standard operations with the most experienced people who I felt would give me the best start in my career.

Why do I think restaurants should become more sustainable?

How about lower costs and therefore more profit? Supporting local producers? A cleaner environment? Customer goodwill? Your reputation? Or just generally feeling good about yourself?

Staff turnover it is a headache indeed and the hospitality industry is definitely one of the worse affected by this problem.

I remember when I came to London in 1999, I was 20 years old and under the impression that working in a restaurant was quite a simple task. I had the luck of knowing one of the biggest restaurateurs in London at the time.

Be a leader, not a boss! Nurture talent and develop individuals, but not too fast. A big problem in staff retention can be promoting too early, a great server will not necessarily make a great trainer, it's easy to make this mistake as you think you don't have time to go recruiting, you should always be on the lookout for new talent.

One thing I would look back on would be to make sure I was more selective in my choices when moving from a current role.