25 years ago a vegetarian customer trying to eat in a non-vegetarian restaurant was at best treated like an inconvenience and even worse in some places. It was quite some while before interesting and tasty vegetarian dishes began to appear.

Today that unspoken pariah status has moved to customers who have food allergies or intolerance’s. It’s estimated that by 2015 up to 40% of the population will suffer from a food intolerance or food allergy. If that unfortunate prediction becomes a reality then restaurants will need to completely rethink how they operate and accommodate people who have to be so careful what they eat.

The forward thinkers out there will get a jump on their competition by approaching the problem as a business opportunity. That said as a chef I know that we in the kitchen will be given even more job responsibilities without any extra staff or pay (as usual).

There are lots of difficult scenario’s that could be detrimental to mainstream restaurants. If owner’s ban the use of certain ingredients (such as nuts) for fear of legal/financial comebacks. Or the focus on ingredient information (in the case of bought in foods) or the handling/storage and seperation of ingredients become so intense that it lessens the focus on the quality of the cooking. Perhaps if extra staff is needed it might push up the cost of eating out?

We need to look at the other end of the problem...and find out why the numbers of allergy sufferers continues to grow and ask the question.… Can we reverse the trend if the food is free of pesticides, E numbers, hormones and growth enhancers?

Last year I managed to get my hands on a copy of a book called the Allergy Catering Manual by Michelle Berriedale-Johnson. Both allergy sufferers and restaurateurs will find the book full of useful information. Though I thought some of the advice was impractical, other parts were imminently sensible and would help both the customer and the restaurant. You can find more info at www.allergycateringmanual.com

What’s in a name?

On a slightly less serious note, some years ago whilst living in the US I dated a very nice lady by the name of Susan. Originally, Susan worked in the retail business but decided to change profession (in retrospect perhaps to work similar hours to make it easier for us to see each other)….but I was too young and immersed in my own work at *The Hay Adams to really notice her sacrifice.

After taking several management courses Susan took the position of assistant manager at a pizza restaurant. At the time of her joining the restaurant it was one of five successful area restaurants owned by a group of partners. A few months into her new job the partnership decided to split up. Two partners kept 3 of the pizza restaurants; the other 2 restaurants (including the one Susan worked at) were retained by the other partner, Joe.

The original concept of all five restaurants was simple but had proved very successful. You collect your raw pizza base from a counter go to the topping bar

(just like a salad bar) where the customers could top their own pizza with anything they liked. You then handed you pizza back in at the counter and it was cooked and brought to your table.

Joe had kept the 2 prime locations in return he had to change his recipes and come up with a new name. Joe spared no expense and hired a top Washington PR Company to come up with a new name and logo. Wanting the re-launch to be a media event Joe really pushed the boat out by hiring a big name daytime soap star to headline a day of activities, which included autograph signing, get photographed next to your local sports star and freebie bags & balloons for kids.

It was all so carefully planned and the local TV news & radio teams turned up to give the re-launched restaurants maximum publicity. On top of all the expense of the re-launch day Joe paid $100,000 dollars for the new name the PR Company came up with.

When Susan told me the planned new name, I could not believe my ears or that such an astute businessman had paid $100,000 for that! As the soap star attempted to unveil the new name the material got snagged on the neon letters. As this minor problem was sorted out and the name revealed, a child shouted …look Mom…Pizza Poison. The unfortunate misreading of the new name seemed to ring around the place, and was even captured by the news cameramen. Pizza PiesON was in fact the new name but it was soon called by all Pizza Poison.

The PR whiz explained that the PiesOn part referred to the fact you built your own pizza pie, I told him if you had to explain the name to people, perhaps it wasn’t the best choice.

18 months later the doors closed for good on Joe’s 2 restaurants, for some reason people didn’t want to buy their pizzas anymore……go figure?

P.s The TV star played the part of a doctor in the long running day time soap General Hospital another one of life’s little ironies.

*The Hay Adams in a top rated hotel just across the road from the White House

*My Weekly Newspaper Recipe Column
If you live in the Midlands (UK), you can follow my weekly recipe column in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury

Fishywayz
When dining out……….I never buy fish on a Monday because chances are its left over from the weekend….even if it was delivered that morning, it has probably sat on ice in a wholesaler’s warehouse over the weekend.

Don’t forget the waitrons
If the food and service were good, I always leave a cash tip rather than add it to a credit card bill for several reasons. Some restaurants can take days even weeks to divvy up the tips…2-4 days is acceptable because often it takes that long for the restaurant to get his/her money from the credit card company. Trouble is most waiters don’t keep their own records of how much in tips they made on a particular day/night so they are very dependant on the owner/manager to be honest with them often days later. I have in one case quit a job because as Head Chef I became aware that the owner was skimming the credit card tips to bolster his profits. I often think we Brits are still slow at tipping for good service and food; the minimum should be 10% and 15%-20% if the dining experience was very good or better. And tipping can be a great chance for those guests who would like to contribute to the cost of the meal in some way …to do just that.

Without doubt...
Without doubt the worst case of cheapness I have witnessed was at a rather swanky golf and country club about 5 years ago. The kitchen was running a series of gourmet theme dinner nights to boast midweek business. The captain of this particular club had booked a table of 10. The head chef was also the owner of the food franchise so the cash register for food was located in the kitchen. He often encouraged members to “pop in and pay” so he could also make sure they were happy with the food & service. So after a delicious 6-course meal the captain collected up the money from his guests and came into the kitchen to pay. Counting out the money the captain found that the tips were large enough to actually cover the cost of his own meal….so he put his own money back in his pocket and gave the waitress her tip from the chance he was due…..which was 5 pence!!!!!(about 8 cents) She was so incensed by his outrageous meanness that she threw it back at him. He threatened to have her fired for that act of defiance, but backed down when we hinted that various committees would want to investigate what was the cause of her rash behaviour.

Don’t inflict...
Don’t inflict your ill-behaved offspring on others.Being the proud parent of a 3-year daughter I am acutely aware of my responsibilities when I take her out to eat. Having taught her good table manners from the beginning, and gotten her use to eating her meals in family groups…not alone infront of the TV! She is bless………. No problem to take out, indeed many fellow guests fawn over her cuteness & good manners, particularly when dad has put her hair in pigtails (yes men can do this..if in their earlier days they wore a ponytail (a la David Seaman).Though I can’t speak for David I can confess that in my case I wore long hair for 4-5 years during my thirties as if to slow the march of time…..but it did not. Anyway back to kids and eating out, guests should not inflict their ill-behaved spawn on other dinners, they should if the child gets cranky take them outside and there try solving the problem before either returning or going home. Managers who are too lily livered to quietly request that corrective action be taken by the parent,should be forced to baby-sit the miscreant once a week until they are 18.

*My Weekly Newspaper Recipe Column
If you live in the Midlands (UK), you can follow my weekly recipe column in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury

This old saying comes from the fact that food is more easily swallowed if taken with a small amount of salt. So before believing ever august word printed or uttered in our media we would be wise to remember that unfortunately some media types don’t let truth to get in the way of a good story. Sometimes in my experience famous people are quite different to the image portrayed in the media. For instance Alexander Haig a former Secretary of State for Ronald Reagan was often written about in bad light and the media never feel obligated to “balance the books” and paint a more complete true picture of the person.

I was helping with a series of dinner parties on the Enterprise V, a 168ft motor yacht in 1993 (Enterprise V is still in the top 50 largest yachts in the world). Each evening’s cruise down the Potomac river brought a guest list of the movers and shakers of Washington D.C. On one such cruise Mr Haig was befriended by a young girl who’s parents were taking no notice of her, she was obviously bored being the only child at this swanky do. For the whole cruise this very important man took on the role of Grandpa, and showed great delight in being “adopted”.
For my part, it was great to see the human side of Alexander Haig, so different to the image painted by the media.
© Kevin Ashton 2006
*My Weekly Newspaper Recipe Column
If you live in the Midlands (UK), you can follow my weekly recipe column in the Birmingham Sunday Mercury

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