Over the last two years of editing this magazine, and more recently, overlooking the hospitality group portfolio, I’ve been fortunate enough to visit a multitude of F&B outlets and hotels, lending me a bird’s-eye view of the industry and its touch-points. And one that we talk about regularly is its people.
Last month I visited an extremely busy F&B outlet in Dubai, and had a not-so-stellar experience with the quality of the food, which we raised with our server. Within a few minutes, a manager was there, asking what was wrong, and offered to replace the food. We declined, but it was good to see management on the front line, dealing directly with complaints, and being pro-active.
Contrast that with other experiences I have had in this region, where managers have flat-out refused to take feedback on-board and declined to admit anything was wrong in the first place! It seems to come down to training.
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We recently held the advisory panel for October’s Chef & Ingredients Forum, and as always, the chefs in question turned to training and staff retention concerns.
The Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management is doing a great job in this regard. Last month, groups of second-year students launched restaurants (for one week each) as part of their course. One was Asian-themed, called Thai Time, and the other was a Middle Eastern concept named Miraj. I visited both for dinner, and the first thing I looked at was service.
These students are literally the next generation of the F&B industry, and it was extremely heartening to see how they responded to real-world scenarios, and interacted with diners. Kudos to the students for a job well done, and good luck to them in their future endeavours.
In addition to training, it stands to reason that internships are a great way of providing grounding in the industry. It certainly is the way many industry stalwarts, whom we speak to from Europe and beyond, start their careers.
People like our Pastry Chef of the Year 2015 Herwig Knapen, for example, who started his career at the age of 14 as an apprentice, or last month’s cover star Luke Thomas, who also started out at a young age. The Caterer Middle East team was recently told it is possible to hire interns in this region, so it might be the preferred route moving forward in this market too.
I would love to see a situation where good service doesn’t surprise, but is expected.
Eid Mubarak to everyone in advance, and on that positive note, I look forward to working with all of you in my third year with this industry.
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