NO RESERVATIONS?

In an article published in a national daily supplement, writer Sudeshna Chaterjee explores the dominating world of male chefs in hotels. Yet, surprisingly, she explores the subject with a rather remarkable and unbelievable line......"Women are naturally born to the kitchen", says she.

It is not the article, per se, that made me get up and take note of this, but the awe-inspiring opening line, which like most of the chatterlings in this country, seem to like resigning women to traditionally temperamental household departments. I wonder if a laundry writer would have said the same of women, since they do most of the cleaning of clothes in our houses, but the question is, are they naturally born to do a particular job?

To say that either sex is, would be understating the mound of work done by genetic researchers around the world, since neither man nor woman comes to this world with a pre defined time table to do things. However, with the paternal system of society that has been prevelant in this country, woman was left to do most of the work in the kitchen, and the model kept itself alive by spreading from one house to another, one village to the other and one city to the next.

I'm sure the same names, as mentioned and interviewed in the article, would agree to the same.

GOOD ENOUGH NEVER IS...

GOOD ENOUGH NEVER IS, or perhaps it never was, as it is being discovered round the world by food and beverage execitives, hotel planners, owners and visionaries. In a remarkable shift from non-descript 24 hour-coffee shop-kind-of-restaurants to stylistic restaurants with menus crafted by high profile chefs, we now see of a new breed of restaurants coming up. These are restaurants that make a bold, style statement yet offering a subtle and subdued air of elegance. 

Well, the aim is twofold, one to be able to serve guests better and second, to lure the descerning local clientele. It is not difficult to get blinded by wannabe page 3 locals showing off their Jimmy Choos and Prada bags and sipping on an expensive of champagne (of which they would have never heard of) and have a returning crowd of such guests. However, in my opinion, apart from the knee jerk reaction to have such a crowd in our restaurants, I feel food and beverage executives, would for a change like to see guests, who know their food, especially at a time when more and more of our guests are travelling the world over.

Mezza9 at Grand Hyatt, Singapore

This trend coupled with the increased food and beverage revenue share vis-a-vis the rooms division, contrary to the traditional model, is now forcing most hotel companies to re-think about their strategies. Hotels are now thinking of outdoing themselves in terms of value and the service that  is offered to the guests, ranging from the undervalued but overtly important breakfast meal period to dinner.