New starters and one-day courses

Having come to catering totally from nowhere, I had to learn stuff on the hoof and pass it on to Karen and the staff. I must say that I rarely made the same mistake twice but then, who’s really counting? My financial training came from a few business seminars given free by Easington Council in the early ‘80s when people were highly encouraged to start their own business. I learnt how to produce a profit and loss report, a cash flow forecast and various other things to help a budding restaurateur like me identify whether the business was viable. I could have easily guessed that our restaurant already was because, within six weeks of opening, we already had paid back the £4000 overdraft we had been given by Bert, our generous bank manager to get us started.
However, I still wanted to learn even more about restaurants to ensure our long-time survival. And so, I unashamedly grabbed whatever free and part-subsidised one-day courses were being offered at the time, as long as they were held on Mondays, our day off. The Hotel and Catering Training Company, (HCTC) offered many of those in the late ‘80s and so I applied and joined many classes. Although I did obtain a few certificates in customer service and even a BTec. in supervisory management, the one that sticks to mind is the Task Trainer Award. I must admit that it really came in handy when coaching the many apprentices and trainees we ended up employing over the years. It was a simple 4-step method to teach a task effectively and permanently. On the day of the course, after a full morning of watching, listening and learning, half a dozen of us caterers who were attending the course, had to teach each other a simple task using what we had learnt. I chose to make cucumber fans. The first step was to verbally explain the procedure, then slowly demonstrate the various steps. After that, it was the “trainee’s” turn to describe in words the task and then finally cut the cucumber into fans. If all four steps are followed to the letter, this method is a fool-proof way to teach anything. I have used it very often over the years and also passed it on to our managers and chefs to train new recruits.
And when it came to new staff, right from the beginning of our first year in business we found a huge lack of professional catering staff in the area and those few who happened to apply had either no experience at all or had not worked in restaurants for years.
Our only resort was to employ college students alongside the solid core of existing full-timers. The latter would pass on their knowledge to the new recruits who would be easy to train as they were not set in their ways. The job would provide the young students with pocket money while not interfering with their studies as they would only be needed on evenings and weekends. A few of those carried on working at the restaurants well after they had finished their A-levels as they opted to attend local universities. This provided continuity as regular customers are always happy to see familiar faces.
Just as I found restaurants to be my calling, quite a few of the students we employed, despite taking subjects other than hospitality and catering, decided after a few months with us, that restaurant life was not so bad after all. A dedicated few, who did not mind the long, unsocial hours, even made a career out of it and some ended up owning and operating their own outlets.
In our 32 years in business, we have also seen many of those young people bonding and often forming long-lasting relationships with a few leading to marriage.