The things I learned, the things I loathed and the things I loved…

Where have I been?

For a weekly blog my performance over the past two weeks has been appalling.  I feel terrible about not sticking to my by line and my promise to provide a weekly food review from various people and places.  So now I feel it’s important that I explain my hiatus.

For the past five weeks I have been fulfilling a role for a client in my 'real' job.  I have recently started a hospitality consultancy business (and here’s the plug) called ZAP Consulting www.zapconsulting.com.au where I offer a range of services to assist in improving or enhancing their business.

In this particular case I was hired to care take a restaurant business so the owners could take a break and go on a well-deserved holiday.  The owners are a dynamic husband and wife team who run two restaurants with a bar in between within a major hotel complex.  By day I was undertaking the role of the wife in the administration office and by night I was managing the restaurants, as the husband would normally do.

This made for an extremely busy time for me working mega long hours most days of the week, hence my lack of blog time and omitting to post for the past two weeks. The two main reasons I’d like to give for this are number one, because every spare moment I had I needed to sleep and number two, because it wasn’t possible for me to complete my usual reviewing regime.

This was the first time I had undertaken a client job like this and it may not be the last.  There were many experiences I had being ‘back on the bike’ in the hospitality industry that I’d like to share with you for this weeks post.  The things I learned, the things I loathed and the things I loved.

The things I learned –

Not much in the industry has changed since I started working in it almost 20 years ago, however some things that stay the same really need to change, like -   

Chefs  (and not just good ones) are still hard to find, particularly in regional areas and they still get scary grumpy.  But the passion and love for what they do is as strong as ever which is great.

The customer is someone that has changed a fair bit.  I’m not sure if it’s because of Master Chef or Jamie Oliver’s 30 Minute Meals (do they ever work?) that have empowered the customer to push the ‘customer is always right’ belief to the absolute edge.  Customer comments (and I will call them comments because the majority of them do not warrant being called a complaint) are more ridiculous than ever. Accentuating that is the multiple platforms they have to complain on – like Urbanspoon, Trip Advisor, email and the list goes on.  What happened to the good old days when the customer told the waiter at the time they weren’t happy with something so then it could be corrected immediately and everyone went home happy?  There is NO point in writing negative feedback on a website two weeks later people – it helps no one!!!

Things I loathed –

There wasn’t much I loathed – it was heaps of fun getting back into the industry for a short stint.  But that’s the thing, I’m pretty certain I couldn’t do it full time again.  I just love being on the other side way too much!

I did loathe the aching feet and legs from being on them for several hours a day.  I also loathed the few rude people I encountered – thankfully there weren’t many of those. 

Things I loved –

I loved meeting some new people.  There were some very cool crew members on this gig and they made my days bright, fun and funny.  I feel blessed that I got the opportunity to hang out with them for five weeks.

I also loved some new music that I came across in the restaurant.  I have fallen in love with Josh Pyke and Mumford & Sons.  Great extensions to the iPod collection thank you!

Finally I loved that I got to give the owners of this business a chance to take some time out to relax and refresh.  Having been in their position before I understand what a massive thing it is to take a break and also to trust someone else to run things in your absence.  Thank you for the opportunity Mandy & Andy.

If you are ever in Mildura please go and visit Mandy & Andy and their fabulous team at their awesome award winning restaurants.  Tell them I sent you!

Seasons Restaurant & The new Spanish Bar & Grill

Corner Langtree Avenue & 7^th Street, Mildura Victoria.

Phone – 50 212377

www.seasonsmildura.com.au