Year of the Dragon - by Richard Handscombe

This year, the Year of the Dragon, is considered the luckiest Chinese year, which bodes well for the Chinese athletes who are training in Leeds ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games.  Not that they seem to need much luck, as they topped the medal tables at the last Games in Beijing.

Seven years of work came good late last year when Leeds was finally announced as the training base for this “superteam”, but that’s when the really hard work begins!

Think about it – nearly 300 Chinese people, with us for almost a month, many of whom will never have visited the UK, or eaten European food, don’t speak English and are, well, Olympians!  These boys and girls are at the highest possible level of their sport.  This will be their last training camp before the Games, so stress levels will be high.  This is set to be an interesting year full of challenges for the events department, catering services and Sport.

Bev Kenny has accepted the considerable menu challenge, and as I write this is in the midst of organising some pretty exotic offerings which will be delivered by our own chefs aided by some of the Chinese team’s chefs.  Residences are gearing up to welcome around 10 disciplines to Storm Jameson Court, all of whom come and go on different dates during July.  Sport and Physical Activity (SPA) is planning to install specialised equipment for such sports as fencing, taekwondo and table tennis.  And these are just some of the issues to be covered.  

BBC cameras broadcast the show live to China.

At the beginning of February, the BBC broadcast a variety show from the Refectory, live to China in celebration of the Leeds training camp.  The show was presented by one of our own students, Marie Tulloch, speaking in fluent Mandarin Chinese.  This was incredibly impressive but did nothing to ease my own worries about my own challenge to learn basic Mandarin so that I can at least greet our guests, and maybe even answer simple questions.  The one thing I’ve learnt so far, after just two lessons, is that there is no such thing as a simple question in Chinese.  Just one small two-letter word can have six meanings depending on how it is pronounced, and many of these will probably be offensive!

So, this is going to be a great year to be in Leeds, with the University playing a valuable part in the Olympics – Bev can be happy in the knowledge that she has helped fuel every medal won by the Chinese.  Residences and SPA will know that they have played an important part in preparing the athletes for every gold, silver and bronze they take back to China.   And I’ll probably have insulted everyone in every possible way, as I stumble thorough the Mandarin minefield.  But it will be a year we will remember forever…  

Find out more about the event at the Refectory:

• Read an article in the Yorkshire Post
• View the video
• Take a look at some pictures

The Best Restaurant in the World - by Richard Handscombe

I’ve just been to the best restaurant in the world, and I don’t mean my favourite Bradford curry house, or the original Harry Ramsden’s chippy.  True, they have their place, but good though they are, they are not the Best Restaurant in the World; this accolade, awarded by Restaurant magazine, belongs to a restaurant called NOMA, in Copenhagen harbour.   My daughter Sally is a “foodie”, so to celebrate her milestone birthday we decided to take her to the best there is.  This sounds simple, but getting a table there isn’t that easy; when they were awarded the title in 2010, I’m told they had more than 100,000 bookings within 24 hours!  They opened the reservation book for March 2011 on 1^st December 2010, and were fully booked within hours, including I’m glad to say, a table for the four of us.  So we headed off for Denmark in some excitement.  

Copenhagen is a beautiful city full of the nicest folk you could meet; we loved it, but can’t wait to return at some time when the sea isn't frozen.  “Cold” doesn't begin to describe it. But anyway, we saw the sights, found some nice bars, and practised paying a lot in a number of restaurants, getting ready for the NOMA experience.

To me, service is the key element in the success of any operation.  In the UK’s hospitality industry, everyone pays lip-service to service, and some even walk the talk, but often the customer is left with a feeling that something is missing.     

Noma

The NOMA customer journey really started as we stepped from the taxi.  Two of the waiting staff opened the taxi door with warm greetings, and it was obvious they had been briefed that we had travelled from the UK.  As soon as we had touched down at the table, we began to experience the kind of service you can only dream about.  NOMA has an army of chefs – I was told 14 were on contract and a further 20 are “stagieurs” – young chefs who work for nothing for three months just to get NOMA on their CV. 

It looked to me as if there were about 10 waiters too – and all this in a restaurant with just 34 diners!  Apart from naturally being experts in their various fields, they had obviously been very highly trained on how to deal with people, how to put them at their ease, and how to up-sell.  This last skill was fine to observe for professional reasons, but fell on fairly stony ground because I had checked my bank account before leaving home! 

They proceeded to serve us with eight snacks and twelve courses over four hours, each one a delight on the eye and a surprise to the palate.  The dishes were rarely what they first appear to be, and the amount of preparation and science involved in each dish is awesome.  There was just one tense moment, when we realised that what we had just eaten was – wait for it – reindeer’s tongue, a dish which probably elicits a different reaction from Danes than from squeamish Yorkshire people.  Our trauma obviously registered with the waiter, for within seconds, the head chef was at our table.  He didn’t even mention the reindeers tongue, but sat and chatted to us then offered to let us tour the kitchens and meet the chefs after service had finished – in the Best Restaurant in the World!  We gasped, grinned, and grasped the opportunity, which was one of the highlights of the experience and definitely made us forget about Rudolph (at least it wasn’t his nose)!  They had skilfully turned a negative into a positive.  We were treated like long-lost buddies in the kitchens and were even introduced to Ali the pot-washer.  Then of course, came the pain of the bill.  I did some quick calculations afterwards and worked out that four of the cars I’d owned were cheaper than that bill – all added together. 

So I’ll take away the memory of that customer journey, and a restaurant experience that was like going to the opera and the theatre as well as having dinner, and which underlined my belief in the value of service excellence.  The thing is, it doesn’t take all those people and a massive bill to produce good service.   Good service comes from having the right people, and the right culture in your organisation, and a determination to be the best.  If we have all that, we could serve up Bambi on a plate and no-one would bat an eyelid!   

Catering for the In-Laws! - by Natasha Lockwood

I recently got engaged, which of course is very exciting for a couple of days, until the fear sets in! 

Fear of what you may ask? The commitment? Organising a large event?  Not being able to find the perfect dress? Well, none of the above actually.

I am talking about the fear that next weekend, my parents and my fiancés parents will all be together in one room to talk about the wedding …and I have offered to cook!

I am a resourceful person; my job involves booking many dining events (large and small, three course and buffet, corporate and personal) into our rooms here in University House.  I am SURROUNDED by award winning chefs.  I can’t help thinking there must be an answer for me in here somewhere!

I can cook, but unfortunately so much of my energy is going to be taken up having my hair done and at the same time deciding whether I look better daughter-in-law material in the blue dress or the red top and black skirt, that my imagination is frazzled.  Let’s face it, feminism has brought us ladies a long way, but I can’t help thinking my suitability will be entirely judged on the outcome of this meal.

Mid way through booking in a retirement lunch yesterday I had a (metaphorical) lightning bolt of an idea: I have access to each of the seasonal three course menu’s I have sent out to clients from the beginning of time to this very moment, and knowledge of which of those are popular choices.  Obviously they won’t be up to our chefs’ standards (unless I account for kidnapping – would that be the wrong impression?) but even if I don’t get it right they‘ll surely be more impressive than beans on toast!

So off I go to search for my perfect menu - and let's be honest, who doesn't want a daughter-in-law who serves 'Warm Chocolate & Hazelnut Brownie with Clotted Cream'!