catering CHEF’S SPECIAL
Paul Mundy Chef/owner
Tweeddale Arms Hotel Gifford, East Lothian
Dating from 1685, the recently-refurbished Tweeddale Arms Hotel is one of the oldest buildings in Gifford. Chef Paul Mundy prides himself in using locally-sourced produce for his menu of traditional home cooking.
How long have you been in the catering business?
I have worked in the catering industry for 35 years. I started off as a trainee chef in the Merchant Navy.
What’s your career highlight so far? So far, it has definitely been winning the Scottish Bar Food Award for Scottish Hotels two years running.
How would you describe your food?
The food is traditional and old- school with lots of old favourites.
What’s the price of a typical three course meal (without wine)? A typical three course lunch would be £15.50 and dinner would be £21.
Why should someone visit your restaurant? We use the best fresh produce and are a friendly, family run hotel.
Describe your staff. The main word to describe my staff is tolerant. But they are all really lovely and faithful – we’re like one big happy family.
What’s your favourite dish to cook at home?
It has to be egg on toast with tinned tomatoes. Terrible for a chef I know and my wife says she’s never eaten so badly since being with me!
Is there any food you dislike? I really don’t like parsnips.
What’s your favourite wine? It has to be Rioja.
Not counting your own, which is your favourite Scottish restaurant? Ardeonaig Hotel and Restaurant at
Loch Tay.
What’s your favourite Scottish ingredient? You can’t beat Scottish game.
What makes a good chef? You either love being a chef or you hate it, there’s no happy medium. You need passion, patience and a lot of self esteem.
What’s a tip every chef should know?
They should know before they start that it is not going to be easy. All chefs need to go into the job thinking it’s going to be hard work – because it is!
Who do you admire in the industry and why? I admire anyone in this industry who is successful and has really stuck at it.
How do you relax outside of work?
A good game of golf or Sky Sports on the TV.
Who would you invite for your ideal meal and where would you go?
I would invite Hitler, Jesus, Del Boy and Georgie Bingham from Sky Sports. I would take them all to Ardeonaig Hotel and Restaurant at Loch Tay.
What makes you laugh in the kitchen? You can often find me laughing along with the radio when I’m cooking by myself!
Anything else we should know? We are a really lovely family-run business, who go that extra mile for no extra cost.
TM
Weathering the storm
A few simple steps could keep your business afloat, writes David Hunter of The Bowden Group
RECENTLY suggested that 75% of ailing pubs and restaurants could be saved with the right management. Those comments were possibly an understatement based on my own experience, both in Scotland and the rest of the UK. Yes, there are some very shrewd operators out there that run their businesses extremely efficiently. And there are some who are just plain lucky – who get it right “more by accident than by design’’ – and that’s great for them too.
I
You must receive regular financial information so you know what’s going on and can react to problems immediately.
However, there are a growing number who just don’t stand a chance because they are not running their pub or restaurant along business lines and are failing to implement the controls and disciplines required to be able to turn a profit.
This is not just a Scottish issue – it’s happening everywhere. Scotland, however, has its own challenges brought about by the distances between centres of population density, particularly in more rural areas. Certainly, some businesses are
harder to run profitably than others. Leased and tenanted pubs were historically among the hardest to make profit from, but they are the easiest to get into in terms of the capital required. So, what do you need to do to ensure you make a profit? Firstly, you should have completed a business plan before you started, with detailed profit and loss and cash flow forecasts to make sure that the business was viable and sustainable. You must ensure that you receive
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regular financial information so that you know what is going on and can react and respond to changes, variances and problems as they happen. It’s just a nonsense to rely on an annual P&L, which will already be three or more months out of date when you get it – if you’re lucky. Monthly P&Ls are best – quarterly if you can’t do them monthly.
Hospitality business mentor David Hunter.
Even better – and we do this for our clients – get a monthly profit and loss account and monitor the KPIs [key performance indicators) weekly, including: sales, food gross profit, liquor gross profit and wages. Every single business that uses our suggested weekly tracking system has increased its profitability. Most importantly, this business is all
Some businesses are harder to run profitably than others but there are steps you can take to improve your profitability.
about hospitality – the welcome people receive when they come into your pub or restaurant.
Only employ people with a positive, customer-focused ‘can do’ attitude. You can train someone to be a bartender but you can’t always train them to smile and be pleasant. You also need to promote your business. And marketing is a continual process – something that needs to be ongoing.
Follow the above and it should help your business stay afloat. • The Bowden Group provides profit
turnaround solutions to the hospitality industry.
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