GREAT DINING AT GILBERT SCOTT
The Gilbert Scott restaurant at London’s St Pancras Renaissance Hotel is Marcus Wareing’s latest venture
o me, Marcus Wareing is the ultimate professional in the London restaurant hierarchy. Despite the temp- tations of celebrity spats with Gordon Ramsay, he sticks to the kitchen and stays away from the fame game. Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley (formerly Petrus) is for me the calmest, most serene and most consistent of top rank restaurants. There is nothing showy, waste- ful or excessive, just the best of the best ingredients with the most confi dent of cooking. Above all else, the service from booking to paying the bill is of the highest order and never in any way obtrudes.
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earns respect, and paying on time and without unnecessary queries earns genuine affection. In a climate where some businesses pay increasingly late and need a lot of chasing, an oper- ation that pays on time without any chasing is always attractive. If you build up a reputation for pay- ing on time – or even early – your ability to ask for favours and very keen prices in return is greatly improved. There is also usually an opportunity with most suppliers (particularly in the professions who seem to expect late payment as a norm) to negotiate some form of prompt payment discount. If you want to cut costs, demon- strate your value and reliability as a customer. They won’t want to lose you.
Specify – don’t waf le Whatever you are trying to buy, spec- ify it in detail and make sure you include everything you expect at the price. Add-ons can be a sneaky way of increasing a negotiated price. Think well in advance of exactly the quantity
ISSUE 4 2011 © cybertrek 2011 The new Gilbert Scott is an entirely different matter in
terms of style and market. Noisy, with clattering fl oors and hard surfaces, in a huge post industrial space, it was absolutely full when we visited, yet once again the hall- mark of professional service in every aspect was obvious. I arrived early and witnessed the restaurant manager
briefi ng the whole team with clarity and respect for the importance of every individual in the chain. Like the food itself, great service can only be delivered by a motivated well briefed and informed team, who consistently follow the same standards as the leader.
If you are tough and demanding on price and quality your supplier is more likely to respect you
and delivery conditions you are look- ing for and make sure they are clearly written in. Changes to any order and afterthoughts can be a lucrative fi eld for the supplier. When you have the price you want for the service or goods you seek, once again confi rm it in writ- ing and add in all the details so they have no ‘wriggle room’.
Structure the relationship defensively
It is a good discipline to separate the people who deal with product/ service specifi cation from those who approve the payment. If the end user (for instance, the chef) is the only per- son who deals with the supplier, you are more vulnerable to queries and suggestions of extras. If an effi cient
accounts person deals with payment matters, you separate the two parts of the process, which may be an advan- tage when queries occur.
Be proud of your business and value it In all areas of purchasing, and busi- ness relationships in general, an operation that comes across with a sense of confi dence, pride and pur- pose is more impressive. If your suppliers get the impression that there’s something special about you and your business, they will be keener to keep it and more motivated to help. In this highly competitive world, people like to work with winners. Professional control of every aspect of your buying will help you stay one. ●
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