Plan Your Meetings

Wish list: December 2007 Morsel

As we are rounding out the year, here is my wish list for 2008:

1. That four-star hotels stop thinking 90 x 90 or 120 linen is acceptable. Four-star hotels should have floor-length cloth in more colors than black and white.
2. When I ask hotels where they get their menu pricing, they will explain it to me instead of saying it is what their competitors are doing. Hotel folks, please understand that isn’t an answer; that is an excuse. If I am asking a question regarding your pricing, you should be able to explain it to me so I will want to pay it.
3. More creativity on all levels with menus. It never ceases to amaze me how many hotels have banquet menus that read lazy. A perfect example is offering the same salads for lunch buffet as for dinner buffets.
4. Chef’s fees that aren’t over the top. Many times, I am getting huge charges for chef fees when the chef is a waitperson dressed in a chef’s coat. If you are charging me $150 for a chef, then I better be getting a chef who is professionally trained.
5. More variety of cookies as opposed to chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin and peanut butter. Chefs: There are a million other varieties of cookies; please bring some other choices to your menus.
6. Bottled water and sodas that cost less than $5 inclusive, per person.

And to those of you who are my faithful readers: You know I am just hitting the tip of the iceberg. But seriously, I would like to thank you all for your support in reading my monthly morsel. I do wish everyone a safe holiday season filled with lots of fattening food, no weight gain and tons of fabulous presents.

— Claire R. Gould

Claire R. Gould is the owner of Rx for Catering, LLC, a culinary and logistics company that works globally negotiating and designing menus for meetings and events. Her company has done work for Coca-Cola, IBM, Honeywell and Randstad, among others. Gould teaches and writes about culinary and banquet trends and topics, and publishes a quarterly online newsletter “The Claire Diaries.” If you have any feedback for her, please leave a comment.