Bacon and Eggs…
Working with the hospitality industry gives you great insight into how the UK promotes itself as a destination to our own residents as well as those from overseas. You only have to switch on one of the many cooking, hotel and design programmes to see how small changes can make a big difference to the customer experience and how our interest in this area of business has increased.
I am constantly looking at how hotels and restaurants can deliver a better product without significant investment, whether that’s because I have worked in the industry previously or I’m just one of those customers that think that they can do it better, who knows. What I do know however, is that over the past few years there has been one area we seem to get consistently wrong in the hotel sector…Breakfast!
I’d love to boast that when I stay in a hotel I opt for the healthy prunes and muesli with a green tea – but I don’t. When I go away I like to spoil myself and a hearty cooked breakfast is a real treat so why not indulge?
It’s not something everyone cooks at home, but we all know how we like it cooked, runny eggs, well-cooked bacon, browned sausages, pools of HP sauce… we all have different requirements and the cooked breakfast is when we really know our stuff. We know exactly how we like it and we look forward to it.
So can you blame the Great British Public when we make demanding requests on hotels and restaurants about our breakfast? Are we a kitchens worst nightmare when our specifications flood the kitchen with different demands on what we want and how we want it cooked. I guess it’s no wonder hotels offer a buffet style breakfast – and why not? I think these can be very good, you can pick and choose what you want and you can look at it first – check out what looks tasty and what looks avoidable. I think the best breakfasts I have ever had have been presented in this way with a huge choice of different breakfast treats and all steaming hot. Perfect.
But, it’s the table service breakfast that needs work. I’ve been travelling quite a bit over the past year and entertained many an early morning breakfast with colleagues and I always sigh in despair at the early morning offerings that some hotels insist on charging over £15 per person for. I’ve never really examined the Great British Breakfast as a product or as a marketing tool, but my recent experience at the weekend in Somerset has really made me think about what we are doing to our industry and our tourist market with the continuous conveyor belt of poorly served breakfasts across the UK.
I do of course recognise that there are probably thousands of establishments serving outstanding breakfasts and will whole heartedly disagree with my appraisal, but for me, the percentage of bad breakfasts to good is too high and my choice in hotel is varied so there is no real reason for not living up to the expectations of Brits and tourists.
So, for what it’s worth, I wonder if anyone can answer the following?
Why does the bacon have to look like it’s just had a warm bath rather than had a good turn under the grill or in the frying pan?
Why are the scrambled eggs done in the microwave?
If we opt for fried eggs, why are they never cooked?
Why are the beans the smallest portion on the plate?
Why are the plates cold?
Why are we still serving jam and marmalade in individual small jars?
To me, it has to be simple. If you wouldn’t eat it – your customers will definitely not pay for it! We have so much to be proud of with our hearty breakfasts, but sometimes, the small mistakes really do make a difference and serving cold breakfasts with fatty anaemic bacon just doesn’t sell Britain…
If anyone is interested, I have to say on a positive note, the best breakfast I have ever enjoyed was in Scotland and it was delicious. I will always remember that hotel for the breakfast and I will always remember the hotel this weekend in Somerset for the breakfast, but I will not be returning!!
