COMMENT
COMMENT | PETER HANCOCK
The fool-proof
kitchen
By PETER HANCOCK,
chief executive of Pride of Britain Hotels
W
hen sitting down to a popular hotel and country club at tentative picks with the tongues to
write this article my mind Wittering near Chichester. Our chef avoid severe pain allowing the, by now,
immediately turned to a was out of action for medical reasons minor inferno to get the better of me.
and we had a large party booked for years ago, attributable largely to my the evening, the local fire brigade and and into the ventilation duct above.
own incompetence but also to a few their guests, who were to enjoy a nice It was at this point I realised our
oversights when creating the workplace. barbecue in the garden with music and incapacitated chef had been negligent
drinks. At short notice I was therefore because the whole apparatus was
going to be in charge of the cooking. coated in grease. More flames
Before I get to the story let me
own up to total ignorance of modern
kitchen design, except to say that
Unfortunately the weather was
appeared in the drip shelf above my
what I occasionally witness behind the against us so everything had to be head which I patted with a tea towel.
scenes at our member hotels bears moved indoors. No problem, we had This caught alight straight away so I
little resemblance to the places where an open-to-view ‘charcoal’ grill in threw it down to preserve my hand,
I worked long ago. The standard of the restaurant with plenty of space failing to see that it had dropped onto
hygiene is incredible. There’s very to lay out all the steaks, sausages, a pile of paper plates which merely
little noise and staff are often in warm burgers and chops. While this was added to the spectacle.
clothes with not a bead of sweat on happening the party gathered in the It was time for drastic action so I
the brow. And instead of endlessly bar, leaving me to prepare the feast ran into the kitchen and grabbed a fire
walking back and forth, chefs have uninterrupted. extinguisher. In no time I had the fire
everything they need to hand.
How smug I felt while setting meat
out and breathed a sigh of relief. Alas
onto the grill well in advance of the the food was ruined so I had to hastily
bureaucracy and nor do I think the group being called in to eat. With the assemble what I could find in the cold
environmental health agencies always gas on medium it all seemed to be room and start all over again.
act fairly, but at least in part thanks going perfectly, with a few cheeky to enforcement modern commercial little flames popping up between the with food just about ready I asked
kitchens have become much more various items as I turned them with my a colleague to call the party in. “Oh,
pleasant to work in and, even more long metal tongues. This progressed didn’t you know, Peter? They’ve rushed
importantly, they produce safer food. alarmingly, however, as melting fat back to the station to get the fire
dripped onto the elements below and engine. Apparently someone living
an unlikely set of circumstances. At the flames grew taller. The heat also down the road called to say they’d
the time I was assistant manager at intensified so I was only able to make spotted smoke”.
I am no defender of petty
So, back to the incident. It was
20
The fire licked up the tiled wall
close shave I experienced some 40
www.hotelowner.co.uk
Once back under control and
September 2018