“Nothing is learnt unless you see it happen or do it with your own hands” is a belief that is so much respected and adhered to, especially in the trade of hospitality. The expert faculty members of Vatel Hotel & Tourism Business School, by virtue of the richness of their expertise or their experience, conducted a workshop for the teachers and professors of the other schools of the Sushant university.
A chef of the college says “By virtue of the general upsurge in affluence and the enhancement of the paying propensity of people at large, clubbed with the usual situation of both the spouse working, the availability of cooking time at home remains but limited or even a rare possibility.
This leads either to their visiting the local eateries for meals or ordering food at home. Most of the organisations have a system of lunch being catered to within the premises of their office, thereby not necessitating for its staff members the need to prepare of lunch before leaving for their offices.”
Furthermore, business lunches, due to the offices being usually located in the close vicinity of hotels or office complexes have become quite frequent, a feature that has given rise to a world of stand-alone, fine-dine restaurants run by professional chefs and trained operations staff. These outlets offer, apart from the various regional Indian cuisines, Mediterranean, French, Burmese, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Mandarin, Szechuan food which are prepared by expert and experienced chefs in hygienic kitchens and are served with the complete style, ambience and atmosphere that one is so much used to seeing, especially in the acclaimed star-rated hotels.
Business lunches, no matter how informal or elaborate may they be, whether being hosted for the Indian guests or for foreigners, deserve to be looked after well, on one hand by the service staff, and, correspondingly, attended to in the same spirit, style, elegance and sophistication on the part of the visiting guests. It is actually the ideal merging of the two that constitutes to a successful business lunch, a formal dinner or even a professional cocktail reception.
The young executives of the present times, apart from having to deal, mingle and entertain their counterparts visiting India regularly, are also obliged to travel to the different parts of the world, wherein it becomes necessary for them as well to get used to the diverse culture, language, food, style of service and several other things that are closely allied with it. These meals or receptions with clients are actually hosted with the sole purpose of gaining eventually the confidence of the customers with the ulterior motive of keeping a watchful eye on their business.
It is therefore significant to learn that the success of a business meal depends a lot not only on the art of attending it, but also the way it is hosted.
How to lay the table? How to place the crockery, cutlery, linen, glassware and the flower vase and the candle? How to seat the guests? How to unfold and place the napkin? How to serve water? How to present the menu? What cutlery to begin with? Where to place the hands while the food is being served? How to deal with the appetizers, soups and food on your plate? What is compatible cutlery? How to pronounce the name of the wines, how much to taste and how much to drink? How much and when should one talk while dining with a client? All this is silently observed by the hosts as well as the guests and thus, for the sake of the success of an organisation, these meetings should be taken very seriously. How should one dress up? What colour and kind of clothes should one choose? How to choose ties and socks? All these are serious matters and should be handled with full care and utmost attention.
It is towards creating an awakening and developing a matter of awareness and
cognizance towards this very imperative and usually neglected and even forgotten aspect of business life that Sushant University has developed a two-day programme of Dining Etiquette. This programme can be conducted within your organisation or, in a better way, in the formal ambience of the fine-dine restaurant that the students and chefs operate at the Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School.
Sushant University is backed by its collaboration with the Vatel Hotel and Tourism Business School of France, which is the source of an endless repository of the latest literature concerning the finesse in hospitality, which would be put to use in these training programmes. The organisations interested in giving such useful and practical training to its marketing, sales and operational staff can greatly benefit from it as such a specialized training is not usually imparted by any professional organisation or a university.
