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« on: 14 September 2012, 11:00:55 am »
Yes I was 6 month menu changes were OK but still got pissed off making the same stuff all the time the only saving grace was the "chefs specials menu" this was usually a 4 starter 4 main and 4 dessert menu written daily with what ever I could get for the day this was eventually stopped by head office as it was out selling the corporate menu buy about 9-1 they were not happy so they ended up stopping it but still took one off orders when ever we could. We would get the " can you do cottage pie" YES can you do me a steak tartar YES could you do me a Dover sole Yes but tomorrow as we don't carry any in stock, to be honest people like your self who were long term guest were great as after a short period you have eaten the items you liked off the menu and wanted something different which was great as it gave us a change. There was a little variety as we used to do a carvery on occasions as well as the Exec lounge freebies sometimes moving over to banquitting was a change for a day but even those menus only changes about every 6 months. Quality of the food varies massively from Marriott to Marriott it should not but it does, I have worked in a few in this country helping out or going there to see new menus or procedures being used, I worked for a while at the Glasgow hotel at the time the brigade was mainly a team brought buy the then head chef from a country house hotel which had 3 rosettes add to this more staff working the shifts and the food was great freshly made bread every shift in fact every thing was made on site, great food made fresh cooked by good chefs then off to London SAME menu no where near as good less staff lower quality of staff as well, more bought in no real care taken, just get the food out with out much care. Not the way I like to work would rather take extra time and get it right, talking to the guests was a part of my daily shift checking on how they liked the food what we could do to make it better talking about what they would like to see/ or have (long term guests) that we could arrange for them. Now working for some where like Marriott is good for job security, working environment and training BUT the main problem is they are very controlling when it comes to what you do, this was highlighted when Whitbread (who owned 90% of Marriott's in this country via franchise) sold the hotels which then passed to Marriott although we still worked in a "Marriott" things changed a lot and not everything was for the better, our scope for personalising our menu went right down, no chefs special menus more central purchasing of products, even something as simple as the cheese board was specified as Stilton, brie and Cheddar we were not allowed to put any Welsh cheese on the board up until then we were offing about 6-8 cheeses of which 3 could be chosen the usual suspects were there but we had local or special cheeses for choice this was all stopped, we did have a little cheat as our BQ menu was Welsh themed so we could get away with buying some Welsh product but as head office could check every invoice they could see everything we bought and we were pulled a couple of times due to this.
Sorry for the ramble most people do not understand that as a chef in a chain what ever it may be your hands are tied to a degree.
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we did "cheat" a little we used to put on a limited menu in the bar but room service was as normal.
have not tried it again. I have tried some of the cheaper stuff (lump fish roe etc) and a no to that as well but should impress just tell them the stuff you have is Beluga and see what they say 
