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About G & G Founded by Paul and Valda Goodfellow, G & G Goodfellows is a highly creative design & Distribution Company with an amazing showroom in Little Portland Street. Offering a truly hands-on service, Goodfellows passion is to bring new and exciting, bespoke food presentation concepts to the UK’s culinary scene. As well as offering a wide variety of the world’s best branded tableware, kitchen equipment, clothing and machines, Goodfellows also collaborates closely with UK craft producers for totally unique products. It works with all sizes of restaurant and catering projects, happy to supply anything from an individual plate to a full restaurant concept.
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y the time you read this, the UK will be open for dinner! It has been a long time coming and the queues at the door – safe, socially distanced queues, of course – will show how desperately our restaurants, hotels and bars have been missed. The fabric of our social life is interwoven with food and drink, shared with family and friends in convivial surroundings – without it, we feel life is somehow less. But what will the hospitality experience feel like and how will it be changed by recent events? We know that social distancing is dictating the type of experience at the start but if, as some of our restaurateurs and hoteliers predict, the current restrictions will render many venues unworkable or unprofitable, then we will see some operators simply decide not to reopen under the current rules. Think about how people are in supermarkets – they wait to enter in a socially distanced queue but once inside, they simply forget the advice. If you
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We have had to become really creative, looking at all of our tableware options which could be used to fit within covered tray sizes
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Embracing change... How we dine, how we socialise, how we interact has changed forever – but there is opportunity for the hospitality industry to adapt, says Valda Goodfellow add friends and alcohol into the mix, social distancing becomes simply unsustainable and definitely unpoliceable. The temptation for social contact is just too much, no matter what precautions the venues have gone (to great expense) to implement. A lack of proper guidance at this stage in the UK is responsible for the challenging and chaotic landscape our hospitality businesses have to contend with. But chaos brings opportunities, as well as challenges, and so it will be in these unprecedented times. Those who can recognise the opportunities and work through the chaos will reap the rewards when we reach our new ‘normality’. Let us first consider the chaos. As I write this, the UK has just reduced its social distancing guidelines to one meter, having previously stood at two meters. One meter would make a huge difference to the commercial viability of venues and could ultimately determine how many businesses will survive. Through our very British lockdown, we at Goodfellows have
kept a skeleton staff working to maintain some level of service while ensuring we keep in contact with our customers. Some chefs have been heroes in volunteering to make meals for our hospital and care workers, while others have been turning restaurants and pubs into takeaway food operations, just to help pay the rent. Some hoteliers, bar owners and chef/patrons are truly bereft that everything they have worked for is at risk of disappearing. Many corporate operators are manoeuvring to renegotiate high rents and cut staff to keep their businesses viable. Our customers are grateful that we have even bothered to just talk to them and see how they are coping. Being in the middle of a crisis with loved ones at risk is bad enough, but when your business is at risk too, the sense of isolation can be overwhelming. As a result of our discussions with customers, we have been trying to come up with solutions to pre-empt some of the enforced changed that this virus has created.
These solutions cover three areas; ■ Barrier and safety solutions– screens, sanitisers and signage ■ Covered service solutions – tableware and service items. ■ Disposable solutions – packaging for takeaway. I will not go into detail on barrier or disposable solutions in this column, but the covered service solutions will be of interest to readers. The need for covered service solutions emanates from a desire to provide practical and visible evidence to diners that they can have confidence in their food being free from possible contamination by those serving it. We expect buffet service will be either severely restricted or eliminated entirely. There will be few breakfast-buffet displays for people to browse and serve themselves. Hotel breakfasts will need to be served à la carte, or in the hotel room on a covered tray, or on covered plates. Many hotels are planning to send breakfasts to the room on trolleys, or trays, to be left outside the door for residents to bring into the room and serve
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