small plates , garnish and buffet : life lessons from lunch with a hotelier: a marvin sissey ebook

7/28/2019 Small plates , garnish and buffet : Life Lessons From Lunch With a Hotelier: a Marvin Sissey eBook

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Small plates, garnish and buffet:

life lessonsfrom lunch with a hotelier

Marvin Sissey

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Marvin Sissey

Small plates, garnish and buffet:

life lessonsfrom lunch with a hotelier

Copyright 2013

Originally published as an article in the Business daily

Newspaper on Friday 13th April 2013.

www.marvinsissey.com

Twitter : @marvinsissey

Email : [email protected] 2


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The lake tour ..

My grandpa (God bless his soul) used to advise me that if I sought

to enjoy a tour of the lake, I should always remember to bring

along a local fisherman as my guide.

The truth in this statement manifested itself to me last week during

one of my routine training sessions at a Nairobi hotel. In

attendance was one Josephat Ngali, himself the group training

manager at a leading hotel chain in the country.

The greatest mark of a teacher, it is said, is his ability to accept to

be someone elses student once in a while. The curve of knowledgeis circular and we are all students.

That was so true of this particular incident because although he

actually came to attend my class, I ended up learning much from

him. I hope he also learnt from me. Probably because birds of a

feather flock together, we clicked quite easily as we shared our

previous training experiences during the breaks.

Marvin Sissey Hotelier's Life

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Josephat is a seasoned hotelier, in the literal sense of the word,

having perfected his craft over a considerable period of time in the

industry. Maybe he doesnt realise it but when he communicatesto a non-hotelier like me, he oozes a sense of professionalism and

understanding of his trade that is deeply exciting and definitely

desirable.

As you may guess, I enjoyed his company most when we broke for

the sumptuous buffet lunch. I went for the familiar hot vegetable

soup as he opted for a cold starter. I have to confess that I alwaysthought all the cold stuff was meant for dessert but he educated

me otherwise.

I felt a tinge of envy as I glanced at his plate. Whatever it was, my

non-comprehension of those exotic food names notwithstanding,

it looked delicious.


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He told me that the additional mint leaves that were on top of the

whipped cream were actually known as garnish. It served to

decorate the food to make it more visually appealing.

He reminded me that the first organ that begins eating your food is

not your mouth but your eyes. Hoteliers know as much, and hence

they first work to feed your eyes before they feed your mouth. That

way, they can splash whatever price they deem fit, and you will feel

much obliged to pay.

Soon we were off for the main course. I have to confess to being a

hopeless animal protein enthusiast. Anytime I am on a buffet line, I

always have that food battle in my head over which between fish and

chicken I should settle for given my equal love for both.

I am unable to simply take both portions since for some reason,

when they both meet in my digestive system simultaneously; theyget really jealous of each other causing small gastrointestinal wars I

would rather do without.


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Chicken

Of late, chicken drumsticks have been winning my preference battles and

on this day it was no exception. I added a small portion of brown rice

and some vegetables and off I went to my table to do my hunger pangs

some justice.

Josephat joined me after serving and we had a tte--tte as we enjoyedour lunch.

The food was so yummy; I am almost persuaded to get a second

helping, I told him as I cleared my plate.

Whydontyou? he enquired.

No I am okay. I will just have dessert, I replied.


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Small plates

That is the whole point, he added. What do you mean? I asked,

curiously. The small plate. I had a quick glance at my plate and for the

very first time realised just how small it was . It was like a eureka

moment since it had never crossed my mind before.

Its the hotels way of making you eat more economically. Food

business is quite hard to make money, so to stay in business we have to

manage our costs in this regard by toying around with your

psychology.

Buffet plates for main courses are always smaller than say ala carte

ones and you pay a bit more for the latter. This ensures that even if you

are greedy enough to overfill your plate into a pyramid of food, all you

will manage is a small pyramid, he explained to peels of laughter on

the table that we were sharing with other participants.

We know most people are too ashamed to seek second helpings. They

think it will make them look greedy which in some rare cases is actually

true.


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Dida Principle

Yeah, it is a good thing for us as well, it helps us adhere to the Dida

principle, one of the participants jumped in amid much laughter.(Mohamed Abduba Dida, a presidential candidate in the just

concluded election, electrified the TV audience with his humorous

suggestion that we should not eat to fill our tummies and that we

should let food only fill a third of the space and leave room for a

third water and a third air.)

It got me thinking; what if life is like your average buffet menuwhere all the resources are at your disposal? What if the choice for

hot or cold starters to your life is but a preference? What if the shine

you seem to see in your neighbours life is simply garnish, and you

are free to apply some garnish in your life as well?

What if we are all given a small plate to serve our first helping but

no one prevents us from getting a second helping? What if we arenot full after the first helping but are too ashamed to have a second

helping (to admit we did not get it right the first time and we need

to try again)?Marvin Sissey Hotelier's Life

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small plates , garnish and buffet : life lessons from lunch with a hotelier: a marvin sissey ebook

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