In association with the Catering Managers Association of Great Britain and the Channel Islands

How to give up the 9-5 and start your own Sandwich and Coffee Shop – even in a recession

The recession may have killed the long boozy power lunch but it has breathed new life into the quick conflab over a cafe latte. This, with the possibility of negotiating cheaper start up costs such as catering equipment and venue rental, means that the current economic downturn may not be the worst time to give up the 9-5 and follow your dream after all.
 Start and Run a Sandwich and Coffee Shop by Jill Sutherland records in detail how a young husband and wife team gave up their high earning PR and advertising careers to create Taste UK, a now firmly established and multi-award winning Essex-based business.
 This comprehensive guide offers practical and realistic advice, designed to take would-be sandwich bar owners from idea to opening. Packed with top tips, real life examples, checklists, and anecdotes it provides a stage by stage guide to your first year in business.
 Commenting on her success, Jill says, “It is now three years since we opened Taste (UK) Ltd, and it has (thankfully) proved to be a reliable and secure source of income. After spending the first year or so with drastically tightened belts the business has now afforded us the opportunity to move house, get married and enjoy a life filled with variation and opportunity.”
About the author: At the age of 28 Jill, and her 30 year old husband Richard Willis, decided to swap their careers in advertising and PR for the challenge of starting their own sandwich, salad and smoothie bar. Now, three years later, Taste (UK) Ltd is a firmly established and multi-award winning Essex business; proof that despite the influx of big name chains onto the high street, there is still room for enterprising, independent sandwich and coffee bars within this exciting business sector. To find out more about Jill, and her role as a business mentor, visit www.sutherlandcomms.com.
 
Start and Run a Sandwich and Coffee Shop is published by How To Books Ltd www.howtobooks.co.uk. and is available at £12.99 in major bookshops and online retailers across the country. ISBN 978-1- 84528-333-9          
For more information on this title please visit www.startandrunasandwichandcoffeeshop.co.uk

Good Food Guide Review - Christmas Dinners
With careful planning, eating out during the Christmas season can be quietly festive
While there’s certainly magic in the air in the run-up to Christmas, this isn’t always felt in restaurants. Sharing a room with several office parties, or being faced with special Christmas menus that don’t reflect the food normally produced by the kitchen is enough to bring out anyone’s inner Scrooge.
If you want to eat out in peace with family or friends during the party season, here are The Good Food Guide’s tips for bagging a table in a revelry-free zone.
When booking, always ask if the restaurant is offering a special Christmas menu. If the answer is yes, look elsewhere – they are almost certainly catering for office parties.
Even if the restaurant is not offering a dedicated Christmas menu, to make absolutely certain there won’t be a rowdy group booked in, check the restaurant’s policy on group bookings.
Location is key. Restaurants in town centres are more likely to attract groups. Head out to a country restaurant for a more intimate meal, but still ask the above questions before booking.
Consider going for lunch. Many restaurants offer excellent lunch deals – with savings of around £5 to £10 a head compared to dinner prices – and big groups are likely to be less lively than at dinner.
If it must be dinner, go to the restaurant early, not late, and plan to go somewhere else afterwards.
For a very special treat, try booking a top-rated restaurant – they are unlikely to be catering for large groups. It may be expensive, but it will be memorable.
And for those discerning groups looking for somewhere to make their own Christmas celebration really special, try one of these tips:
Think about restaurants that offer a private dining room – more and more places are doing this. And nowadays they are sleek, design-led rooms – a far cry from the claustrophobic basement or bland upstairs room of yore.
If you are a smallish group, say a dozen or so, then go for the latest hot ticket – the chef ’s table.
Some may be set right in the kitchen in the heart of the action, others look right into the kitchen through a glass panel – but all give you the full attention of the head chef and his brigade. Note, though, that at this time of year it will be hard to get a booking at the chef’s table in any restaurant.

The Good Food Guide can be ordered on 01903 828557 (£16.99, p&p free) or at www.which.co.uk/books or bought from bookshops.
Article courtesy of Which?

The Good Food Guide London 2008 will be published on 12 March.
The Good Food Guide is turning its focus on the London dining scene for the first time. The Good Food Guide London explores the full diversity of London eateries, from Brick Lane curry houses to world-renowned hotel restaurants. All of its reviews are evaluated according to the scrupulously independent, impeccable standards associated with the Which? brand.
Including up-to-the-minute information on new openings, prices, menus and wine lists, The Good Food Guide London offers a comprehensive introduction to the maze of eating options in the capital. So, whether you are new to London, or are simply looking to settle a debate with a friend about the quality of your local gastropub, you can tailor a gastronomic tour of the city to suit your own tastes.

PASSION and PRINCIPLES: Do women need to act like men in order to succeed in business?
Envisage the stereotype of a high-powered businesswoman: a ruthless, intimidating bulldog of a ‘woman’. No interest in babies and certainly neither the time nor the inclination for romance.
Now imagine the reality: an intelligent, glamorous woman, determined and gutsy, yet 100% feminine. Not just a successful entrepreneur or business executive, but also a mother, a daughter and a loving wife.
Inspiring Women, written by Michelle Rosenberg (Published November 2007, Crimson Publishing, £12.99) features 26 inspiring profiles, written from interviews with the businesswomen behind some of the UK’s best-known brands. Including Annabel Karmel, MBE, Karen Hanton of toptable.co.uk, Christian Rucker of the White Company, Sahar Hashemi of Coffee Republic and Mary Perkins of SpecSavers. The stories cover a range of sectors, from welfare to PR, baby food to maternity clothing, mail-order to telemarketing.

The lexicon carves out a new vocabulary that fully captures the immense diversity and complex characteristics of fish. A great source of information on the wide range of fantastic species available, it is aimed at anyone who’s interested in fish. From taste bud travellers, who regularly eat out, to chefs, restaurateurs and enthusiastic home cooks, all will quickly find The Young’s Lexicon of Fish an indispensable reference.
Compiled from well over 100 tastings conducted by the Young’s panel of expert fish tasters, The Young’s Lexicon of Fish communicates the wealth of different fish available, with the aim of giving more people the confidence to experiment with more species, more often.
The Young’s Lexicon of Fish is available, priced £6.99 from:
• Young’s website (www.youngs.co.uk)
• WH Smiths (www.whsmith.com)
• Books for Cooks in Notting Hill, London (www.booksforcooks.com)
• Gladstone’s Cook Books in Holt, Norfolk (www.gladstonescookbooks.com)
• FishWorks (www.fishworks.co.uk)
• Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk)