I was attending an International food service conference as a guest presenter in April and decided to sit in on one of the sessions. The presenter sounded pretty good and I was content on sitting and listening and pretty well zoning out for a little while. When they handed out pens and paper I becam... [More]

I think if you asked the majority of punters that would be happy to say that I have batted for the chefs for years, well this time it needs to change. There has been a horrible ripple going around that has made many believe they need or more to the point are entitled to a pay rise. Apart from the pr... [More]

This a serious issue that will affect Australian food producers and ships providores in the coming months. It is alarming that the government has approved the special import permits to the cruise line industry for the direct open importation of types food that are completely banned /prohibited to en... [More]

Yet again another festive season has passed and the next big event will be the Easter break and so on. But I can guarantee you that across the industry the same mistakes will be repeated and we will sit back and wonder why. If you take the Christmas break for example, we have all the parties le... [More]

There is an alarming increase in the amount of accountants offering actual operating advice in hospitality businesses with no hospitality back ground or understanding of the operational side of a very complex industry.My example is I sat in on a meeting with a new inexperienced operator and her acco... [More]

The club industry in Australia is probably the most generous segment of our industry; I know this from my own experiences of running one of the biggest and most successful clubs for a few years as well as five or six smaller venues. If I said I was bitterly disappointed in our current government it ... [More]

There is an increasing problem with cooking industry personnal (cooks) not standing up and having there own opinion. My example is, get a group of cooks together and ask them for an opinion on convienance foods. As soon as the first one says "in my litchen we make everything" generally the rest will... [More]

It is no wonder that some employers shake there head at the quality of trades people we present at times. i had a friend complain to me how his chef even though was a great guy was totally incompetant. i found it hard to accept so i went to see this guy in action. oh my god words cannot describe the... [More]

It always amazes me that chefs seem to think if they read a dish they too can perform the task. Here is my example, the "Twice cooked pork belly" appears on many menues. pork belly is not an easy product to cook, if you want to do it asian style as most seem to, you first need to select the right pi... [More]

Interestingly I sat beside an elderly jewish gentleman on the way back to the Sunshine coast from Melbourne. my guess is he was about 75 years young. he told me he had been coming to the Sunshine coast for 35 years having a holiday and that he was a developer. I mentioned that he must have seen a lo... [More]

i read in Open house this month that the ACT government had finially cracked down on what we have known for years. The dodgy activities of some asian restaurants in all our states. i am so pleased that an acredited body is actually taking a stance, the operational activites in this area we have know... [More]

I have had about enough of the administraion duties placed on Chefs. I was hosting a dinner on Monday night, prior to the event starting i spent some time with the executive chef who showed me the latest and greatest folder of documents to be filled in on a daily basis. We discussed what a load of c... [More]

  Xtreme in 2009 Hectic is a short word that I would describe 2009, combined with the uncertainties of the economic climate has made this year very challenging. However the Xtreme team has flourished during 2009, re-evaluating our direction and planning to enable us a very strong platform of... [More]

  We can now add consultants to the Beijing Olympics to our impressive client list. This is as a major achievement in 2008. While we are battling the winter cold in Australia, a 3 member X-Treme Team are at the Olympics in Beijing going full steam ahead. They are busy implementing all the pla... [More]

Welcome to the seventh edition of Main Course. Happy Reading!   You thought the guys were busy; well X-Treme Consulting has found new ways to increase productivity and become even more wound (yes it is possible).   An early gold for the X-Team  Global travel is on the ... [More]