Interview with Fred Sirieix

Why did you want to get involved in Step Up To The Plate?
Well, I’ve always wanted to showcase the hospitality industry in all its beauty and glory. I think it’s a unique opportunity to do that and to teach kids the art of service and the art of running a restaurant.

It’s about inspiring and educating the next generation of professionals into the world of catering and hospitality, because it is a wonderful industry and there are great career prospects there. The thing is because we’ve got this master and servant sort of relationship with the industry, and we’ve had that for many, many years, people don’t think about it as a career - but there are many opportunities. In fact, we’ve a huge staff & skills shortage.

What are the key skills the children have to demonstrate?
There are technical skills about how you run a restaurant, but it’s also about the soft skills like communication, working as a team, delivering under pressure.

You’ve got to be able to take the flak, to have empathy with people, to be able to read situations - meaning that you’re going to be able to anticipate, but also react in the right way according to what’s happening in front of you. That is the art of good maître d', it’s about your judgement and being able to think on your feet all the time and be there for the customers.

Is there anything that surprised you about working with the children?
They were very good. It’s not surprising because children are just young people. When you explain to them what you’re looking for and what your expectations are, what the goal is, then they strive to reach that goal. It was fantastic and I made some great connections with them. I enjoyed meeting them, working with them and seeing them develop.

There were some kids, one in particular, who was very, very shy to start with to the point where she was almost invisible. But as the contest evolved, she grew in confidence and it’s like she found her voice. That was done in a matter of a few weeks. It was just beautiful to watch somebody take a leap of confidence and become really able to do something because they suddenly believe in themselves and have faith and trust in themselves.

Were there any funny moments?
Loads of funny moments. The kids had to choose the way they wanted to set up their tables and one of them, Dante, chose a potato to put on the table as decoration. That was the most hilarious thing, you think, why? It was a point of conversation for the customers because there was a potato on the table.

Was there much competition between yourself and Allegra?
It’s not really competition, it’s the banter that comes between chefs and front of house, because chefs always like to blame the front of house for mistakes. But Allegra didn’t do too much of that, just a little bit!

Allegra is a proper chef. There wasn’t competition, we were working together as a team to train the kids and to run a successful restaurant operation.

You obviously need to have a lot of patience in front of house as you are the one dealing with the customer...
People don’t say the food is slow, they say the service is slow. The food is slow because it’s slow coming out of the kitchen, but people say service is slow so, therefore, service is blamed all the time. I’m used to it, I’ve had it all my life. You have to be able to take it, I’ve got broad shoulders.

What’s the most difficult customer you’ve had to deal with and how did you deal with them?
I don’t really like to talk about difficult customers because they’re such a small proportion of customers. For me, the guest is king or queen, everybody is quirky and everybody can be difficult sometimes. The key is to be able to engage and connect with that person and make sure that person is happy in the end.

Can you tell us about the ‘difficult diners’ who come in to the restaurant in Step Up To The Plate?
They put them in situations where you think, how do you react to this? The contestants were good, and sometimes they were not so good, but it’s hard. It’s about learning. They’ve just started on their journey to learn about the world of hospitality, so they can only be as good as they are at that time.

Everybody has a role to play and we explain to them their role and what it is we expect. We are asking them to focus on that role and to deliver those objectives.

We taught them transferable skills: they’re learning all about how to behave, how to be with people, and teamwork, how to focus, pay attention to detail and communication these are transferable skills. That applies anywhere in any walk of life. If you want to be good, you have to apply yourself, full stop.