Redmill

Today my youngest son was the manager. He studies at ROCvA which stands for the “Amsterdam Regional Community College“. He fancies a career in the Hotel, catering or restaurant business and in may this year the labour union mentioned a shortage of 12.000 professionals in this line of business. Plent of opportunities. The full-time college-based route combines study with hands-on training in the workplace i.e. a school restaurant and a traineeship at The College Hotel. 

Today he was manager at the school restaurant .  And man was I proud.
I’ve seen him leaving the house to go to a days work for school, all dressed up, suit, tie, polished shoes. But today was different. He was the first this year in his class to be the restaurant manager and he was the manager. Imagine you have to manage a company with inexperienced employees, shy, uncertain and you have to deliver because there are customers.

He walked around, constantly checking what everybody was doing, jumping in when needed, communicating. He looked so relaxed. Ok, he and one of his best friends/classmate and some others had aquired some experience through previous schooling and weekend jobs in restaurants but today was different. These were motivated youngsters, with a great sense of hospitality, motivated and on their way to become real professionals.

At a sudden moment their seemed to be some tension. It turned out that four guests that did not have resevations wanted to have dinner. The manager of the day :-) had allready agreed. Guest are guest and business is business. However this is a school restaurant with a limited amount of food in storage. Just enough to service the guest with reservations but unfortunatly no suprise guest. During a short huddle the supervising teacher explained that in this school restaurant unexpected guest should allways be checked with the kitchen before accepting. But men, if I had a restaurant that is the way I would like to have my staff be eager to invite the guest in. Unfortunately tonight the restaurant only had a few guest but I’m confident that these kids will be able to fill the restaurant to the rim. 

Short before the desert got served I loved it when I heard my sons friend bring up to my son the manager that their were not so many guests so that they could have their collegue students start early with cleaning. These kids are trained to be efficient in a friendly way. Sure they want to party when the restaurants closes but hey don”t we all.

I had a great evening, with delicious food, excellent wine, great service. 
If you want to have a great diner brought to you by the new generation in hospitality, make your reservations here.