Jamie Lewis is the Restaurant Manager at Highfield Garden World who prior to the new restaurant opening was responsible for Marketing and IT at the garden centre.  GTN Food Xtra interviewed him to find out what made him move from IT to catering and how he is managing the new expanded restaurant.

Listen to the interview here 

or download from Dropbox using this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kh9m9rc8wvwyaw0/Jamie%20Lewis.mp3 

GTN:  What were you doing prior to your new role so we can put your job change into context?

Jamie:  I did all the marketing, our printed newsletter which went out to 12,000 customers; I was the driving force behind that. It was A4, glossy full of offers, gardening tips, on the lines of Gardeners' World only fewer pages. 

I also diversified into cctv, keeping on top of theft in store, which is always a problem I'm afraid, I look after telephone systems, the website, Facebook, all the in-house POS, and troubleshooting any computer issues which we had.

GTN:  Then you decided to change all that, or do you still do that as well as be Catering Manager?

Jamie:  I've dropped a few of those roles, not all of them but catering is taking a lot of time.

GTN:  So what made you move over to the catering side?

Jamie:  Progression in the garden centre really. I’ve been with Highfield since 2002. I started as a weekend assistant and my marketing and IT role came about with Tim and Joan creating the role for me. It was something they thought was necessary for the garden centre to grow so that's where they pushed me on to.

GTN: Tim (joint owner of Highfield) mentioned to me earlier that your family have a background in catering so it's not completely alien to you?

Jamie:  No it's not. My wife's father has six pubs, all successful sites, and I've spent ten years in and around him running his businesses on the side of being at Highfield so I’ve had a good insight into what the local customers are after and what they expect in the service and also I’ve been able to monitor my father-in-law as to how he would manage a site like this so I’ve been able to borrow on a lot of experience really. He won’t give me any assistance, of course, because he's got pubs three miles away but it’s been good.

GTN:  Were you involved in the design and the specification of the new restaurant?

Jamie:  I wasn't actually, I applied for the role in a bit of a tongue in cheek way.  Tim came into my office with the advert for the jobs for the restaurant and at the top of it was Restaurant Manager. I said don't bother advertising that, I’ll do it.  I heard nothing more, we did advertise. I actually met with one of my competitors for the role and interviewed him with Tim, but sadly he didn't turn out to be right and Tim and Joan came back to me and said they wanted me to take on the mantle.

GTN:  So how long have you been doing the catering manager role now?

Jamie:  Since the end of October.

GTN:  Did you manage the old restaurant and the transfer over?

Jamie:  A little bit. I left the old restaurant to the old catering managers to continue. It was transitional; we were closing the restaurant down in certain aspects at the end of November because we've used some of our old equipment, our ovens, fryers, some of our refrigeration equipment, our mixers, all of that had to come down here to lighten the load on cost. So we had to manage closing that one down but keeping the customers happy.  In November we were actually up, even though we had reduced our services and then took on in full swing here.  Tables, chairs, crockery, cutlery are all things I’ve been involved in from the outset. I got back from my honeymoon in mid October and then I had six weeks with Tim and Joan frantically creating a scheme for crockery, tea, coffee. We had already tied in with Soho but we still had to decide how we would present their brand. Staffing issues, who were we going to get in, where were we going to allocate them.

GTN:  Have you kept all of the staff from the original restaurant?

Jamie:  Yes, all of the old staff have come with us.  It’s been a bit of a shock to the system for them. They have gone from making a combination of 20 baguettes and sandwiches all day to 40 rounds of sandwiches in the morning and a similar number of baguettes so their prep time has got much busier for them. They've had to come away from their  "I want to do 15 varieties of sandwiches today to we're going to do 5 varieties and were going to build up on volume so that the customer has always got something which is on offer for the day. Our bakery staff have come across with us, Judith has been with us for five years, making the cakes, and now we've added Diana and the two of them in the bakery can't keep up with production.  That’s, tray bakes, sponges, fruit cakes, scones.  We can sell anything up to 100 scones in a day and more on a quiet day.  The numbers are huge going from 20 scones a day to 100.

GTN: How many staff do you have in total in the catering team now?

Jamie:  I’ve got 30 staff in total, it’s quite service led, quite hands on for the staff, it's counter based service, so I need two to serve on the salad bar, two people minimum to serve on our Soho coffee bar.  On our hot counter we need a minimum of three staff and that's before we look at the dining room, food prep.

GTN:  And how many chefs do you employ?

Jamie:  I've got four chefs on the books at the moment, there is room for expansion possibly to offer a later serving time in the afternoon with hot meals but as we prepare everything fresh on the premises my chefs will not pick up a packet of anything or a jar of something, it has to come from scratch.

GTN:  And are the chefs from the original restaurant?

Jamie:  We've added a head chef to come in above the chefs we had to offer a bit of guidance and experience in large volume catering and also making it more profitable for us.  Those jars of sauce we used to use were quite expensive. Actually making a curry from scratch is much more cost effective, to use a paste, fresh chillies and all the other ingredients - the customers can definitely tell the difference.  I’m not saying the food we did previously was bad but we've now stepped up. How brilliantly the restaurant looks now, we've matched that with the food.  Everything has stepped up, production, quality and service.

GTN:  And of course they've got a wonderful new kitchen to work in?

Jamie:  Yes they have, and it's not big enough. Maximising time in the kitchen is vital.

GTN:  How have you learned to manage and help them maximise that time?

Jamie:  I’m opinionated and strong willed. We will do it my way. If it’s wrong we'll look at it. I do listen to my staff, they've all got experience, and they’ve all been dealing with these customers quite a lot longer than I have.  I know what they (customers) come into the garden centre to see but they know what they have served them.  Its good team work, I will listen and we bounce ideas off each other.

GTN:  Have you gone off and done any particular training to help with the new role and managing people?

Jamie:  I haven't done any management courses as yet, I've got a strong sport background, I was captain of the football and cricket team, there's a lot of comradery in those sports.  I was an outspoken member of the office when i worked with Tim and Joan. Other than that I've done my food hygiene level two and three, HASAP, in quite quick succession, I've enjoyed every moment of them. It just re-enforces things that I was aware of but now when i talk to my staff about them i can talk with a lot more confidence

GTN:  How many covers do you serve?

Jamie:  We have 284 internally and 100 on the patio.

GTN:  And do you have any stats on number of meals served, cups of coffee, average transaction value?

Jamie:  December to mid March we had sold 17,500 cups of tea. We’re selling loose leaf tea now with filters so that’s turning those teapots over on a massive level.  They are in and out of the kitchen all day long.

GTN:  Do you sell 2 coffees to one tea?

Jamie:  No the level is about on par, we've got an even split.  Our coffee range is definitely growing, customers are enjoying the Soho brand.  It has increased sales through quality and consistency. Through their training and their product support they offer a great coffee bean, they offer a fantastic product and constant support. If I want them to audit the staff they would come out and spot check for me to make sure we are on par.  One of my baristas got 100% on everything - it shocked them, he could put flowers in the top of a latte, he could put swans, hearts, he's really talented.  Marlon would be in for a barista championship.  He's number 1, he's done a fantastic job. And Soho have backed that up with their support.

GTN:  And do you know how many hot meals you serve on average?

Jamie: On a quiet day we can do 100 covers comfortably at lunchtime, that’s excluding breakfasts, but normally it’s upwards of 100.

GTN: How long do you serve breakfast for?

Jamie:  We serve breakfast from 9 until 11 every day, normally it creeps on because queues are still there and well always serve them.

GTN:  Is that a growing trade?

Jamie:  It is.  It's one of those trades I feel I can expand on for the restaurant.  It’s busy but we can serve a lot more. I think our breakfast is possibly the best in the county, value for money, quality, and for what they get; we offer a 5 item breakfast which includes toast and orange juice on top for £4.49. That’s a real pork sausage cooked in the oven, not bread crumbed and deep fried.  Thick cut back bacon - we get very little shrinkage so it stays like a rasher of bacon as you'd expect it, full of flavour, not too salty.  Between Simon Danzel, the head chef, and myself we've really tried to tie down our breakfast market to make sure it is quality and it’s consistently good for the customer.