An integral part of the meetings industry is based on various types of refreshments. I’m not just talking about coffee breaks and refreshing drinks, I mean different types of more or less formal lunches or dinners which usually form the most sociable part of a congress or a professional meeting. I am not implying that snack breaks during a congress are less important than formal lunches or dinners as one has to treat all culinary delights provided for congress participants in the same manner. The extent, contents, logistics and service vary however. Taking a look back at my work diaries of the last twenty or thirty years, I takes me just seconds to see that our hotels and restaurants often didn’t know how to organise formal lunches and dinners. In simple terms, the service was average and automatic and without any good, unique or innovative ideas, just like Slovenian tourism. There are of course some bright exceptions to this rule.

We do have what it takes for this area of meetings and tourism activity as well: several appropriate venues with a relatively good equipment, even waiters (even though some of them are just students trying to earn some money) can be taught the basics and florist can do some nice flower arrangements, especially if the funds for the congress take these aspects into consideration. But this is just one side of the story. The other side, the one that is most important and connected with the ‘content’ of the event, is the weaker one. As an apology to all restaurants I have to say that they often have to take into consideration the ‘expert knowledge’ of their clients and their whims.

A formal lunch or dinner needs to be regarded as a great opportunity for the promotion of restaurants, towns and cities hosting a congress, and most of all the culture and gastronomy of the entire country. Lunch or dinner is not just about showing off technology or culinary knowledge, it’s about demonstrating the stories based on culinary knowledge and excellent service. After all, this is expected from each and every congress organiser and restaurant. This is just like hairdressers showing off their sharp scissors and not providing great haircuts and other hair interventions to their clients.

If the lunch or dinner is formal, one has to consider what formal actually means. Is it formal because of candles, the dress code, the dancing, perhaps because of the background music? You can have a formal lunch or dinner in a village pub, on a farm or in a community centre, to name a few extreme examples. The question that arises is how do we perceive and approach formality.  We have been spoilt in this area unfortunately as we are exposed to global models seen in average Anglo-American movies and television shows. A highly formal lunch or dinner needs no candles or intricate flower arrangements. Formal can mean festive as well. A formal lunch or dinner is a festive feast which means they differ from the everyday automatic life in every aspect. For example: even beef broth that can be found in every hotel restaurant should be prepared differently for a formal lunch or dinner but this is unfortunately not the case in Slovenia. There is thankfully more emphasis on the food at formal lunches or dinners, not on weird decorations or wardrobe changes among the staff yet most average catering services in Slovenia do not understand this. An emphasis on the food and drinks gives people the great opportunity to talk to other congress participants. We introduce them to the customs and daily lives of places and countries by choosing the right dishes. It’s a very good idea to include house specialties of a restaurant in the menu (that is if they even have one). I once asked a waiter what their house specialty was and I was given this memorable answer: Anything we cook is good! The congress topic or the participants’ profession can be a great starting point for special menus. And they shouldn’t be written in such a lifeless manner and without any substance as is typical of everyday menus in our hotel restaurants. Instead they should emphasise the restaurant’s uniqueness, the stories behind the dishes, etc.

The location also has an effect on the formal character of a lunch or dinner. A historic location such as an old hotel, a castle hall or a state reception centre should be reason enough for an event to be formal but this is not so. A formal event with a formal atmosphere can be held anywhere, even in a tent. There are few good hotel restaurants and venues where a formal event can be held in Slovenia. Most of them are very »cold«, not because of the heating but because the surroundings and the atmosphere are cold. Lifeless walls and decoration, a lack of understanding coloured light effects and a whole range of other weak points. Unfortunately we also have no specialised experts who know how to decorate such venues and no classes on how to garnish dishes on plates or on serving counters.

A formal lunch or dinner can be held where the congress or meeting takes place. This is a good idea for large hotels where the guests get to know the venue only when the lunch or dinner is taking place so it’s not just a slightly changed congress venue. Formal lunches or dinners have been proven a great success outside the congress venue. We can take the guests on a trip or excursion and take them to a restaurant or to a tourist farm that does not cater for three or four buses. They can have a formal lunch or dinner on a boat sailing across the Slovenian sea, on a museum train, on a river boat sailing along the Ljubljanica or Drava River, on a Slovenian lake, etc. If the participants of the congress take a walk to a local restaurant they are better off than if they go to a congress venue that has been changed into a hotel restaurant where the tables have been moved around and where they are served by the same tired faces they have been watching for days during the congress.

I will not discuss tableware and other technologies necessary to carry out a proper formal lunch or dinner, but I would still like to point to a certain detail. The menus. Menus at formal lunches or dinners often contain dishes from the standard menu that have just been arranged differently on the plate. They are missing out on an amazing opportunity because it’s the right menu that creates the pleasant atmosphere of a formal event among the guests. If the dishes are prepared and served as they should be and the right music is played, the response from the congress participants will be amazing and they will shower us with promises of coming back again. And they don’t just say these things to be polite.

Janez Bogataj, Full Professor of Ethnology

 

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