Consultancy - A Curate’s Egg

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.
Giuseppe di Lampedusa 1896-1957, Italian writer in The Leopard

“You’d better get in touch with our wine consultant,” said the restaurant manager when I quizzed him how I could sell wines to his establishment. Ever get the sense you are being fobbed off? I do - frequently. However, I have also been there and performed that same role myself, screening restaurateurs from importunate sales reps. Bandied about oh-so-freely, consultant is a term that begs the question what qualifies people to be to “style” themselves one.

A consultant, in theory, is an individual who possesses special knowledge or skills and provides that expertise to a client for a fee. Consultants help all sorts of businesses, find and implement solutions to a wide variety of problems, including those related to business start-up, marketing, manufacturing, strategy, organization structure, environmental compliance, health and safety, technology, and communications. In the restaurant trade wine consultants tend to compile wine lists, put together and instigate training programmes and occasionally assist in operational matters. They can inject a dose of healthy realism into what are essentially vanity projects and guide the restaurateurs through the tricky early stages of opening a business. Good wine consultants are on the job; they have the restless desire to improve the offering. They take ownership of the project and they bequeath knowledge and passion.

Training is not simply about giving tools. What use are manuals and technical notes unless the members of staff actually learn how to taste and enjoy wine and feel comfortable talking about it? A consultant exists to create a dynamic wine culture. Senior managers and head chefs must also be part of the process and set a clear example, for unless the training is morally and practically supported by the restaurant itself, it will inevitably lack follow through and the educational programme will wither and eventually die.

Certain restaurateurs will solicit advice and then reject it for the status quo. Whilst this is their prerogative, consultancy is pointless unless you have a notion what you want the consultant to achieve; those restaurateurs who change their mind according to a passing whim or the last opinion they heard undermine the very rationale of hiring a consultant.

Whilst there are plenty of good reasons for engaging a wine consultant there are just as many bad ones. For some restaurateurs the notion of consultancy confers a spurious glamour to a project. It is like associating a restaurant with a chef who has never actually cooked (nor will cook) in the kitchen or done anything more than sign off on a menu.

Not all consultants (and there seem to be so many these days) are paragons. Whilst some are constrained by the political shenanigans of f & b managers and have to work with a very limited palette of trust, others do the bare minimum that the brief demands. They are complacent gatekeepers; they reward their cronies; the lists, even if they are decent to begin with, eventually become sterile through lack of change. Often restaurants with the help of wine merchants end up driving the training agendas and providing the education whilst the consultants opt for the quiet life – and take the money. Putting the con into consultancy doesn’t do anyone any good; it simply brings the job title into disrepute.

So who is qualified to be a consultant? Sommeliers and former sommeliers often gravitate towards consultancy. Having worked within the on-trade they should, in theory, have a strong understanding of what produces results in restaurants. This is not always the case, however. If you work in rarefied surroundings, constantly flattered by wine merchants trying to sell you their wares, you may rule your private fiefdom with authority, but you won’t necessarily develop the self-critical capacity of a good consultant. For consultants need three major qualities: firstly, the ability to see the overall picture; secondly, an attention to detail and, thirdly, the resolve and diligence to follow up initiatives. Meanwhile, many of the wine merchants, MWs and journalists who pick up consultancies are usually detained and distracted by other jobs, and not able to put in the graft that distinguishes a strong consultant from a soi-disant one.