Goodwin & Associates Blog
The most trusted name in hospitality.Archive for March, 2009
The All-Important Thank You Letter
Creating a lasting, positive impression…
In all cases, no matter how you think the interview went — it’s important for you to follow up with the employer. Unless you receive a job offer at the end of the first interview–which rarely happens—So how do you do the “Thank you Letter”?
Sending a follow-up letter quickly gives you an opportunity to communicate any ideas or remarks that you may have forgotten during the interview.
Writing a follow-up letter while the interview experience is still fresh in your mind helps you write the most effective letter possible. It also gives you a sense of continuity because you are performing an act that will hopefully keep communications open with the potential employer.
The simple act of letter-writing also gives you a sense of closure, at least until you hear from the employer again. This closure allows you to quickly move on to preparing for an interview with another employer, if necessary, and focus completely on that effort.
Whether you are offered a job or not, writing a follow-up thank you letter is good form, good manners, an act of gratitude, and considerate — and employers will appreciate the gesture. In fact, an employer may appreciate your follow-up letter enough to keep you in mind for future job openings — even if you are not selected this time around.
In the follow-up letter, your primary goals should be to:
Convey a cordial greeting and expression of thanks for the interview opportunity
Provide any information that the employer may have requested during the interview
Briefly remind the employer of the high points of your interview
Express your enthusiasm about the possibility of being offered the job and working for the employer
Cordially invite the employer to contact you at his or her convenience to ask more questions or meet with you again. Our office will confirm any interview.
Whether you send your follow-up letter by mail (preferred), fax, or email, the effect should be the same: Your letter should be a cordial, pleasant reminder of your best qualities exhibited during the interview, and it should make a lasting impression. Never do a voicemail!
A Note About Handwriting: Unless your handwriting is highly legible, attractive, and unpretentious, type or word-process your follow-up letters (and all other written communications) to an employer. Illegible or flashy handwriting could have a negative effect, even after a successful interview.
Although there is no way to create a perfect follow-up letter that you can use in all situations, you can use the guidelines we’ve just discussed and the sample letters included in this application. Include thoughts that either revive or maintain an employer’s interest after an interview.
Hopefully you will be asked to return for another interview — or to start your new job!
Obama focuses on food safety
US President Barack Obama speaks to attendees at the Business Roundtable March 12, 2009 at a hotel in …
WASHINGTON – The nation’s food safety system is a “hazard to public health” and overdue for an overhaul, President Barack Obama said Saturday as he focused on that task by filling the top job at the Food and Drug Administration.
Obama used his weekly radio and video address to announce the nomination of former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg as agency commissioner and selection of Baltimore’s health commissioner, Joshua Sharfstein as her deputy. Consumer groups applauded the picks.
The president also is creating a special advisory group to coordinate food safety laws and recommend how to update them. Many of these laws have not changed since they were written early in the last century, he said.
Obama said the food safety system is too spread out, making it difficult to share information and solve problems.
The FDA does not have enough money or workers to conduct annual inspections at more than a fraction of the 150,000 food processing plants and warehouses in the country, Obama said.
“That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg,” he pledged.
Hamburg, 53, is a bioterrorism expert. She was an assistant health secretary under President Bill Clinton and helped lay the groundwork for the government’s bioterrorism and flu pandemic preparations.
As New York City’s top health official in the early 1990s, she created a program that cut high rates of drug-resistant tuberculosis. She is the daughter of two doctors. Her mother was the first black woman to earn a medical degree from Yale University, and she credits her father for instilling in her a passion for public health.
Sharfstein, 39, is a pediatrician who has challenged the FDA on the safety of over-the-counter cold medicines for children. He also served as a health policy aide to Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., who plays a leading role in overseeing the pharmaceutical industry.
Both are doctors and outsiders to the troubled agency and will face the daunting challenge of trying to turn it around.
Consumer groups urged the two to work hard to get the money and authority needed to boost FDA inspections.
“Their resumes are extremely impressive, and both are familiar with the FDA’s failure to protect the public from foodborne illness,” said Carol Tucker Foreman of Consumer Federation of America. Foreman said the agency has been unwilling to make changes that would reduce the potential for deadly outbreaks of food poisoning.
Ellen Bloom of Consumers Union said Sharfstein’s experience is “just what the doctor ordered for FDA.”
Gail Cassell, an Eli Lilly & Co. vice president who once served on a government advisory board with Hamburg, said Hamburg “is a big believer in the fact that policy must be backed up with the best scientific evidence and data.”
“She is very balanced and thoughtful about the actions that she takes and certainly has had the experience of running a very complex organization,” Cassell said.
Hamburg’s appointment requires Senate confirmation; Sharfstein’s does not.
Obama said while he doesn’t believe government has the answer to every problem, there are certain things that only government can do such as “ensuring that the foods we eat and the medicines we take are safe and don’t cause us harm.”
“Protecting the safety of our food and drugs is one of the most fundamental responsibilities government has,” he said.
Obama cited a string of breakdowns in assuring food safety in recent years, from contaminated spinach in 2006 to salmonella in peppers and possibly tomatoes last year. This year, a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products has sickened more than 600 people, is suspected of causing nine deaths and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history.
These cases are a “painful reminder of how tragic the consequences can be when food producers act irresponsibly and government is unable to do its job,” Obama said, noting that contaminated food outbreaks have more than tripled to nearly 350 a year from 100 incidents annually in the early 1990s.
Separately, Obama announced a ban on the slaughter of “downer” cows, which are too sick or weak to stand on their own, to keep them out of the food supply. These animals pose a higher risk of having mad cow disease, E. coli and other infections.
Obama said he takes food safety seriously, not just as a president but also as the parent of two young daughters.
“No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch,” he said
4th Grader has Big goals to feed hungry children
Can one child make a difference and inspire others along the way? Pinewood Preparatory School fourth-grader Katie Stagliano, winner of Amazing Kids! first-ever “Launch My Dream!” T-shirt design contest, believes she can.
With the help of Amazing Kids!’ “Launch My Dream!” initiative (www.launchmydream.org), Katie is launching her dream to end childhood hunger.
Stagliano’s “No Hungry Children”-themed shirt was inspired after she grew a 40-pound cabbage, which fed 275 people at a local soup kitchen. Now her school, Pinewood Preparatory, and Charleston organization Fields to Families, is planting a school garden, growing food for local hungry children.
“I hope my T-shirt will spread the word that there should and could be no hungry children,” Stagliano said. “It’s important to stop world hunger. If kids grow a vegetable and donate it to a soup kitchen, they’re helping launch my dream. I hope Amazing Kids! can help launch dreams of many more kids.”
Amazing Kids! (amazing-kids.org) is a children’s educational charity and award-winning kids’ website. The debut of her “No Hungry Children” T-shirt marks the first in their line of “Launch My Dream!” CharityWear, hope-inspiring sportswear for kids and adults.
Stagliano is donating her 10 percent of T-shirt proceeds to hunger organizations. An additional 10 percent supports “Launch My Dream” to help kids like Stagliano launch their dreams.
What does the future hold for children like Stagliano with dreams to improve our world? With the help of “Launch My Dream!,” the sky’s the limit.
Mystery at Michelin-starred eatery as hundreds go sick
LONDON, England — As many as 400 people may have gotten sick after eating at a renowned Michelin-starred restaurant in England, health authorities said Friday.
The Health Protection Agency is investigating an outbreak of diarrhea and vomiting among diners who ate at The Fat Duck restaurant in Berkshire, run by award-winning chef Heston Blumenthal.
Investigators still don’t know the source of the outbreak, the HPA said. They are examining foodstuffs, food storage, and preparation and cooking practices in addition to samples from sickened diners and all members of staff, the HPA said.
“This is a very complex outbreak,” said Graham Bickler, the HPA’s regional director. “We are working closely with the restaurant and with colleagues in the Royal Borough’s environmental health team to explain what happened and to ensure that the risks of it happening again are reduced as much as possible.”
The problems forced Blumenthal to close his famed restaurant voluntarily last week after a number of people reported being ill soon after eating there, the HPA said.
The HPA said the number jumped to around 400 possible cases on Thursday after it started investigating cases going back to late January.
Representatives of The Fat Duck could not immediately be reached. The HPA said the restaurant management is cooperating fully with the investigation.
The Fat Duck is renowned for such eccentric items as snail porridge, salmon poached in licorice gel, and scrambled egg and bacon ice cream.
Diners must book at least two months in advance. The restaurant charges £130 ($185) for the tasting menu and £98 ($140) for a la carte.
A native Londoner, Blumenthal trained himself in French cuisine after failing to find work as a teenager in top London restaurants, according to his restaurant’s Web site. He worked in various jobs to fund trips to France to learn about cooking and wines.
Blumenthal opened The Fat Duck in 1995, and it received three Michelin stars in 2004. A year later, the restaurant was proclaimed the best in the world by the “50 Best” Academy of food critics, journalists, and chefs.
Blumenthal has had several TV food shows in Britain. His latest is the current “Heston’s Feasts,” in which he recreates historical recipes from ancient Rome to Victorian Britain.
Plan to Post Health Dept. Grades in Restaurants Gets Mixed Response
It is a basic, unannounced ritual, performed 52,657 times last year and enacted at 9:14 one recent morning.
“I’m Inspector Williams from the department of health, and you’re going to have your inspection today,” said Corey K. Williams, holding out badge No. 3042 to Sonia Kim in the Best of the Best Deli at 11 Park Place in the financial district.
Soon Mr. Williams was methodically working his way through the restaurant’s subterranean kitchen and storage rooms. “My heart is racing,” said the owner, Peter Kim.
Mr. Kim, 62, like thousands of owners of food service establishments, lives in fear not only of fines and their effect on his thin profit margin, but also of being shut down immediately and forced to post the dreaded yellow closing notice.
“They are so strict,” he said. “They cost me, $2,000, $3,000, easy, each time they come.”
In July 2010, the stakes will be even higher, with the results posted for customers to see: a large blue A, a green B or a yellow C on an 8-by-10-inch inspection placard.
The postings, a first for New York, are part of an ambitious new food-safety program announced last month by Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, commissioner of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The city’s nearly 25,000 restaurants will be compelled to prominently display their inspection grade, either an A, B or C. The lower the grade, the more often the restaurant will be inspected.
Under the current system, restaurants are inspected only once a year, and the numerical grades — anything above 28 is a failing mark — are available at the department or online at www.nyc.gov/health.
In Los Angeles County, where the letter system has been in effect for more than a decade, 91 percent of the populace likes it, according to a 2007 study by the county’s Department of Public Health.
New York’s new program will require hiring some 50 inspectors — adding to the current roster of 117, with 60 already focusing on restaurants — at a cost of nearly $5 million over two years; this comes as budgets for the department and other city agencies are being reduced.
Some restaurateurs tentatively endorsed the plan. “I think the letter grading is probably a good system,” said Bobby Flay, proprietor of Mesa Grill and Bar Americain in Manhattan. “But if a restaurant gets a bad grade due to a paperwork technicality, the consumer will be misled.”
The program has touched off opposition from the restaurant operators’ trade group, however. “We think of this as more of a gimmick than a good regulatory tool,” said Robert Bookman, legislative counsel for the New York City chapters of the New York State Restaurant Association.
“A letter grade simply reflects conditions at a particular moment, and that sends the wrong message to the customer,” he said.
But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has praised Los Angeles for its practice, defended the system. “Come on,” he said. “If you can’t pass an inspection one time, you can’t pass an inspection every time.”
In the city last year, 9,301 restaurants failed an inspection, 1,057 restaurants were shuttered, and food service establishments paid $26.8 million in fines.
E. Charles Hunt, executive vice president of the city chapters of the restaurant association, said he was concerned that the new plan was primarily a recession revenue-enhancer.
But Elliott S. Marcus, an associate health commissioner, countered that “if we wanted to raise revenues, then we would raise the fines,” which will remain at $200 to $2,000, depending on the severity of the infraction.
Though the new postings will not appear for nearly 18 months, some New Yorkers are already reacting positively. “You’d definitely notice the ratings,” said John Sahlke, a 44-year-old clerk in the Department of Justice who was approaching the salad bar at the Arome Restaurant at 325 Broadway. “It could be an incentive to owners to clean up their act.”
Tina Neal, a government accountant who had already taken her salad upstairs to the balcony, agreed. “I would only go to A’s,” she said.
Dr. Jonathan E. Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said an independent study showed that its letter system had not only reduced food-borne illness outbreaks associated with restaurants, but also had lowered associated hospitalizations by 20 percent.
Through the years the number of A-grade restaurants climbed to 83 percent in 2007, from 40 percent in 1998, and revenues increased in those restaurants, he said.
California operators have found that “people certainly give the letter grades consideration if they are choosing a restaurant,” said David Myers, owner of Sona and Comme Ça in Los Angeles, who has earned A ratings.
New York officials plan to issue letter grades on the spot after inspections, but — in another sore point for restaurateurs — do not plan to change the process for challenging a finding: a hearing three weeks later at the administrative tribunal at 66 John Street.
To Mr. Bookman, of the restaurant association, “That is a violation of any standard of due process.”
The department acknowledges the issue but does not “see a way to have an instant adjudication,” said Mr. Marcus, the associate health commissioner. But any letter-rating upgrades will be supplied in an “expeditious time frame,” the department said. Mr. Bookman also expressed concern that the new inspection system would be “an open invitation for bribery and corruption,” he said. “It’s one thing to post inspection results on a Web site, but another to post it in the window.”
But Dr. Fielding in Los Angeles said that “in the last decade we’ve had only one case of attempted bribery, and the inspector wound up in jail.”
In New York — where nearly 40 inspectors were convicted in a 1988 bribery scandal — Mr. Marcus said corruption has been rare in recent years, thanks to controls. Among them: inspectors’ assignments are rotated so they do not make repeated visits to restaurants, and supervisors monitor some inspections.
On a legal point, the Restaurant Association also contends that the rating plan is a regulatory issue that requires City Council approval, though the department holds that it is a public-health issue requiring only a posting in The City Record and a public hearing.
Back in Best of the Best Deli, Mr. Williams, 27, was navigating the slippery tile kitchen floor. At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, he may have been imposing — “Nobody is glad to see us,” he said — but he was unfailingly soft-spoken, almost professorial, as he attempted to educate the kitchen workers about proper food-safety techniques.
“You name it, and I’ve seen it,” Mr. Williams said. “I’ve even seen managers panic and try to take moldy food out the back door while I’m watching.” Happily, he said, he has seen more dead rats than live ones — both provoke the same fine, however.
In the end, the inspection took an hour and a quarter. Mr. Williams sat in the dining room, entering 15 points of data in his 8-inch-wide Fujitsu notebook computer. Then he printed out the inspection report on a portable printer and handed it to Mrs. Kim, 53, the manager.
The restaurant had passed with a score of 21, the equivalent of a B grade under the new system, and a court appearance was scheduled.
Mrs. Kim, who had gotten up at 3:30 a.m. in Fort Lee, N.J., so she could supervise baking in the restaurant at 5 a.m., smiled with relief. She signed the interactive computer screen to acknowledge the citations. The inspection was done.
