At this time of year, I find myself thinking about the future, but also looking back over the past year; Do you?

Life is about the people that you surround yourself with. And of the many interesting conversations this year, one in particular stands out - when our associate Doug Fiedler explained umami to us. 

Perhaps you haven’t heard of it, so please bear with me.  Doug seems to me to have F&B ingrained in all he does and thinks. He explained that when humans eat, we use all of our senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste) to form general judgments about our food.

But it is taste that is the most influential in determining how delicious a food is. Conventionally, it has been thought that our sense of taste is comprised of four basic, or ‘primary’ tastes: sweet, sour, salt and bitter. However, it is now known that there is actually a fifth primary taste: umami.

The argument goes that the difference between a good [hotel] restaurant and an outstanding experience can be put down to those elements of atmosphere, (mood etc.) that add ‘sparkle’, add umami to the underlying offer.

I liked this story when I heard it and have bought some umami paste from the local deli and it does seem to make a difference to my cooking. “Not difficult” did you say?.Try it yourself!

This got me thinking that actually umami is the element of consulting that I have seen delivered when this team of world-class consultants get together and take our client to a place that they couldn’t have imagined. Like any great team, we train together, push each other, challenge each other and together climb to new heights.

And as a result our advice is wider, deeper, longer, and broader than it would have been had the team’s members not excelled individually. So what our clients get is much more robust advice and much more valuable.

The Hotel Solutions Partnership team of hotel consultants knows just how important it is to fully understand the challenges facing our clients. The Hotel Solutions Partnership offers specialist hotel consultancy services to hotel owners, operators, developers and investors, or those wishing to become involved in the hotel and hospitality industry.

It also aims to provide hotel consultancy with a very low carbon footprint. Our business model minimises the impact on the environment and, in respect of the travel necessary for an assignment, we buy an appropriate level of carbon offsets. Intelligent thinking, effective teaming and applied expertise form the foundation of the way we work with our clients, and the solutions we offer are tailored to meet the individual and special requirements of your hotel or hospitality business.

www.hotelsolutionspartnership.com