Although the skills shortage is the much spoken about thorn in the hospitality industry's side it seems for event caterers a shortage of beautiful people can be just as crippling.
There's no point after all in putting together a fabulous party with the cutest canapes and most darling design aesthetic, if Doris the 20-year employee with the weird eye from the staff restaurant is the one offering up the grub on the night.
A recent meeting with an event caterer confirmed Kitchen Rat's suspicions that at most fancy events there are a disproportionate amount of good looking girls and boys waiting on clients than is entirely plausible. Random chance it is not.
Suede's "Oh, hear they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones", could have been playing in the background as the caterer in question conceded sourcing fine looking young things from recruiters was almost as important as sourcing great grub.
Although hospitality's sector skills council is called People 1st, we're not certain this was the thinking behind the name, but it seems for some in the events market the face really does have to fit.