London, April 9:

Eating out is one of life’s greatest pleasures. Part performance art, part physical gratification, a good meal refuels spirit as well as body. Yet when did you last have a memorable - not just expensive - meal in a restaurant? What’s on the plate has to emulsify perfectly with service, atmosphere, expectation and, not least, the bill. If just one element fails to gel, the pleasure seeps away.

That makes running a restaurant one of management’s stiffest challenges; and one that most establishments fail. The food is uninspiring, the performa-nce pretentious or sloppy, and all too often you come away feeling vaguely cheated, whether by ambitious prices and mean portions, pressure to buy expensive extras and wine, or mistakes on the bill.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. In his fascinating ‘Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business (HarperCollins)’, Danny Meyer recounts how he bui-lt one of America’s most co-nsistently successful resta-urant groups, both gastronomically and financially, by giving, not taking. As the subtitle of his book suggests, Meyer, who made his name with the Union Squ-are Cafe and now presides over 11 New York establishments, has made his creed ‘enlightened hospitality’, a-nd it is what distinguishes his restaurants from rest.

Hospitality, Meyer suggests, exists when the other party to the deal is on your side. If that sounds glib or gushing, it’s a measure of our cynicism, since deep down we have learnt that most businesses are not on our side: they are out to fleece us of as much as possible while still keeping a straight face about customer service. But service, Meyer insists, is not the same as hospitality.

Service is the technical delivery of the offering; hospitality is how the service makes the recipient feel. Hospitality is an individual transaction, which is, crucially, what prevents the performance becoming rote. Both are needed for restaurant success.

This is a management philosophy built on optimism and generosity, and it runs right through the operation. It also inverts the usual business priorities. Because performance depends on everyone being at the top of their game that starts with the staff, who are recruited for attitude over aptitude.