Owning and running a restaurant will be, I guarantee, the most exhausting, nerve-wracking and tiring thing you will ever do. If it goes well it will also be the most satisfying and rewarding part of your life – much like raising children. Carol has clearly laid out all the pitfalls you will encounter and the strategies you need to have in place, and if you read this book cover to cover well before you embark on a life as a restaurateur you will be rewarded with foresight. It’s a hard life and it can be a great life – but get prepared. Read this book.

Are you passionate about restaurants? Do you hanker after opening your own restaurant? You would be entering a very buoyant market as more people are choosing to eat out than ever before. There are over 51,000 restaurants now open for business in Britain, an increase of more than 1,000 in less than a year. This is restaurant boom time.

The rise in people eating out is due, in part, to the structure of households. We are a cash-rich, time-poor society preferring to meet up with friends and family in restaurants rather than slaving over a hot stove at home.

Thanks to an increasing number of wide-ranging types of restaurants offering a greater variety of food to suit every budget, singles, families and older couples in the social demographic mix now eat out on an increasingly regular basis. One in three of us eats out once a week – or more. The customer is now more discerning, able to demand better quality, price, consistency and choice. Otherwise they vote with their feet.

Opening and running a restaurant is an aspiration many people have. They dream of ditching the dull job and entering a world of creativity and hospitality and being their own boss. Or it may naively be seen as a money for old rope venture, tossing a salad or turning a steak under a hot grill being about as vexed as the cooking actually gets. They may also think that customers will be coming through the door on day one without much effort on the new restaurateur’s part.

Restaurants are part of the hospitality and entertainment business it is described as pure theatre – but it is a tough business. It is also a most rewarding, stimulating one, both on a personal level and a financial one if the business is approached and run with prudence, professionalism, control, dedication and a dash of imagination and flair. And you have to like people.

As a restaurant journalist, critic and chef (I am also a restaurant consultant, guide inspector and past restaurateur) I have researched and written How to Start and Run Your Own Restaurant from an experienced, practical base. The chapters cover aspects of the restaurant trade from location and licence applications to finance and professional advice.

How to Start and Run Your Own Restaurant also covers equipment, marketing, restaurant reviews and staffing to suppliers, menus, wines, the day to day running of the restaurant, complaints and how to deal with them, building up a loyal trade and – crucially – putting yourself in your customers’ shoes.

The book is full of up to date information for the novice restaurateur. It also offers advice to those already in the business who may wish to trade up to meet current customer expectations. It includes useful trade addresses, an index and a whole host of top tips throughout the book based on the experiences of seasoned chefs, restaurateurs, suppliers and others in the profession whom I have interviewed for this book.

If your passion for running a restaurant takes hold, I wish you every success and fulfilment in one of the oldest, more rewarding trades in the world, the restaurant and hospitality trade.