Lisa Colletti - Waitress at The Fish Factory

How long have you worked at The Fish Factory?

9 years now – gosh! They do say time flies when your having fun don’t they!

So what did you do before working for Proto Restaurant Group then?

Well, I’ve had an extremely varied past to date. I worked in a publishers in London before becoming an air hostess. But, nothing compares to working for Andy Sparsis at The Fish Factory, Worthing.

Is there any part of your job you aren’t keen on?

Customer complaints! Unfortunately, the nature of the business is such that you will get the occasional complaint and I’m just not very good at dealing with rejection! I hate being shouted at but thankfully we don’t get many complaints so I’m fine most of the time.

What would you say the best part of your job is?

I absolutely love just talking to people! We get such a wide range of customers coming into The Fish Factory that it’s fantastic. I get to hear stories from all walks of life and hearing peoples happy stories is brilliant.

Do you prefer the regular customers or new customers?

Regular customers for sure. Although I don’t dislike the new customers, it’s always nice to see a friendly face. It’s good when your regular customers come in because you know their story, they know yours and its great to have a catch up. Of course, we hope that all of our new customers become regulars so that we can enjoy the same level of friendly chit-chat.

What is your recommended dish for us then?

The Fish Meze! It’s unbelievable in it’s taste, variety and size. I love food, and there is lots of it with the Fish Meze – brilliant!

What do you get up to outside of work?

I love to cook! I’ve actually been making chocolate for the past year now which we use at the restaurant for private functions and events which is nice. I’m also going on the Barry Callebaut Chocolate Academy, Level 1 and 2 courses in May – how exciting!

So there you have it, that’s Lisa Colletti, waiter at The Fish Factory, Worthing. Why not come in and meet the whole team? Call us at The Fish Factory Littlehampton on 01903 715000 or at Worthing on 01903 207123 to book a table or come and see us at Food in Worthing, call us on 01903 227780 to book a table.

Stuart Slevin

Everyone at Proto is proud of Stuart as he has qualified for his NVQ Level 4 in Management, that’s the equivalent to a full degree. We thought we would ask him a few questions so we could find out more about him:

How long have you worked at The Fish Factory?

5 years now. Blimey! Where does time go? I have loved every minute of working at The Fish Factory and for the Proto Restaurant Group and have found it a fantastic challenge, not to mention being part of the opening process of The Fish Factory, Littlehampton, which I have to say, I owe a lot of thanks to my NVQ for helping me with.

Tell us more about this NVQ, sounds very impressive!

Well, thank you very much! It’s hard to explain the course as it covered so many key areas, but it basically helped me look at my job from a directors point of view. It taught me to take each task that I undertake and describe how they fit into certain categories such as health and safety, staff morale, project management and financial budgeting.

You must have a fancy title with that qualification, what do we refer to you as now?

Well yes I do! I am now officially Stuart Slevin MImstLM. That stands for a Member of the Institute of Leadership and Management.

What is your favourite dish to cook?

Anything Fish based really. It’s such a challenge to cook fish; people say its really easy, but 20 seconds too long and the fish is dry and 20 seconds too short and the fish is really wet. I love the challenge of coming up with new few dishes which are enticing for the customers. I guess I’m at the right place at The Fish Factory.

Do you have any pet-hates in the kitchen?

Oooh, I could get in some trouble for answering this one! I guess when I am asked a trivial question when I’m trying to organise everything! My Job is about multi-tasking and being interrupted to be asked what time im finishing can be quite frustrating.

What’s in store for 2011, any new recipes/dishes?

We have just launched The Fish Factory’s updated Spoil Menu which has some fantastic new dishes in, including a Shrimp and Saffron Risotto, and Bouillabaisse. I’m particularly partial to the Bouillabaisse as it takes such an effort to prepare, around 4 hours in total, but it’s so worth it.

So there you have it, thats Stuart Slevin MImstLM, the Executive Chef at The Fish Factory. Why not come in and meet the whole team? Call us at Worthing on 01903 207123 or at Littlehampton on 01903 715000 to book a table.
Don’t fancy fish? Why not come see us at Food in Worthing. Call us on 01903 227780 to book a table.

Slay dragons at Proto Restaurants - Ground Floor Ventures

Come and be a dragon for the night at Food restaurant! We have 12 entrepreneurs ready to pitch their ideas to 12 dragons. Dragons can be in the form of mentors or financial investors. If you are a successful business owner, chances are that an entrepreneur would benefit hugely from your expertise. Perhaps you have a few pennies that you would like to invest – after all, the banks are not paying huge returns on investment. If you are interested, you need to speak to Ground Floor Ventures.

Ground Floor Ventures is the most exciting and entertaining event for both entrepreneurs and investors. With a dozen fabulous entrepreneurial start-ups pitching to you and a panel of ‘Dragons’ on 7th February at Food. It’s going to be a great night, with great food and wine, plus a fabulous opportunity to get in on the ‘ground floor’ by investing in interesting early-stage start-ups at affordable prices.

Ground Floor Ventures is the event for businesses in the South East. Tickets on sale now at only £25, click here to buy your ticket. This event is destined to be the best networking event of the decade.

Food wins Best Restaurant 2010

We’ve only gone and done it again! Food walked away with Best Restaurant 2010 at the Worthing Business Awards 2010. You can see footage of the spectacular awards ceremony which took place on Saturday October 9th at Worthing Pavilion, by clicking here.

We are absolutely thrilled to win this category again. Worthing has 150 restaurants now, and the standard is getting higher and higher. This is why we, at Proto Restaurant Group continually invest in our staff by training them to the highest standards, so that when you come and visit us, you can be sure of the highest standard of service and excellence.

Thank you to all our loyal customers who have nominated us for this prestigious award. You can rest assured that we will continue to work to the highest standard at all times.

So call Food restaurant in Worthing on 01903 227780 to reserve your table. If you prefer something a little more fishy – then visit our big brother, The Fish Factory – fish restaurants in Worthing and Littlehampton – call 01903 207123 and 01903 715000 respectively. We look forward to welcoming you again soon.

Food wins Best Restaurant 2010 in Worthing Business Awards

We held a small award ceremony to congratulate Karen. Her certificate was awarded to her by Nicola Collins from Chichester College and Andrew Sparsis, Managing Director of Proto Restaurant Group.

We are all very proud of Karen for doing so well and working hard in order to gain the qualification. Karen has worked extremely hard and has excelled considering she could not even use a computer before she started her NVQ.  We do have another six employees who are near completion also of their NVQ’s and we will keep you posted with their progress.

You many already know that Proto Restaurant Group – award-winning restaurants in Worthing, West Sussex, take staff training very seriously and we invest in our staff by keeping them at the top of their trade, which in turn ensures our restaurant constantly delivers an exceptional service for you, our customers. You can read about our other training stories by clicking here.

Proto Restaurant Group awards high achiever"

We’ve been celebrating since winning the prestigious Healthy Workplace Award on Saturday evening at The Worthing Business Awards 2009.

What a brilliant night! The evening was hosted by Fred Dinenage – you may know him from How 2 or ITV Meridian.

The whole evening was sponsored by Carpenter Box Accountants, and organised by the Worthing Herald. Louise James and Vaidas Butkus picked up their award from councillor Paul Yallop who represented the sponsors Worthing Borough Council. You can see Louise and Vaidas’ giving their winner’s speech by clicking here.

We would like to thank everyone that nominated us this year – it means a great deal. We look forward to seeing you all soon.

If you would like to read more about our training programme, click here.

Worthing Business Award

We are crossing our fingers for tomorrow’s Worthing Business Awards. We have been shortlisted for the Healthy Workplace Award 2009. We have some tough competition though, as we are up against Worthing High School.

As you know, the Proto Restaurant Group takes health and safety very seriously. Back in July we announced that we had been featured in Gordon Brown’s Government Magazine, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s Magazine called “Trainer’s Exchange”. Trainer’s Exchange is a government magazine that is distributed to all the Councils in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Proto have been selected for being committed to managing one of the best trained and committed teams in the country due to our own in-house training school for all our restaurant staff. You can read the rest that blog entry by clicking here.

We wish all of Worthing’s shortlisted businesses the best of British at tomorrow’s award evening.