50 Fun Facts About Hospitality Industry

Which tyre company launched a restaurant and hotel guide in 1900 to get motorists driving more?

Michelin gave away nearly 35,000 copies of its first guide, hoping more driving would wear out more tyres. Its stars for superior restaurants followed in 1926.

Which tropical fruit, once so costly that it signalled great wealth, became an architectural symbol of hospitality?

Pineapple was so expensive to import or raise in hothouses that hosts put one on show at dinner parties, reusing it until it rotted. Carved versions then became a decorative sign of welcome.

Which giant dog breed did monks at an Alpine travellers' hospice keep to rescue people lost in the snow?

St. Bernard dogs are named after the hospice on the Great St Bernard Pass, which acquired its first dogs between 1660 and 1670. The last recorded Alpine rescue by one was in 1955.

Which serving method did Yoshiaki Shiraishi bring to his sushi restaurant after watching beer bottles at a brewery?

Conveyor belt sushi was Shiraishi's answer to a staffing problem in his small restaurant. After five years of development he opened the first in 1958 and grew it to as many as 250 branches.

Which fast-food founder began by serving chicken dishes to travellers at a Shell service station in the 1930s?

Colonel Sanders fed his first customers in his own living quarters beside the pumps in North Corbin, Kentucky. He sold the restaurant at 65 after a new interstate drew the traffic away.

What was the profession of Ellen Church, who persuaded Boeing Air Transport to hire her as the first stewardess?

A registered nurse, Church argued that medical staff in the cabin would calm the public's fear of flying. The first stewardesses all had to be nurses, single and younger than 25.

Which bar promotion's name is often traced to US Navy slang for scheduled entertainment aboard ship in the 1910s?

Happy hour was what the crew of USS Arkansas called their regular evenings of boxing, wrestling, music and movies by 1913.

Which tall, pleated white hat worn by chefs shares its name with the knitted winter cap Canadians pull on?

Toque is short for toque blanche, French for 'white hat'. In the 1500s the word described a tall black hat of silk or velvet that was fashionable among Spanish nobles.

Which weekend meal did British writer Guy Beringer propose in 1895 as a more sociable alternative to Sunday dinner?

Brunch got its name in Beringer's essay 'Brunch: A Plea' in Hunter's Weekly. Punch magazine soon described it as a Sunday meal for Saturday-night carousers.

Which number is American restaurant slang for a dish that has run out or a customer to be refused service?

86 has been kitchen and bar code since the 1920s or 1930s, and nobody is sure why. A leading theory makes it rhyming slang for 'nix', the old word for no.

Which chain did milkshake-mixer salesman Ray Kroc franchise after visiting two brothers' San Bernardino restaurant?

McDonald's intrigued Kroc because the brothers had bought eight of his mixers for one restaurant. Their Speedee system had swapped carhops and crockery for a nine-item menu in paper wrappers.

Which restaurant chain's memorabilia collection began with a guitar Eric Clapton wanted hung over his regular seat?

Hard Rock Cafe was opened in London in 1971 by two Americans, and Clapton was a regular. Pete Townshend of The Who then sent a guitar of his own, and the collection grew from there.

Which French chef organised restaurant kitchens into the brigade system and created Peach Melba at London's Savoy?

Auguste Escoffier drew on his own army service to give every cook a rank and a station. He named the peach dessert for Australian singer Nellie Melba, and Melba toast followed.

Which man, known as the king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings, gave English an adjective for showy luxury?

César Ritz was sacked as an apprentice wine waiter and told he had no flair for the hotel business. The adjective 'ritzy' comes from his name and his luxury hotels.

Which travel pioneer began in 1841 with a rail excursion from Leicester to Loughborough for temperance campaigners?

Thomas Cook, a cabinet-maker turned Baptist preacher, took 485 members of the Leicester Temperance Society on that first trip. The idea came to him on a 15-mile walk to a meeting.

Which restaurateur is credited with America's first restaurant chain, built along the Santa Fe Railway from the 1870s?

Fred Harvey staffed his dining rooms with 'Harvey Girls', waitresses who lived under curfew in supervised housing next door. Their story became a 1946 film musical.

Which chain, founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1921, is generally credited as the world's first fast-food hamburger chain?

White Castle began with just $700 put up by a cook and an insurance man. Imitators copied it so closely that the first, also in Wichita, called itself Little Kastle.

Which all-inclusive holiday company began in 1950 as a colony of tents on Mallorca set up by Gérard Blitz?

Club Med, short for Club Méditerranée, slipped from its founder's hands when he went bankrupt in 1953. His tent supplier, Gilbert Trigano, was the main creditor and took control.

Which chef's 2000 memoir Kitchen Confidential gave an unfiltered look at life inside high-end restaurant kitchens?

Anthony Bourdain's book grew out of a New Yorker essay that his mother, a newspaper copy editor, passed along through a colleague. It launched his media career.

Which wine job's title is thought to come from an old word for a pack-animal driver?

Sommelier was the Middle French title of a court official in charge of transporting supplies, in the days when pack animals did the hauling. Where a restaurant has none, the head waiter usually steps in.

Which kitchen rank takes orders straight from the head of the brigade and stands in whenever that boss is not present?

Sous-chef literally means 'under-chief', the deputy in the brigade system. Next in line come the chefs de partie, who each manage a single station of the kitchen.

Which French menu phrase means ordering individually priced dishes, the opposite of a set table d'hôte meal?

À la carte literally means 'at the card' and was borrowed into English in the early 1800s. That was before the word 'menu' itself arrived, in the 1830s.

Which fee do restaurants charge guests who bring their own wine, a practice common where liquor licences are scarce?

Corkage, or a corking fee, usually applies only to bottles of wine. The initials BYOB began in the 1920s as 'bring your own booze' and settled on 'bottle' in the 1950s.

Which bite-sized starter is sent out free by the chef, never ordered from the menu, before a restaurant meal begins?

Amuse-bouche literally means 'mouth amuser', and it is usually just one or two bites. The chef alone chooses it, and everyone at the table gets one free of charge.

Which nation's style of serving dinner course by course displaced the French custom of laying every dish out at once?

Russian service reached France in 1810, when ambassador Alexander Kurakin gave dinners that way at his residence in Clichy. Hot food no longer sat cooling on the table as a showpiece.

Which hotel term means the full published price of a room, the amount a guest pays by walking in off the street?

Rack rate is higher than the price most travel agents can book for their clients. Car rental firms use the same term for what a customer pays with no booking.

Which hotel metric, tracked across markets in STR's STAR report, measures room takings against the rooms on offer?

RevPAR stands for revenue per available room. A sister measure, GOPPAR, does the same sum with gross operating profit to show how the whole property is performing.

Which French kitchen phrase describes having every ingredient chopped, measured and laid out before service begins?

Mise en place means 'putting into place', and covers everything a cook will need for the dishes expected during a shift. The idea has since been borrowed by classrooms and hospitals.

Which industry invented yield management, the demand-based pricing that hotels later adopted for their room rates?

Airlines built the system in response to US deregulation, and American Airlines chief Robert Crandall gave it its name. It quickly spread to hotels, car rental firms and cruise lines.

Which word for a place to stay was coined in 1925 at the Milestone in San Luis Obispo, California?

Motel was born because owner Arthur Heineman could not fit 'Milestone Motor Hotel' on his rooftop sign, so he ran two words together. He never managed to trademark the result.

Which country gave the world the youth hostel, first opened by teacher Richard Schirrmann in the town of Altena?

Germany's Richard Schirrmann had the idea in 1909 after a stormy school camping trip, and first put hikers up in his own school. The first official hostel opened in 1912 and is now a museum.

Which country is home to the world's oldest hotel school, founded in 1893 by Jacques Tschumi?

Switzerland's pioneering school, now called EHL, held its first classes in a room of the Hôtel d'Angleterre. Forced to shut during the Second World War, it reopened in 1943 after alumni raised the funds.

Which traditional inn offers tatami-floored rooms, futon bedding, communal baths and multi-course kaiseki dinners?

Ryokan have welcomed travellers since the eighth century. While guests are out, staff move the table aside and lay the futon on the floor, and a yukata robe is usually provided.

Which country's riads, mansions built around an interior garden courtyard, are now popular as guesthouses?

Morocco's riads are named from the Arabic for 'gardens'. The classic layout is a rectangle divided into four beds by two paths that cross at a central fountain.

Which waiterless restaurant format did Horn & Hardart bring to Philadelphia, selling meals from coin-operated windows?

Automat machines at first took only nickels: drop in the coins, lift the hinged window and take the meal. Inflation helped finish them off, as prices outgrew what coins could easily pay.

Which American eatery grew out of Walter Scott's horse-drawn lunch wagon, which fed Providence newspaper staff in 1872?

Diner builders went on to sell factory-made 'lunch cars', delivered ready to connect to the utilities. New Jersey made so many that it became known as the diner capital of the world.

Which Swedish buffet of hot and cold dishes became known in America at the 1939 New York World's Fair?

Smörgåsbord literally means 'sandwich table', and the fair served it in the Swedish Pavilion's Three Crowns Restaurant. Stockholm restaurants had made it a main course during the 1912 Olympics.

Which English meal is Anna, Duchess of Bedford, said to have started by having snacks sent up to her room?

Afternoon tea remains a hotel favourite for good reason: guests pay well for a modest meal that is easy to prepare and brings in money during the lull between lunch and dinner.

Which hotel job did George Orwell take in Paris and describe in Down and Out in Paris and London?

Dishwasher was the rung Orwell placed at the very bottom of the hotel's caste system, below managers, cooks and waiters. He even proposed calling the book The Confessions of a Dishwasher.

Which pair of foods is offered to honoured guests as a welcome in Slavic countries, a custom extended to space crews?

Bread and salt greeted arrivals aboard the Mir space station, a habit carried over to the International Space Station. On Apollo–Soyuz, crackers and salt tablets stood in.

Which kitchen-to-table device did Thomas Jefferson have built into a fireplace at his Monticello home?

Dumbwaiter also meant a shelved table on casters, and Monticello had those too. As the name for a small food lift, the word caught on in the United States in the 1840s.

Which word do British hotels and restaurants use for the pooled fund of tips shared out among staff?

Tronc funds are run by a 'troncmaster', who divides the pooled tips and service charges. In the UK that person, rather than the employer, may be responsible for deducting income tax.

Which ancient Greek code of hospitality did Zeus protect, since any stranger might be a god in disguise?

Xenia, usually translated 'guest-friendship', comes from xenos, the Greek for 'stranger'. Myths often show mortals proving their worth by welcoming a humble visitor who turns out to be a deity.

Which buildings, spaced a day's journey apart along the Silk Road, sheltered merchants and their camels overnight?

Caravanserais take their name from the Persian words for 'caravan' and for a building with enclosed courts. Rooms ringed a central courtyard, with space for pack animals and storerooms for merchandise.

Which parable's hero takes a wounded stranger to an inn and pays the innkeeper two denarii for his care?

The Good Samaritan lends his name to laws that protect people who stop to tend the injured or ill. The parable was also one of the most popular subjects in medieval art.

What name was given to the long trip through Europe to Italy that wealthy young men made on coming of age?

The Grand Tour flourished from about 1660 until large-scale rail travel arrived in the 1840s. A knowledgeable guide or tutor, known as a cicerone, usually went along.

Which TV series follows fine-dining chef Carmy Berzatto as he takes over his late brother's Chicago sandwich shop?

The Bear copied its shop interior from Mr. Beef, a real sandwich shop in Chicago's River North. Jeremy Allen White stars as Carmy, whose nickname is one source of the title.

Which city's Tremont House of 1829 is best known as the first hotel with indoor plumbing and running water?

Boston's Tremont House also gave guests locked rooms, free soap and a reception area, all new for a hotel. Davy Crockett and Charles Dickens both stayed there.

Which kitchen brigade station prepares the cold dishes, from pâtés and terrines to salads and buffet displays?

Garde manger began as the cool storeroom in the lower levels of great houses, where food was kept and preserved. In large hotels the station may also carve ice for the buffet.

Which name for an illegal bar, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, became common during American Prohibition?

Speakeasy drinkers were expected to talk quietly about the place so as not to alert police or neighbours. A British naval memoir used 'speak easy shop' for an unlicensed seller as early as 1844.