Ronay’s lifetime campaign to raise culinary and service standards in his adopted homeland Britain is said to have been decided shortly after WWII when he bought a cup of tea at Victoria station and saw that a single spoon, tied to the ceiling by a piece of string, was used to serve the sugar.
His guides appeared regularly from 1957 onwards and Ronay soon perfected a formula by which he attracted much public attention without losing the respect of the catering industry at which his comments and criticisms were principally directed.
Ronay’s most famous campaign was perhaps for the improvement of motorway service stations, but he was equally outspoken in denunciation of bad food and service wherever he encountered it. Airlines, ferries, cafés in public parks, hospital food and army catering all came under critical scrutiny.
Click below for more information:
http://www.economist.com/node/16422123
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/7823421/Egon-Ronay.html
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7149376.ece
http://www.britishpapers.co.uk/obituaries/egon-ronay/
