Wine Uncorked: My guide to the world of wine

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BBC announces new popular factual and factual entertainment commissions" (Press release). BBC. 5 October 2017. Yes, it would be good if you could include service in the price of the meal. But then the price would increase and there would be tax implications. And how do you come up with a system that would work both for McDonald’s and Galvin at Windows? It’s an imperfect system, but if we change it, the replacement has to work for everyone. Michel Roux's Service: so where is the winner now? | Academy Of Food and Wine Service". www.afws.co.uk. In Wine Uncorked, Fred decants a career's worth of expertise in his own friendly and accessible style, revealing how everything from price point to percentage impacts what ends up in your glass, how to decipher a label and which glass to use. He'll then take us on a tour of the regions, showing us how the landscape and climate work their magic on the wine produced around the world, highlighting key producers and notable vintages to suit all budgets along the way.

Elena Salvoni at the Little Italy restaurant in Soho, London, 2011. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose for Observer Food Monthly If you have ever said, 'I wish I knew more about wine,' this is the book for you. Read more Details

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Fred Sirieix knows exactly where his interest in service comes from: his parents’ careers in the French equivalent of the NHS in Limoges, where he grew up. “Every day before going on the night shift my dad would shave,” he says now. “I asked him why he did that. He told me it was to make the patients trust him. The conversation around the dinner table was all about patient care. It was about making sure people had a good experience.”

José Etura has arguably the hardest job in London restaurants. As the man in charge of service at the trio of Barrafina tapas restaurants, he has to manage some of the city’s hungriest queues. Since the original opened on Soho’s Frith Street in 2007, Barrafina’s food, overseen by chef Nieves Barragán Mohacho, has been acclaimed as some of the city’s very best Spanish cooking. But with all the restaurants boasting non-reservable counter seating only, getting to eat it isn’t always easy. “Sometimes people queue for over two hours,” Etura says. “And when people have queued for that long, you have to work 10 times harder for them, because they have huge expectations, and they have to be fulfilled.” Etura came to London from Valladolid in north-west Spain in 2007 to learn English, intending only to stay for a year. He got a job in the first Barrafina as a glass polisher, became a waiter a year after that, and nine months later was a manager. Now 35 and the top man front of house, he has had to devise a philosophy of the queue. “You need to be a psychologist,” he says. “You need to understand different sorts of people, that a banker is not the same as an 18-year-old student.” When people have queued, you have to work 10 times harder for them, because they have huge expectations If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us

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Any customer is good. I like people. There are those who come by themselves once a year and those who come three times a week. It doesn’t matter how often they come or why. They are all deserving of good service. She goes on: “Some of our best customer relationships have been conceived in a moment of awfulness where somebody has complained. That’s your opportunity then. That’s something you’ve got to build on. It’s about taking ownership, being on the front foot, and smiling and communicating. All basic principles but oft forgotten in restaurants.” A great restaurant is as much about the service as the food. It’s about the smile when you arrive, the way you’re seated at your table, the glass of your favourite wine appearing as if by magic. Nothing is too much trouble. The art of perfect service may seem effortless but what’s really going on behind the scenes…?