Stuart Pearl has worked on the Service Delivery side of BACS for 21 years. But before that, he was

The Man who Booked the Cooks

"You've made a mistake, son", said the teacher, looking at young Stuart Pearl's 'O' Level Choices Form. "You've put down Domestic Science, but boys don't do Domestic Science at this school."

To others, that might have been a put-down. To Stuart, it was the spur that drove him on to indeed take the 'O' level, gain a Distinction, and go on to study Hotel and Catering Management at Watford Technical College. He then put his studies into practice, working in several hotels such as the Dorchester and the Savoy.

Not surprisingly, he vividly remembers from those days one particular Italian waiter. "It was a busy Saturday evening and he was cooking 'Steak Diane' at table, and he over-did the brandy for the sauce. As he slowly increased the temperature to flame the brandy, the flames suddenly shot into the air, setting fire to the curtains. In his exuberance to put the fire out he knocked over the burner, which spread fuel in all directions causing a further inferno. Safe to say I did not see him again."

After a year of hotel work, Stuart switched to Industrial Catering Management, in a search for shorter working hours. Unfortunately, he didn't find them. Now working as Assistant Catering Manager for Manufacturers Hanover in the City, his day began at seven in the morning and went on to nine at night. The Catering Manager, supposedly Stuart's superior, was hardly ever there – he was even off for five weeks in the winter of 1978/79, claiming to be 'snowed in'. Managing a staff of 70, Stuart was in charge of: putting out 4000 meals a day; all ordering and dealing with suppliers; managing three staff restaurants; maintaining all vending machines; banking the cash and paying the wages to his staff. He also recruited his staff and produced the accounts – so he booked the cooks but I am sure he did not cook the books.

The kitchens presented an explosive mixture of clatter, stress, some unstable temporary workers, and alcohol that was too freely available. A couple of times Stuart had to disarm a meat-cleaver-wielding kitchen porter ranting incoherently. One Christmas, Stuart had to carve the turkey in the Directors' dining room, masquerading as the Head Chef, who was himself lying in a drunken stupor.

All this prepared Stuart well for his work at BACS. After all, getting out the daily production run of computer jobs was similar to getting out the daily production run of 4000 meals, except that there might be fewer cleavers to deal with!