Esther
OUR GOODMAN FAMILY
Meet Esther, our reservations manager and a longstanding member of the Goodman Family.
Goodman Reservations Manager Esther has been part of the Goodman Family for 13 years. She’s very much enjoying The Madison on TV, loves Marcona almonds if you happen to be going to a Spanish deli, and would very much like to see the tomatoes back as a Goodman side dish.
It’s not that hospitality wasn’t on the agenda for Goodman’s Reservations Manager Esther. It’s more that London wasn’t the plan.
“I moved from Spain when I was very young,” says Esther. “My parents sent me here to study English for eight months and go back to Spain – but then I decided that I wanted to practice. I worked at a restaurant in Richmond, and started moving up in the company, so thought maybe I should stay for longer. And then I met my husband and never went back.”
Having met Francesca, Goodman’s former office manager, when they were looking for a new receptionist at Mayfair. “And I started there and then they sent me to the office and that was 13 years ago.”In between her duties as Reservations Manager, you can often find Esther in Bushy Park, walking her dog. “She’s a beagle and hard work. She’s a hound, a very active hound, that comes from the hunting line not the show line, so needs around four walks a day.”
Esther started off working as a receptionist at Mayfair and slowly worked her way up to work in head office.
If you’re feeling generous, Esther will probably have a glass of white wine, thank you, “anything that’s mineral, like an Albariño.” However Esther also has something of a confession.
While Esther has booked thousands of tables for other people in that time, she admits that she herself has only dined at Goodman twice. “I worked in the office at first, so we didn’t really go to the restaurants, and now I work from home, so…”
There’s another revelation. “I don’t really eat red meat,” she says. “I mean, I do eat red meat, just not a lot. So I’d probably order the fish of the day, and Prawn Tempura, and the Scallops to start. I like the spinach, the creamed / cheesy one.”
Credits
Interview by Neil Davey
Photography by Tom Bowles