RESTAURANT and bar pre-ordering service TellTheChef has appointed former Pizza Express boss Luke Johnson as its chairman.

TellTheChef was founded by Oxford entrepreneur and restaurateur Andrew Norton last year, after he became frustrated by the problems that group bookings caused during busy periods in his own restaurant.

Restaurants sign up and submit their menus to the online service, then when a customer books a table for a group they receive an email and can invite other guests to choose their courses. On arrival at the restaurant, each person finds a personal placecard, detailing what they ordered.

The technology is now used by hundreds of hotels, restaurants and bars, including the Malmaison hotel chain and the Royal Opera House.

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Mr Johnson, who has taken an undisclosed stake in the business, said: “Managing group bookings is time consuming and prone to human error.

“TellTheChef makes pre-orders easy and creates a direct link with each customer that helps restaurants grow their customer base and obtain detailed feedback data.”

The company is now looking for more growth capital to develop the technology.

For more information about the service, see tellthechef.com

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