Gail Hall was busy once again serving up a main course, though this time the food was strictly for thought.

The Edmonton entrepreneur, probably best known for the full-service Gourmet Goodies catering company she operated for 18 years, drew on her food industry experience last week to tell a luncheon audience of businesswomen at the Edmonton Petroleum Club not to compromise on their business ethics, to diversify their business financing and to prepare to make sacrifices if they should decide to open their own business.

"For the first two years of Gourmet Goodies and for the last two years of Gourmet Goodies I didn't take home a paycheque," she told a Edmonton Chamber of Commerce Influential Women function.

However, she added, "there is nothing like the energy rush of owning a business."

Gail Hall wants cooking to receive its proper recognition.

Hall, whose Gourmet Goodies shut its doors in 2003, still maintains strong ties to the food sector.

She now serves as a director of Cuisine Canada and Growing Alberta in addition to running her own consulting company, Seasoned Solutions, where she advises those in the food and hospitality sectors.

As part of her work with Cuisine Canada, she helps the national alliance of culinary professionals in their mission to strengthen Canada's national identity through the food they develop and produce, such as Alberta bison or B.C. salmon. At Growing Alberta, the promotional arm of the province's agricultural industry, she brings both a woman's and small-business owner's perspective to the board.

But it's a lack of certified training for the food industry that brings out Hall's passion. She told the chamber audience that her philosophy behind Gourmet Goodies was to provide exceptional food with quality ingredients, using professional or trained staff.

"The food industry is not regarded as a profession - like a doctor, lawyer, electrician or a plumber - where you have to be certified," she said. "The food industry has no restrictions and the government won't change that unless it is driven by industry, and the food industry won't push that because it will raise costs."

Hall wants cooking to become similarly recognized, rather than the current situation where people come into the profession because they just can't find work elsewhere. "These are the people that are cooking the food that I put into my mouth," she stressed.

Hall said she will continue to push for the need for a recognized certification for food preparation staff, but noted that consumers are the only people who may be able to institute change - if their voices are loud enough.

"There's an element of trust (in the food industry) but it needs to be seen as a necessity by society," she said. "In Europe, it's a highly regarded profession. In North America, it's not."

Hall, who also keeps busy with cooking classes and culinary tours that were originally offered through Gourmet Goodies, told the audience she started the catering operation because of her love for cooking.

But Gourmet Goodies, which grew to become Edmonton's largest caterer, was torpedoed by the events of Sept. 11, 2001. The deadly terrorist attacks in New York City had much further and far-reaching repercussions, she said, coming at a crucial time when the food industry was gearing up for the busy fall and Christmas season.

"The University of Alberta - one of my major clients - cancelled two functions. Within a flash, I lost $80,000 of business," said Hall. "The speakers (at these events) wouldn't fly in after Sept. 11."

The last months of that year, traditionally strong enough to carry Gourmet Goodies through the quieter start of the upcoming year, went sour. "I lost over $200,000 in business."

After Sept. 11, she added, she found that people were buying on price, not quality - her company's raison d'etre - and saw that the writing was on the wall.

Even a strategic plan, drawn up in conjunction with a marketing company, couldn't undo the damage. When she tried to sell the business, there were no buyers.

She said she takes solace in the fact that her staff - which numbered around 60 when she shut down - have all found work. But the lessons she learned are something she wants to pass on to others.

They include maintaining your ethics, whether you're an employee or the owner of the company; the need to diversify business financing by not relying on one financial institution; realizing that sacrifices will need to be made; and that whether you work for yourself or someone else, "you always work for yourself."

That's not a contradiction, she noted, as an employee can take control of a situation and recommend changes that will help the company.

Meanwhile, providing excellent customer service as an employee, Hall added, "is being entrepreneurial in your employment."

The chamber's Influential Women series is held 10 times a year and is marking its second anniversary. The series, which actually started as a networking group, was expanded because it was so successful, organizers said.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)