Kitchen Rat

The Savoy has confirmed the news we've all known about for some time - it has delayed its re-opening until 2010.

On the phone to the hotel's general manager to get a quote on the story, one of Kitchen Rat's colleagues was rather taken aback to hear the choice of hold music.

Thriller by Michael Jackson. Yes, the Michael Jackson who sadly passed away just a few hours ago in LA.

Was it deliberate we wondered?

Probably not if the reaction was anything to go by. "You're joking? We'll have to look at that..."

Perhaps they should look at the Man in the Mirror and Beat It before making such Bad and Dangerous musical choices. There will be Blood on the Dancefloor.

Finally, we have a winner for the Apprentice role - and she works in hospitality.

Restaurateur Yasmina Siadatan, owner of Mya Lacarte restaurant in Caversham, Reading, beat favourite Kate Walsh for the top job.

She strikes a blow for catering - despite the derogatory comments about the profession last week and the quality of her winning product.

In a final which asked the two contestants to produce a box of chocolates - because real life is like that - Yasmina triumphed with her cheaper, more mass market version.

Kate's were, everyone concurred, delicious and in fact, during filming for the promotion of Yasmina's chocolate brand, one of the models spat out a chocolate after a shoot.

It brings to mind one of the earliest tasks, when she was in charge of a contract catering task in which her food was likewise of very poor quality.

Strange for someone who runs a restaurant.

Sir Alan's other concern with Yasmina was that she'd find it hard moving from being self-employed to working for someone else - "two years in from running my own business I was set up for life," he said.

"Also will I be putting 20 people out of work?"

But Yasmina said that her brother was now taking over the running of the restaurant, and reiterated that she definitely wanted to work for him.

And, thanks to Sir Alan going on his "gut instinct", she will be now.

Caterer Lexington held a gathering for a select few recently to celebrate its placing in the Sunday Times Best 100 Small Companies to Work For 2009 list.  

Held at law firm and client William Smith's stunning new offices in London's vertiginous Bishopsgate Tower in the City.

Lexington chief executive Mike Sunley gave a quick thank you speech where he'd picked out a few of the more unusual findings from the staff survey carried out as part of the Best Places process.

The finest, delivered with a chuckle by Sunley, has to be that "70% of staff thought they were helping to make the world a better place" working at Lexington.

You'll have to agree that that's not bad for a contract caterer.

Lexington trainee wins 2009 Olive Barnett Award>>

Contract caterers caught up in G20 protests>>

A Minute on the Clock - Mike Sunley>>

As is AA Gill's wont, he'll do anything except get down to the business of reviewing. This week in his procrastinatory preamble before the main event, he tells us all how bad he is at championing causes before (Westminster politician-like) seemlessly taking credit for the government's recent announcemnt of changes to the law on tipping.

Un-Westminster-politician like, though, he does admit and then revel in the smugness and sanctimony of his words, and thus we are endeared to him once more, before he then slams Ba Shan in Soho into oblivion with a no star review.

A good read...and obviously a cause I identify with, having also been at the forefront of campaigining for waitresses' rights - in my own inconspicuous, back seat way..

Nobu has placed warnings on its Park Lane and Berkeley Street menus that the blue fin tuna it is offering is "an environmentally threatened species, please ask your server for an alternative".

It's the kind of politically correct non-speak that calls short people "vertically challenged" - when blue fin tuna is in fact on the brink of extinction.

It also appears that in real speak the restaurant is saying is "don't eat our food"

Very strange, and the fact the chain hasn't removed the fish has bemused conservationists. "They shouldn't sell an endangered species. They should change their menu to incorporate a fish that's sustainable", said senior fishers policy officer for WWF, Giles Bartlett.

However, blue fin tuna is one of Nobu's three top-selling fish, and to get rid of it would make a serious dent in profits - that's probably what lies behind this major fudge. And the advice doesn't appear on any other Nobu restaurants around the world, just in London.

Now, Kitchen Rat gets sent a lot of crappy e-mails every day, but a press release that dropped into the inbox today really takes the biscuit.

"Do you have a taste for good food and wine?" it asks. "If so, you may be more likely to cheat (on your partner)."

Who says?  Those fine upstanding citizens at illicitencounters.com, "the UK's largest extra-marital dating site", that's who.

And how did the website come to this conclusion? It analysed the stated interests of its 310,000 members and 'Food and wine' was at number one, with around 144,000 members. Just below was 'Movies and Cinema' (142,000 members). 

Scientific then.

Funnily enough, "getting your rocks off with Debbie from accounts in the back of your Ford Focus" wasn't mentioned as a main interest of the philanderers on the website.

Here are some pics from yesterday's Thames Water's attempt to have the industry use their new £10 carafe - present the water in a nice form for diners is the idea - and stop obsessing about the loss of margin on bottled.

It's well designed and hopefully will ramp up the image of drinking tap water. The launch was also helped by an amusing stop-start photo shoot with white vans descending upon this part of Soho. Aldo's and Rosie's smile was only halted temporarily - the rickshaw they were sitting in nearly crushed more than once.

Also pictured are Neil Barron, designer of the carafe, and Richard Aylard, in charge of sustainability at Thames Water.

In an interview in today's Metro, the great man of the Oxfordshire restaurant doesn't hold back with his thoughts on the two high-profile chefs.

Apparently when he was training Pierre White at Le Manoir, the volatile chef was "a nightmare," says Blanc. "Marco had to prove he was the best all the time. He always had to set up some sort of competition in the kitchen, which is not good because it makes people feel a bit scared."

As for Gordon, Raymondo is asked what he thought of the time the chef dressed up in disguise and pretended to be one of Blanc's fans at a book signing.

The response: "I find that very sad. He has a number of businesses and I know how tough that is. So to come and play the clown at one of my signings...what's the point? What is the bloody point? I didn't get it".

And: "He is the only one to get it. What is he trying to do and say? I just laugh. My God, has that guy got nothing else to do? He must be very well organised in his business if he has time to do stuff like that."

Later on Raymond does say: "I just want to add that Marco is a good friend of mine. And if he made a few mistakes on the way, well, don't we all?"

So one of them gets off a bit more lightly, at least.

Blanc's The Restaurant winners to launch Marlow pub >>

Marco criticised for belittling waiters on 'Hell's Kitchen' >>

Gillian Thomson, head of operations at Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH), is leaving the multi-Michelin-starred restaurant group, Kitchen Rat has learnt.

Scottish-born Thomson will leave GRH at the end of this month after eight years with the company.

Gillian Thomson joined GRH at its humble beginnings and has helped grow the company from two restaurants, employing 70 staff, to a global business with 23 restaurants on four continents.

After graduating with a hotel and hospitality management degree from the Scottish Hotel School at Strathclyde University, Thomson worked for what is now Millennium Hotels & Resorts, initially at the company's Glasgow hotel as assistant food and beverage manager.

She then transferred to the group's London hotel in Knightsbridge as food and beverage manager, before becoming operations manager at the Millennium Bailey's hotel. She joined GRH in 2001.

The exclusive Barnsley House hotel, haunt of Gwyneth Paltrow, Liz Hurley and Elton John is the latest to be hit by the crunch.

It's a gorgeous 17th century Cotswold stone pile, near the town of Cirencester, with two pubs, the Village Pub and the Catherine Wheel also under the same ownership. Rooms were priced between £295 and £570.

But all these factors were not enough to save it from administrators KPMG, now running the business for Barnsley House Ltd.

The 70 full- and part-time staff running the hotel are threatened with job losses.

Hotel insolvencies soar as hoteliers face tough 2009 >>

Hotel revpar forecast to plummet by 19% in 2009 >>