November 2006 Archives

I saw contract caterer Robyn Jones last night at a bash at the Dorchester hotel...

Robyn told Kitchen Rat that she wasn't happy with last week's speculation in Caterer that she had hoisted the "for sale" sign above her catering firm Charlton House. What a contract caterer selling their business and cashing in on millions, no never, that never happens, I should have commented. But before I had the chance Robyn - a Catey winner this year - was explaining how her two children had already decided how to split the business. One of them wanted Charlton House and the other wanted the White Hart hotel in Nettlebed in Berkshire - a nice and easy solution, even if it's less than fair. Perhaps a sale would produce the best result all round!

I bumped into the general manager of the Crowne Plaza hotel at Marlow-on-Thames last week and while chatting he said that for the last month he had had the England rugby team staying at his hotel. Of course, up until recently the team have resided down the road at Pennyhill Park hotel in Surrey. During England's time at Pennyhill Park, England won the world cup (note: on Wednesday 22 November it will be exactly three years to the date from this great event) and since they changed hotel, England rugby fortunes have been, well, how can we put it nicely, in freefall.

One can hardly blame Alan Thomas, the hotel manager at their new base in Marlow for the England team's shocking run of late, although I suspect he may be Welsh with a surname like that. Anyway he assured me the team's preparations at his hotel had been nothing but perfect and that it was wonderful to have them staying there. Even so, I guess Alan had a big smile on his face when England won on Saturday and avoided the longest losing streak of any England rugby team ever .... a happy Andy Robinson the beleagured England manager probably makes for a happy hotel in this instance!

Which top hospitality executive recently gained a stay of execution after Caterer published details of his impending departure? We hear the story gave the individual in question some much-needed breathing space and leverage during his payoff negotiations and may have earned him an extra 100 grand into the bargain. We're obviously waiting for our cut...

Forbes magazine's latest survey of the most expensive restaurants in the world makes interesting reading, not least for the rather bizarre list it has formulated.

While compiling the world's most expensive restaurants makes interesting reading, this article clearly doesn't do as the headline suggests. It could be feasible that Aragawa - a steakhouse in Tokyo's Shinbashi district - is the most expensive restaurant in the world with dinner for one costing a wallet busting £200/head, but why has Forbes listed the other restaurants, some of which clearly aren't the most expensive in the world or probably even in their own city.

For example, is El Amparo in Madrid, costing £37.50 each, really the most expensive restaurant in Madrid? I doubt it. Closer to home, I also doubt that Gordon Ramsay's Royal Hospital Road restaurant - at £107/head - is the most expensive restaurant in London.

Gordon Ramsay knows what it's like to be in Hell's Kitchen, but now his customers and staff are finding out what it's like too. While Britain's most famous chef opened his new restaurant in New York called Gordon Ramsay at the London without the whiff of scandal, despite some trouble with the unions over the distribution of tips beforehand, an email sent to New York foodie blog eater.com pointed out that if the diners found the restaurant a little hot, there was a good reason as the air con wasn't working.

The email reads as thus: "The AC isn't working yet at either the restaurant or the bar. So the polished nickel wasn't the only shiny precious thing in the space last night. Gordon Ramsay is threatening to shut the restaurant down if they can't get the AC on."

With this footnote explaining the source was unknown and the content unverified: "Totally unverified, of course. And yet intensely pleasurable all the same. Those with RESYs tonight: dress light."

However, while the foul-mouthed chef's profile is becoming almost as large across the pond as it is on the UK ... see this article posted in the New York Sun that gives some idea about what New York papers are saying about his arrival...... his latest venue has opened and it went without a hitch, well apart from being slightly sweaty, or so we are led to believe.

img src="http://www.caterersearch.com/Assets/GetAsset.aspx?ItemID=6835" style="float:left; padding:10px;">There were more than a few raised eyebrows at a bash at W'Sens restaurant in Pall Mall, London, last week when several culinary icons were shipped into town to rustle up a dinner called Stravaganza Mediterranea. It saw the likes of El Bulli's Albert Adri, Claude Bosi and Jacques and Laurent Pourcel cook for such gastronomic legends as Heston Blumenthal and Raymond Blanc.

It's good that it's out in the open at last.... for sometime we have known of Simon Rogan's intention of heading south from his North-west stronghold at L'Enclume, but we have had scant details. The deal still hasn't been signed yet, but it looks almost certain that he'll be cooking in Henley-on-Thames in the future. L'Enclume regulars will be pleased to know that it won't be shutting, but will carry on as business as usual.

I hear that Kate Moss's squeeze Pete Doherty won't be able to stay in Malmaison hotels anymore following the damage he did to his room in the Malmaison in London last week. Apparently the room was well and truly trashed and cost £4k to straighten out. Obviously the damage was enough for Mal boss Robert Cook to put a bar on the Baby Shambles singer staying at the group's properties again.

Gordon Ramsay's first New York venture is causing quite a stir in the UK, but I was wondering whether it was having a similar impact in the big apple itself... well a bit of surfing has found a few mentions on foodie websites across the pond, but not a huge amount of noise.

Gordon Ramsay's first New York venture is causing quite a stir in the UK, but I was wondering whether it was having a similar impact in the big apple itself... well a bit of surfing has found a few mentions on foodie websites across the pond, but not a huge amount of noise.

While surfing I came across this story on a site called Chow... it's a cracking site, but this post reminded me of a story we ran recently on Novotel introducing TVs to its dining room for stressed execs travelling alone. I hate the thought of this - what's wrong with room service! I mean which sane man would want to be watching Eva Longoria while eating in any case! Anyway here's the post from Chow... it's a US -site by the way if you hadn't guessed!
I'll Have the Duck and Desperate Housewives
We haven't reached the end of society as we know it--but you can see it from here! At least according to fellow Grinder James Norton, whose commentary in the Christian Science Monitor is a masterpiece of skirt-gathering.