November 2007 Archives

Being the voice of the industry can sometimes lead to confusion among our readers as some of them seem to think we are in fact the people we write about.

Take Martin “Outrageous” for instance, whose email found us in response to a news story on Caterersearch about Gordon Ramsay.

"Hello from Australia
Can I talk to Gordon Ramsey?
I have a great idea down under. My name in Martin Outrageous, I am at present in Melbourne at www.outrageouscakes.com.au.
Please let me talk to him give me two mins of his time. It is regarding Christmas pudding ice cream on a stick.
Many thanks
Martin Outrageous"

Now there’s a product I bet Gordon will have a few things to say about.

The advent of the web has been a wonderful thing.

It means you can stay up-to-date with the latest hospitality news courtesy of Caterersearch and do things like your banking and shopping at the sort of irregular hours that suit hardworking hospitality types.

Of course criminals have been quick to make the most of this new opportunity as well. An unprotected computer is easy prey for viruses and hackers so it makes sense to get the correct software to protect your personal details.

Although the mention of Apple in this context may suggest a certain Californian company that sells computers and expensive phones, it is in fact contract caterer Blue Apple Catering that is the focus of this hi-tech tale.

That’s the look, the look, the look of love sang ABC in the eighties but it seems few things change if you’re a contract caterer pitching for business.

Apparently one London caterer didn’t get past go and certainly didn’t collect £200 when they pitched up at the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, earlier this year for a tender without – dare we say it – ties!

Although that’s so media, darling, and increasingly acceptable in the business world generally it’s fair to say the academy, which was founded in 1660 overlooking the Mall and St James’ Park, prefers a certain gravitas to its affairs.

Dedicated to promoting excellence in science in the UK and commonwealth no less and the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, the Society has the likes of Professor Stephen Hawking as a fellow. Channel 4 it is not.

Apparently as soon as these open neck types arrived an immediate look passed between the clients and “that was it for them. They could have walked on water but it wouldn’t of mattered”. Quite.

Well if the face fits.

Word reaches the Rat that Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, Raymond Blanc's iconic Oxfordshire restaurant, could soon be changing hands.

The two-Michelin starred eaterie is currently part of the Orient-Express Hotels collection, but informed sources tell us that hotel group Jumeirah is poised to swoop.

Dubai Holding, Jumeirah's parent company, has been looking at Orient-Express Hotels for some time. It is believed to be interested in a joint venture between Orient-Express and the "hospitality assets" of Jumeirah.

In turning down an earlier approach from Indian Hotels to create a "strategic alliance", Orient-Express insisted it wanted to remain an independent company, but Jumeirah's interest may prove stronger.

Watch this space...

Update: 23 Nov. It is reported that NM Rothschild, the London-based investment bank, is advising Dubai Holding on a possible $3bn (£1.45bn) tilt at Orient-Express

All restaurateurs encounter problems and have their fair share of bad luck. That’s a given.

However after a series of staffing issues, plumbing problems and an over sensitive fire alarm, the sale of the prototype Coal in Cardiff to Tragus last year did not upset owner John Gater all that much.

Part of the reason Coal had come to be at all was that having finally addressed the above bugbears at the blighted site in the brewery quarter of the city, the office above the then MA Potters flooded.

Note: Some things are simply not meant to be.

With several gallons of dirty water now in his eaterie Gater took the opportunity to try something new and created the Coal brand, which he is now rolling out.

Although it's true that there are plenty of restaurants out there serving crap, a chain of toilet-themed eateries is certainly something new.

Yes, different design treatments are hard to come by these days but a loo (chain) theme for a restaurant group in Taiwan, which serves food shaped like excrement, smacks of trying a little too hard to be original for its own good (straining is afterall bad for you).

Still, not to poo poo the idea, Modern Toilet has twelve outlets with seats shaped like toilets, napkins dispensed from tissue rolls on toilet paper holders and the food containers themselves also following the convenient conveniences theme.

I bet Ramsay is kicking himself.

There’s no such thing as bad publicity the saying goes and it’s amazing how things endure.

On Thursday (15 November) Gerald Lawless, executive chairman of the Jumeirah Group, was interviewed as part of human resources consultancy and recruiter Chess Executive’s H Talk series.

After an engaging interview questions were opened up to the floor and someone asked Gerald about the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai and its infamous claim to be seven-star, such is its über-luxury.

With a twinkle in his eye, the executive chairman revealed his canny side by explaining he believed in the value of external communications and good PR but that “we never called ourselves seven-star, it was the media. Although to be fair, we never went our of our way to correct them either.” Fair enough.

And so a legend was born with the seven-star tag still fresh in people’s minds eight years after construction was completed.

Anything over five-star is... well, five-star>>

Burj al Arab - Wikipedia>>

Never short on ambition, he once tried to buy Wolverhamton & Dudley, Robert Breare has had a couple of recent triumphs and is unlikely to be visiting a loan shark anytime soon.

First there was the sale last year of Bank to the Individual Restaurant Company for £32m – he was and remains chairman - and last month the news he had entered into a joint venture with property magnate Sir John Ritblat to develop his Merchant Inns concept.

However Kitchen Rat hears this particular industry mover and shaker hasn’t always been so flush.

A London restaurateur recounted recently a tale of meeting Breare at Surrey’s award-winning Westerly to discuss the sale to him of his restaurant group.

However, Breare was late and when he did finally arrive he rushed in clearly flustered. “He asked me if I had £20 to pay the taxi driver as he hadn’t been near a cash machine,” recounted the source.

Being a gent, and keen to keep an interested buyer on side no doubt, the restaurateur in question put his hand in his pocket and found the required readies without further delay.

Sadly, Breare never did buy his group and – no doubt it simply slipped his mind being busy and all – the restaurateur has never seen his 20 quid again.

Merchant Inns in talks to secure £150m extra funding>>

Marco Pierre White, who famously proclaimed he would never appear in a reality TV show, has just signed a three-year "golden handcuffs" deal with ITV.

The deal comes on the back of the success of this year’s Hell's Kitchen series and will see the original enfant terrible appear in a second series teaching celebs to be chefs next year. It’ll also mean he’ll be working on a documentary-style series.

Marco told the Mirror that after years of refusing any TV related offers he changed his mind because he liked the team he worked with.

"They were different to others I'd met," he said.

"I said I'd only agree if they let me be myself and if the show was educational, inspirational and interesting. This deal will give me the opportunity to share my knowledge."

After selling three of his London restaurants and signing a lucrative advertising contract with Knorr, perhaps Marco can share a bit of the dosh too?

At long last the Eurostar high speed thingy bob has now been built at St Pancras International in London (ignoring the fact that our neighbours on the continent have had their high speed links in place for bloody ages).

It means Paris is now just two and a quarter hours away from the capital (if you ignore the inevitable London congestion you’ll face getting to the terminal).

Tourism marketing body VisitBritain’s Tom Wright has predictably given the new rail link his approval in expectation of all those extra tourists coming for short trips.

Searcy’s, which today launched Europe’s longest Champagne bar, will no doubt be equally keen to say bonjour to our nearest European neighbours, so it’s good to see that London brewer Fuller’s has decided a cheeky dig is the most appropriate way to commemorate this momentous occasion (Anglo/French sniping being the natural order and all).

Recent research from supermarket group J Sainsbury’s has confirmed that we’re becoming a nation of slobs more likely to eat meals on the sofa, and heaven forbid, with our hands.

Half of 18 to 24 year olds admit to eating in front of the TV and one in ten use their hands to eat their evening meal (well, it’s rude not to if it’s delivery pizza).

As we happily devolve as a species it seems that the fork is undergoing changes (in use) itself.

The research suggests it is the most likely of cutlery to be used (if any is used at all) and that it now has the duel purpose of not only getting food into our greedy mouths but cutting it up as we balance the meal on a plate on our knee in front of the box.

So while you tuck into a crappy ready meal and watch Hollyoaks what of the humble spoon?

If Sainsbury’s is right its days are numbered – we’ll be slurping yoghurt out of the box in no time, you’ll see – so what alternative uses can we find?

Well coffee company Lavazza seems to be pushing for acceptance for the spoon as fashion accessory if these pictures from its new calendar are anything to go by. See, it’s not all bad.

Yummy, yummy, yummy I’ve got food in my tummy.

Chef books come and go – Ramsay’s Playing with Fire is currently raising the temperature of the publishing world, MPW’s White Slave caused controversy in America due to its title and in the distant past we even had Happy Days with the Naked Chef (!) - Indeed.

Still what a shame that with Nigella back on the cook book scene and on our TV screens and Delia Smith looming ever large in the British public’s collective cook book consciousness that Disney hasn’t got its act together and re-released the below gem…

Has Nigella landed the BBC in the soup?