April 2008 Archives

There’s always been a question of authenticity attached to Disneyland Resort Paris (DRP) – a suspicion that American and French culture weren’t obvious bedfellows.

Still, for their part, it seems the former top brass at the resort – then Euro Disney - really did live and breathe life in the Enchanted Kingdom and were happy to lead by example.

Back when Sir Francis Mackay, now at Graysons, was chief executive of Compass Group, the firm landed the staff feeding deal at the Paris resort.

Mackay was invited over to France to officially sign the deal behind closed doors with the then DRP boss Gilles Pélisson, now head of hotel company Accor.

After a dinner at American diner Walt’s, the executives retired to sign the papers. At this point, none other than Mickey Mouse himself appeared and kept proffering the document to a taken aback Mackay.

Puzzlement became stunned disbelief as the French execs present happily chatted to the six-foot mouse as if he was indeed Mickey and this was a completely ordinary day-to-day occurrence.

However Mackay was not to be fooled, confiding that he became suspicious of Mickey’s authenticity as he refused to speak a single high-pitched word throughout the meeting.

Graysons Ltd brings in more Compass talent>>

Graysons lands first contract at chemical labs>>

Word has reached Caterer Towers that there are a few things happening at Eight at the Thatch - the home of Jeremy and Jane Cooper, winners of Raymond Blanc's TV reality show the Restaurant.

While details are scarce at this early stage it is understood that a meeting will take place tonight between Blanc and Peach Pub Company, who have supported the business and the Hooper's emerging careers as a partner of the show, during which the site will be discussed.

The Hoopers have been on maternity/ paternity leave from the site following the birth of their first child in March. Eight at the Thatch opened in Thame in Oxfordshire on 14 November 2007 and currently lists Christian Cilia as head chef and Sara Bates as general manager.

Auditions for the second series of the Restaurant have been taking place in Manchester and London during March and April which will be shown later in the year.

Log onto Caterersearch tommorow when we will be able to reveal more.

Punch Taverns, The UK’s largest pub group, is refreshingly optimistic about the near and long-term future for the trade.

However in its half year results last week the company pulled, well, no punches when it came to Chancellor of the Exchequer Alastair Darling.

Attacking the chancellor’s decision to hike alcohol duty in the Budget, the company said it was “disappointed” by events and, reading between the lines, felt it a kick in the teeth given the industry’s efforts to lobby the Government.

Punch has signed up to the Morning Advertiser's campaign to bar Darling from UK pubs until he sees sense and Nigel Turpin, corporate affairs director at the pub company, revealed they may have even more impact than most.

It turns out the chancellor's local, literally down the road from 11 Downing Street, is the Punch owned Red Lion.

Turpin, who described Darling’s tax increases as unjustified, said while his staff were ready to give Darling a frosty welcome if he dared to stick his head in, it hadn’t got to the stage of having a “barred” photo of the chancellor hanging behind the bar just yet.

Well, with eyebrows like Darling’s there’s no need to raise the stakes to a hair-raising level, we presume.

Punch predicts a pick up in trade in the summer>>

Pubs may pass on wine price rises>>

Pub industry furious over rise in alcohol duty>>

Last week saw a host of industry leaders descend on the Dorchester on Park Lane for this year’s Catey award judging sessions.

Stepping into one of the luxury hotel’s lifts, one industry veteran described the time he found himself as a Dorchester employee riding down to the ground floor with the then prime minister of Israel and a group of sunglasses wearing, dark-suited security types taking up the remaining limited space.

Keen to get out of the way of the agents’ reflective gazes, he gratefully jumped out of the lift as the doors swept open, only to come face to face with a Middle East sheik in formal garb flanked by his own security detail.

Has the credit crunch at last hit the formerly bulging wallets of the super rich?

Strolling through the capital last week Kitchen Rat was amused to be handed a flyer advertising three-courses for £22 per person at Podium restaurant at the London Hilton on Park Lane.

A five-star hotel hawking for business! Times must indeed be getting tough if the top-end of the market is having to resort to this sort of ad hoc advertising to drum up trade.

It does beg the question of what next? Bring your own bottle at Galvin at Windows, perhaps.

Hilton opens first non-American Doubletree hotel in Cambridge>>

Hilton launches 10-year plan to open 1,000 European hotels>>

Chris Galvin to be new chef-patron at Hilton’s Windows restaurant>>

Galvins are forced to shelve plans for Waldorf brasserie>>

Most rock stars are renowned for their rowdy behaviour and booze-filled antics but it seems even the most hardy rockers lose their edge with age.

Take Mick Jagger for instance. He has a family connection with a certain eco-friendly restaurant in London and was invited for dinner. Now to protect the Rolling Stone from the maddening crowd of diners in the restaurant, the restaurant’s PR was ordered to sit at the table next to the Jaggers and act as a human wall.

The PR didn’t fancy doing the deed on her own and invited two of her girlfriends along with her. All well until one of the friends arrived, well, let’s say a little worse for wear, and after a few more glasses of wine proceeded to chat and laugh quite loudly.

But given the kind of parties old Mick would be used to, a bit of drunken banter wouldn’t be anything too offensive to him you would’ve thought. Think again. Half way through dinner a waitress arrived with a note from Mr Jagger. “Could you please keep the noise down,” it read.

Growing old disgracefully? Maybe not quite as much as we may have thought.

“They’d charge you for oxygen if they could”- has long been an idea used to indicate an idea that is far-fetched, impossible, at the very least improbable.

But now De Vere Venues has come up with a way to do just that. Yes indeedy! Rock up to any De Vere Venue these days and you can pay English pounds for a canister of 100 per cent, bonefied oxygen to get you through those stimulating meetings.

De Vere claims the poor air quality in places like London cause ‘Hypotoxia’, a shortage of oxygen in the body. Apparently by giving their workers more oxygen, it will result in employees being more “revitalized, alert and work rates to improve.”

Tony Dangerfield (yes that’s his real name), chief operating officer of De Vere Venues, said the blast of pure oxygen when city workers enter a meeting room is “the perfect way to give delegates the kick start they need”.

Colombia will be quaking in its boots.

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of healthy rivalry between two chefs and the brigade at Gordon Ramsay Towers seems to be no exception as far as competition goes.

But in an interview in yesterday's Evening Standard, Gordon’s latest protégé, Clare Smyth, seemed to have got a bit carried away, perhaps, not to say downright catty.

When asked about comparisons with fellow Ramsay Holdings female chef Angela Hartnett, (which Ramsay himself has drawn on more than one occasion) Smyth sneered that she didn’t make much of them saying she’s by no means the next Angela Hartnett.

“I really hate it when people compare me to her because, in all honesty, Angela is a one-star Michelin chef and I'm a three-star one.”

Looks like the knives are out!

Kitchen Rat has heard some interesting tales from the madcap chef world over the years, but the latest one takes some beating.

The former maitre'd at a leading central London restaurant revealed to us how his boss at the time- a famously volatile Michelin-starred chef - once turned up in his expensive motor and, instead of finding a parking space, simply handed our man the keys.

"Drive around Soho for a couple of hours, will you," the chef demanded. "I will give you a call when I need the car."

It’s not often you hear the words “naked women” and “sustainable” in the same sentence. It certainly brings a new meaning to the phrase “mixing business with pleasure”.

But Kurt Ritter, chief executive of the Rezidor hotel group, managed to do just that when he spoke of the horrors he suffered when he took up an invitation from Stelios to go on an 'Easy Cruise' in the West Indies.

Ritter spoke of the walls of flesh coming at him from every angle -“Everybody was naked!”- the plethora of alcohol and the eardrum bursting music onboard. “I hope you’ve never been!” he said with a wizened shake of his head, a sorrowful look about the eyes. Mr Ritter is clearly from a time before Brits Abroad became a competition to see who could show their undercarriage the quickest, and seemed shocked and appalled by his experience.

And just what was the hotel lord’s chief concern for this picture of Dorian Gray-esque debauchery? “I just don’t know whether it’s sustainable.”

Well I think that probably depends on the amount of alcohol you consume, Mr Ritter.

The problem with doing the right thing is that everyone thinks it’s a marvellous idea until they realise it might actually apply to them.

Tired of “school boy” style pranks at handover time the Stern Consultancy and a number of contract caterers have got the ball rolling on a voluntary code of conduct for handover to a new supplier.

As ever time has flown by and the meeting is set for next week at McGraw Hill at Canary Wharf , which was won last year by Bartlett Mitchell one of the early supporters of the charter.

Hospitality types have some unexpected hobbies and pastimes.

While Gary Rhodes likes pumping iron his chef peers Giorgio Locatelli and Bruce Poole are happiest leaping on motorbikes and hitting the open road.

Hotel chief Sir Rocco Forte competes in Iron man competitions (apparently for fun) and Michel Roux Jr is an accomplished long distance runner.

Chris Scragg former boss of Marston Hotels (now part of QHotels) has his own racing team and Alastair Storey and William Baxter of caterer BaxterStorey have been able to combine business with pleasure feeding staff at the Honda Formula One Team.