Gordon Ramsay is world’s third highest paid chef
His earnings of around £4m a year have propelled Gordon Ramsay up the chef’s salary scale, putting him third in the world behind Rachel Ray, the Oprah Winfrey of the food channels, and Wolfgang Puck, creator of the Beverley Hills based restaurant group Spago. With TV restaurant commitments now keeping him in the USA for three months a year, Gordon Ramsay has spent the summer house-hunting in California. “Somewhere around Beverly Hills, Brentwood, Malibu…,” he said. “The kids love life out here: the beaches, skiing at Lake Tahoe at Christmas… We’ll work it all around school holidays and half-terms.” Americans admire the fact that Ramsay is a self-made man and have been flocking to his two State-side restaurants in New York and Los Angeles, despite a gleeful trashing of the eateries by critics. – 6 September. Read the full article in The Times >>
Whitbread sales boosted by growing demand for budget hotels
Whitbread’s Premier Inn budget hotel chain has benefited from the increased trend for business guests to downgrade to cheaper accommodation. Sales for the budget chain, which is scheduled to have 570 hotels operating across Britain by the end of the year, have risen by 10.2% in the six months to 14 August, helping to boost Whitbread’s overall sales by 7% for the same period. Business travelers now account for 60% of Premier Inn’s revenue, which has helped push up the average revenue per room by 5.8%. While Whitbread’s pub restaurant business, including Brewers Fayre, Table Table and Beefeater, reported sales up by 4.4%, the company’s Costa Coffee outlets saw a slow down in like-for-like sales at 3.7%, compared with 6% in the first quarter. – 5 September. Read the full article in The Times >>
Costa Coffee hopes redesign and drive-through cafés will drive-up business
Costa Coffee is creating a more comfortable environment for its customers to encourage back coffee-drinkers stung by the credit crunch. The company, which is the UK’s largest coffee chain with 780 stores, is introducing leather couches, more widely spaced wooden tables and low-hanging lamps to all new Costa stores and about half of all existing stores by the end of the year. While Costa is still reporting an increase in sales, there has been a slow down, resulting from the rising price of milk and coffee beans pushing up the average price of a cup of coffee. People are more likely to think £2.25 is a reasonable price to pay for a cup of coffee if they buy it in “a great environment”, said the company’s managing director, John Derkach. Costa’s first drive-through outlet is set to open in Ashford, Kent, in October. – 5 September. Read the full article in The Financial Times >>
Pub boss calls for halt on rise in beer duty
The struggling pub industry could be given a boost by a five-year suspension of beer duty increases, according to Tim Martin, chairman and co-founder of JD Wetherspoon. Martin warned that many pubs will close if the Government continues to put pressure on the industry through over-regulation. "The increase in legislation and taxes is a bigger contribution to inflation than rising oil prices," he said. "They have been going up sharply for years - in a boom everyone gets away with it, but when the tide goes out you can see who's swimming naked. It makes everyone's life harder, stifling competition and dynamism." Martin was speaking after Wetherspoon announced a fall in the company’s pre-tax profits by 13% to £54m. Shares rose 7½ to 268½p. – 6 September. Read the full article in The Daily Telegraph >>
Clarissa Dickson Wright lashes out at Jamie Oliver
A row has broken out after Clarissa Dickson Wright said Jamie Oliver was a brilliant cook, but wouldn’t eat in his restaurants for risk of “being poisoned”. Oliver hit back, though a spokesman by saying: "Clarissa has no fear of being poisoned... because I suspect none of our restaurants would welcome her, for fear of offending the other guests." The row between the two celebrity chefs broke out in 2004 when Dickson Wright accused Oliver of selling his soul to Sainsbury’s for making advertisements for the supermarket giant. Oliver has kept out of the spat – until now. – 7 September. Read the full article in The Independent on Sunday >>
Consumers should eat less meat to curb global warming
People could help tackle climate change by having one meat-free day a week, says a leading United Nations scientist. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which last year earned a joint share of the Nobel Peace Prize, said that diet change was important because meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. It was relatively easy to change eating habits compared to changing means of transport, he added. – 7 September. Read the full article in The Observer >>