Cordon bleu restaurant launched for those serving porridge - For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

Cordon bleu restaurant launched for those serving porridge
A cordon bleu restaurant opens tomorrow in Surrey’s High Down prison where inmates have been trained to prepare and serve ambitious meals from food grown organically in the prison farm or sourced locally.  food in a rehabilitation programme to help them find work on release. The 50-seat Clink restaurant, paid for by £270,000 in charitable donations, has been designed to help prisoners find work on release. It features mood lighting, contemporary design and a pan-European menu offering lunches such as griddled feather steak with Béarnaise sauce or chicken ballotine stuffed with oxtail and black pudding for £4.50 a meal. "We wanted a realistic, contemporary restaurant so that prisoners who are trained here can go into the real world," said Alberto Crisci, catering manager at the 1,100 inmate jail, who has also worked at London’s Mirabelle and at five-star hotels. There is also a 20-seat private dining room where £50 gourmet menus will be served to invited charity volunteers and corporate guests interested in employing ex-offenders.– 10 May, Read the full article and the restaurant review in the Sunday Telegraph >>

Government likely to defy business leaders on minimum wage rise
Business secretary Peter Mandelson is expected to announce later this week that the national minimum wage will rise by a “relatively modest” among in the autumn. The decision will dismay business leaders, who have lobbied for a freeze on the basis that negative inflation has cut the cost of living while pay freezes and cuts have been widely imposed to save jobs. However, more than 100 MPs have signed a Commons motion tabled by former home secretary David Blunkett arguing that the current economic climate is an "opportunity to increase the spending power of the low-paid" which they can pump into the economy and help shorten the recession. – 10 May, Read the full article in the Observer >>

Enterprise Inns boss defends beer tie against critics
Enterprise Inns boss Ted Tuppen has accused campaign groups of making “deliberately misleading” attacks on the beer tie. Campaigners such as Fair Pin and Kent publican Colm Powell, who went on a hunger strike over the beer tie last year, say tied tenants who are forced to buy their beer from the landlord have to pay more than free-of-tie businesses, making them uncompetitive. But Tuppen claimed the critics “fail to mention they are paying substantially less for their rent. That is the principle of the tie – because you are tied, you pay substantially less for your rent.” Tuppen denied that the arrangements were inequitable, adding that tenants who negotiated directly with the company were fully aware of all the requirements in the contract, and had to have a business plan approved. However, Sunday Times reader Gilbert Bank of Stockport, disagreed, posting the comment “Really, Mr Tuppen. I didn't have a business plan approved. Enterprise contracts are more fait accompli than franchise.” – 10 May, Read the full article in the Sunday Times >>

MPs likely to call for loosening of beer tie
MPs are expected to call for a shake-up of the beer tie between pub companies and tenants when the Business and Enterprise Committee publishes its report into the beleaguered sector, Pub Company Power, on Wednesday. Under the tie, pub companies lease pubs to tenants in exchange for exclusive beer and drink sales which many tenants complain locks them into uncompetitive prices. Although rents have been kept low in the past, they have risen dramatically as costs spiralled. The report may demand a monopolies investigation but observers believe proposals to water down of the tie is more likely. – 10 May, Read the full article in the Independent on Sunday >>

By Angela Frewin

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