Story of the week: Last Friday saw the rather unexpected release of the results of the 2010 Michelin Guide for Great Britain & Ireland, which were unveiled five days ahead of schedule after online retailer Amazon accidentally shipped copies of the guide ahead of its publication date. Anyway, release problems aside, the overall results were extremely positive, with the big news being French celebrity chef Alain Ducasses’s eponymous restaurant at London’s Dorchester hotel being awarded Michelin’s top accolade of three stars - this then prompted Ducasse to declare London as the gastronomic capital of the world.
Italian chef-restaurateur Aldo Zilli announced that he is to relaunch his flagship Signor Zilli restaurant in Soho as a vegetarian dining concept next month.
Celebrity chef Atul Kochhar is reopening his Michelin-starred restaurant Benares after he was forced to close it following a fire last autumn.
FishWorks owner Ranjit Boparan has acquired fish and chip shop business Harry Ramsden's and plans to expand the chain by opening up to 100 new sites in the next five years.
As operators are clearly gearing up for the 2010 Olympics, hoteliers have been urged not to rip off guests during the Games.
Holbeck Ghyll, the four-AA-red star and Michelin-starred hotel in the Lake District, has been sold for an undisclosed multi-million pound sum.
Meanwhile, not one London hotel made it into a list of the top 25 hotels in the UK, as Rudding Park in Harrogate, Yorkshire walked away with the top spot. Travel website Tripadvisor compiled the list as part of its eighth annual Travellers' Choice hotel awards.
On the financial side, the hotel investment volume in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) fell to £2.5b in 2009, reflecting the lowest volume of transactions since the late 1990s and a drop of 63% compared with 2008, according to global hotel investments services firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels.
As the big freeze envelops Britain, Holiday Inn took the unprecedented step of introducing human bed warmers into its hotels, helping guests get a great night's sleep and keep the cold at bay.
Bob Cotton has been has been named the chair of the newly-created London Business Tourism Group (LBTG) by the Mayor of London’s office.
Three industry bodies have published a new code of practice which aims to reform how tied agreements operate in the pub trade.
The freezing January weather has hit sales at pub operator JD Wetherspoon. In a trading update this week, the company said that it saw like-for-like sales for the first 12 weeks of its second quarter (to 17 January 2010) fall 0.3% as punters struggled to get to its pubs."All-you-can-drink" promotions at pubs and bars could be banned and compulsory identity checks introduced under government plans to curb binge-drinking.
Pubs and restaurants saw a boost in like-for-like sales in December 2009 compared to the same period a year ago, according to research from market consultancy Peach Network.
Pub operator Mitchells and Butlers (M&B) has been fined £20,000 after health inspectors found "grim" hygiene conditions in one of its north London pubs.
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Quote of the Week
"Winning a star has come as an enormous surprise because I was geared up for disappointment. It just didn't feel like my year. It's my personal first and it's fantastic."
Shane Hughes, head chef at Ynyshir Hall, on receiving a Michelin star