Dairy products straight from your very own cow
Talk about forging close links with your supplier. Swiss dairy farmer Paul Wyler is taking the idea of speciality food one step further by offering customers a chance to hire one of his 15 cattle for the summer. Why? Well, for about £170, Wyler will look after the animal on his Swiss mountain farm, milk it, make cheese, and then hand over your very own unique supply of dairy products.
Holiday Inn throws in the towel on guests' honesty
In the USA, Holiday Inn is declaring a national towel amnesty day in August for anyone who has taken towels from their hotels. The chain recently began a $10m (£6.3m) advertising campaign intended to invoke "emotional correctness and honesty" in its customers by promoting a simple, dependable, apple-pie image of Holiday Inn. In South Africa, at the Eastern Boulevard Garden Court Holiday Inn in Cape Town, even the presence of 300 policemen staying at the hotel hasn't stopped £100 worth of bed linen going missing in the past week.
McDonald's just wants to be a good burgher
McDonald's has started to host conferences for head teachers, saying that schools can learn from its management practices. More than 100 head teachers in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, heard about the chain's experiences in crisis management, negotiation and recruiting and retaining staff last week. The head teacher of Wilthorpe Junior School, Barnsley, also spent two hours serving at a drive-through restaurant. In return, McDonald's gave his school £250 to buy books. Despite protests that the fast-food giant was exploiting schools, McDonald's defended itself, saying: "There's no commercialisation involved. We are passing on business practices that we have learned. I don't see any issue of commercialisation." In a separate development, McDonald's was found to be awarding vouchers to children with good attendance records at a school in Essex. Pupils with perfect attendance at the end of each term get a free Big Mac meal. McDonald's insisted it was not actively targeting children through schools.
Mike gets the Godfather of all catering deliveries
Mike Dawson, head of retail and hospitality at London exhibition centre ExCel, told us he received half a horse in the back of a cab earlier this year at the International Food Exhibition. At first he feared he had been targeted by the Mafia, until exhibitors from Kazakhstan claimed the carcass and explained it was one of the dishes they were offering to visitors. Washing his hands of the matter, Dawson told event caterer Payne & Gunter to go ahead and cook the unfortunate beast.
Civil war recipe book... you may smell a rat
Original American Civil War recipes for turtle steak, potted pigeon, broiled squirrel and sheep's head stew will soon be available. Taste for War, distributed in the UK by Greenhill Books, features a range of authentic concoctions. The mouth-watering treats also include roasted rat and beef shin soup. All this can be washed down with sailor's grog and spread eagle punch. Round off the meal with petit fours and a warming mug of republican pea coffee made from dried peas ground into a powder. Delicious.