The Caterer Blog

Marco Pierre White (MPW) returned to the small screen earlier this week, with the first episode of his four-part TV series Marco's Great British Feast. The show features the man on a trip around Britain in search of the country's three finest dishes, which he plans to cook for a group of 200 diners in the final episode.

Unsurprisingly, MPW's well-publicised reputation as the ultimate enfant terrible of the culinary world played a big part in the show and many TV critics didn't respond well to his egocentric way of presenting. Here's a round up of what some of them had to say about the show.

Continue reading "What the critics think about Marco's Great British Feast " »

Troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse gets her inspiration from a variety of sources - heartbreak, Motown soul, Mark Ronson and more recently a good old-fashioned honk on the crack pipe.

But here at Caterer we never would have expected the diva to look to hotels to inform her unique style. Not so! It appears that last year after staying at the celeb-haunt Blakes hotel in Kensington, old Amy took quite a shining to one of their key fobs- not least because it bore the same name as her darling husband Blake Fielder-Civil.

Cue a quick visit to the tattoo parl our, with the key fob bearing the Blakes hotel logo in hand. The result was a tattoo bearing the said-logo above her left breast.

One might say she's been "branded".

The Good Food Guide may have faced criticism from some of its former inspectors last year but giving it the benefit of the doubt it has some cheap eats to recommend for these cash-strapped times.

The latest edition of Which? carries a plug for the new Good Food Guide, which is out in September in the form of a list of good-value set menus drawn from the new edition.

Familar names include Tom Kitchin's Kitchin in Leith, Edinburgh and Antony Demetre and Will Smith's Wild Honey (which we have done a Menu Watch on in the past).

Birmingham's Opus; Allium, Gloucestershire; Agaric, Devon; the Anchor Inn, Cambridgeshire; Anthony's at Flannels, Leeds; Artisan and Catch, Sheffield; Old Post Office, Glamorgan and the Trinity, Crown and Castle in Suffolk completes the set, so fill your boots!

The delightful Marco Pierre White has been at it again, lashing out at chef campaigners Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jamie Oliver ahead of his new TV show, Marco's Great British Feast.

White claimed Fearnley-Whittingstall's campaign against intensively farmed chickens was merely an attempt to "get a few column inches".

"I really object when I see certain individuals protesting against certain types of farming to get a few column inches," he said. "Certain people should get a life."

Continue reading "Marco Pierre White lashes out again (TV show coming up perhaps?)" »

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Morecombe & Wise, Chris & Jeff Galvin, the Krankies.

Yes history is replete with great double acts and after watching our latest Caterer video of Leon co-founders John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby I believe I have witnessed another.

Yes, John and Henry were on fine form (note for the purpose of this gag I am excluding Leon's third founder Allegra McEvedy who was one of the hospitality few recognised in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours) at the latest Arena lunch at London's Landmark hotel on Monday (23 June).

Speaking to John in a follow up interview, I asked how he'd found taking the stage in front of an audience of industry peers. He said although nervous he'd written a script to get him and Henry through.

However, as with all good double-acts there always has to be a bit of one-upmanship, and the opportunity to stitch your partner up like a kipper must always be taken.

In this case it most certainly was when Henry apparently nicked the best bits from the prepared script and left Johh scrambling around - in his head - for something to say.

Well, what are business partners for after all?

No news yet on whether John is considering hiring the other Leon to do a bit of boardroom "cleaning" at the healthy fast food chain.

Chris and Jeff Galvin to sign deal in the City>>

With the Wimbledon Championships in full swing London's Pearl restaurant and bar has created a strawberries and cream cocktail.

The strawberries and cream cocktail is served in a Collins class filled with strawberry ice cubes that have been made by steaming fresh strawberries for two hours before straining them through muslin cloth and collecting the juice.

This part of the process takes 12 hours, which is considerably longer than most of the UK contenders will last in the Championships this year.

The juice is then combined with a strawberry liqueur and frozen in ice-cube trays. A separate jug of creamy cocktail mix is served on the side, allowing guests to pour the cocktail over the strawberry ice-cubes.

As the ice melts the strawberry flavour infuses and intensifies the drink, which should be enough to make even Andy Murray smile (for a while).

Game, Set and Strawberries>>

It's that time of the year again when Wimbledon is upon us. This year all the tennis frenzy has been slightly overshadowed by the excitement of the Euro but nonetheless, close to 50,000 tennis fans are expected to flock to the All England Club in south London.

But, of course, the tennis isn't the only thing Wimbledon is famous for and nothing- apart from the rainy intervals - defines the championship more than strawberries and cream. It is expected that visitors at this year's tournament will consume more than 28,000kg of strawberries accompanied by over 7,000 litres of fresh cream. That's more than 8,000 punnets per day.

But, thanks to rising food prices, visitors will have to dig a little deeper into their pockets this year as the price of a punnet of strawberries and cream has gone up from £2 to £2.25, marking the first increase in five years.

But then again hungry tennis fans can also tuck into the lashings of sandwiches, ice creams, slices of pizza and smoked salmon bagels on offer - not to mention the 150,000 glasses of Pimm's, 17,000 bottles of Champagne and 100,000 pints of beer.

Wimbledon is one of the biggest catering events in the sporting calendar and comprises the largest single annual sporting catering operation in Europe. All of the catering is undertaken by Facilities Management Catering, who employs close to 1,500 catering staff at the site's numerous outlets.

With food inflation featuring heavily in recent doom-and-gloom predictions for the UK economy, It seems, much like Eastenders, everyone's talking about it.

A Caterer investigation published today found that contract caterers are very much of the view that higher food prices are here to stay and must be confronted.

However one chief executive told me that they had had a few teeth-gnashing moments with clients who despite being well up-to-date on food inflation from the healthy news coverage it's been receiving, tend to react with puzzlement when told meal tarrifs in their restaurants need to rise.

Anyway, if you'd like to learn more about the subject, including expert advice on mitigating food price increases, we have just launched a dedicated Food Costs page rounding-up developments.

 Do let me know your thoughts, also.

Does a drink in a JD Wetherspoon pub lead to greatness?

Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin would contest it does, and has in the latest Wetherspoon News, the keenly-priced pub company's staff and customer newsletter.

In his chairman's message Martin points out that Boris Johnson, now London Mayor, popped in for a pint at the Wetherspoon owned Furze Wren in Bexleyheath just before his election success.

Coincidence? Martin doesn't think so.

While Martin's well publicised views on binge drinking being more a cultural failing than something to batter the pub trade with ring true, his assertion that Johnson should have taken a spot writing for Wetherspoon News rather than the Daily Telegraph to "reach a wider and, in my opinion, more discerning audience" is probably open to debate.

JD Wetherspoon introduces gluten-free menu>>
JD Wetherspoon profits go flat>>
Everyone want to laugh at chancellor's expense (Kitchen Rat)>>

London Mayor stops Ramsay chefs' Beijing Olympic trip>>

Continue reading "Boris election success thanks to cheeky pint in Wetherspoon's" »