The Caterer Blog

Here's a good idea. Cloudy Bay Vineyards are launching a new online service, the Cloudy Bay Locator, on the first of March. The site will enable foodies and wine enthusiasts to locate restaurants in their area that feature the Kiwi company's brands on their lists. For Cloudy Bay stockists, this represents a nice bit of free marketing.

Good news for hoteliers - outspoken economist Roger Bootle doesn't believe that the current troubles in the world economy will result in a full blown recession.

In actual fact he was pretty upbeat about the future of the world economy, believing its medium-term outlook is "stonckingly good".

And as he pointed out a good period of growth in the world economy should bode well for the hotel industry, which will be at the forefront of benefiting from all that prosperity growth.

It's been the usual action packed conference in Berlin, where 1700 delegates have congregated to discuss hotels - in particular hotel deals and how to finance them and the economic climate.

Each year this conference grows - now in its 10th year it has its biggest list of delegates yet. And as the hotel investment grows so does the list of lawyers, property agents, deal brokers and consultants that support that activity.

Take CBRE - a hotel property and consultancy company - for example its team has expanded no end and now covers the whole of the globe.

Some things stay the same though - and as sure as eggs are eggs - Tuesday night in Berlin is CBRE party night.... normally resulting in a few sore heads at the conference the following day as a result.

It's all about hotels at the Berlin IHIF conference and so you learn some useless if interesting facts.

The one that sticks in my mind from yesterday was that Premier Travel Inn conducted a study that found that if it put flat screen LCD TVs in every room in its new build hotels the space saved would allow it to build an extra five rooms in a 100-bed hotel.

For the most competitive at the IHIF, there's only ever been one battle against your arch corporate rivals that's important to win and that's the CBRE table football competition.

This year's winner was financier Chris Eddis from Mornington Capital. But just to set the record straight, Chris definitely did not cheat by recruiting the knocked-out semi-finalist as his partner for the Grand Final kick off against InterContinental.

The tories are conducting a 'task force' before announcing a new tourism strategy. Headed by Anne Milton MP the recently appointed Shadow Minister for Tourism the task force will look at five key areas: promoting green tourism; reinvigorating our seaside towns; promoting the family holiday - both to British and overseas markets; harnessing tourism opportunities form the 2012 Olympics; and reforming the structures and mechanisms involved in marketing Britain.

To get your views on record, whether it be that the industry should have its own government department or that marketing budgets for the whole of England should be pooled, visit the task force website and tell them what you think is important...

So what were this year's hot topics at the International Hotel Investment Conference in Berlin - watch our video to find out.

If some people are to be believed, gastropubs are to blame for most, if not all, of the world's ills.

These traditionalists fume that the "proper boozer" is dying a death, when in reality all that has happened is that pubgoers now have the choice to have a half decent bite to eat if they so wish. There are plenty of proper boozers near me in south London...

The latest accusation to be thrown at gastropubs is that they are to blame for the decline in darts playing, with a Save Our Darts campaign set up.

But operators are hitting back.

So our beloved national stadium is finally finished. The general public got their first look at the 90,000 arena over the weekend as it opened some three years later than projected.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive although it seems there were some grumbles about the food prices.

Each year when I write a piece about people in the hospitality industry competing in and completing the Flora London Marathon, I get a few calls from people who've been left out complaining that we've not mentioned them and, of course, given Gordon Ramsay and Anton Edelmann too much coverage....

Well not this year! This is your chance to let me know that you're competing - I'd also like to know - after the event - what time you completed the marathon in, so we can compile a Hospitality Marathon League table....

So, don't expect me to be psychic...I can't pull this information together all by myself...let me know on the blog if you're taking part...oh and by the way...good luck!

No, it's not just another afternoon for the alcoholic journalists on the team... great news from Whitehall as the government rules out implementation of a bed tax, just hours after the Lyons Inquiry recommended a consultation on the issue.

It's kicked off again. The suits at McDonalds - lets call them the McSuits - are up in arms, and quite frankly who can blame them? They say that it's time to show them and their employees (a fine bunch of grafters) a bit of McRespect.

Their beef is with the dictionary definition of "McJob" which first caused Ronald to choke on his Big Mac back in 2001, and which they say today is outdated and inaccurate. In short, they want it changed, and are planning a public petition to that end.

Having wanted to go to St Alban since it opened, I finally got myself down there the other night and, on arriving early, sat in the lounge area waiting for my hubby and friends to arrive.
Out of natural and possibly a little bit of professional curiosity I couldn't help but obvserve the goings on at reception etc and I must say I was simply blown away. Simply Red lookalike Byron - formerly of sister restaurant the Wolseley - was heading up the team and oozed just the right amount of charm, recongition and friendliness for the 'W1 London dining set' to feel important, loved and special. Trinkets were remembered and reunited with guests, Evening Standards doled out for waiting guests without asking, and friendly banter was in abundance. It really was a sight to behold and was followed up by equally good service throughout the night.
They say service costs nothing, well at £130 per couple, with one of us not drinking, that's perhap stretching it a bit, but, it truly was a pleasure dining there. The food may not have been the most memorable I've ever had, but the service was a benchmark setting experience, well done guys...how can we get more of the same elsewhere? Answers on a postcard please...

Ah, the up sell.

As a nation I don't think we're very good at this, certainly outside the world of five-star hotels and fine-dining, it's an alien art for Brits.

For example, having just been for a bite in my local Fuller's pub here in sunny Sutton, the staff mentioned the specials board to me, which was a decent start, but rather threw it away with a, shall we say, amusingly poor attempt at up sell.

Gareth Gates won a 12 minute pop career, Rick Waller won a spot on Celebrity Fit Camp, Steve Brookstein (X Factor 2004) won anonymity but Aaron Craze won The Cock Inn in Beazley End. So maybe not all television competitions are inherently evil.

To call the TV show Jamie's Chef a television competition is unfair, it was essentially a competition (between Fifteen graduates) that was televised. And anyone who watched it would have seen 'Big Al' (he's not big, he old; for a Fifteen graduate) coming out trumps and winning the proprietorship of The Cock Inn.

However, the programme subsequently showed him turning the place into an Italian restaurant, ballsing-up service and nearly burning down the pub. To quote mentor Trevor Oliver, Jamie's dad "Hopefully he'll make it but the odds are against him." Since the programme finished, reports have also surfaced that the locals have abandoned the "poncey" gastropub.

It's not only Chicago that has become a foie gras-free zone in the US - its now every restaurant owned by celeb mega chef Wolfgang Puck.

You can see him talk about this move in this video on YouTube below.

A report in the New York Times, explains its not just foie gras that Puck is cutting out of his menus, but also any product that is produced in an inhumane way... so that's no veal and pork from animals kept in crates and no poultry or eggs from birds kept in cages.

If you caught the BBC Three programme The Roadkill Chef a fortnight ago then you might be familiar with the idea of taking the 'murder' out of meals.

However, if you are anything like me, then you wouldn't have watched it for moral reasons, but out of the morbid hope for drama. There was a heart-wrenching scene when the roadkill chef Fergus Drennan stood by a recently killed badger. Crouching down, a single tear in his eyes, he nudged the little pulverised chap, and told how badgers bury, and often wail for, their dead. It was a beautiful moment, I have to admit, for the badger, in one last throw of the dice, to rear its head and plant a TB-laden bite on Fergus's hand. What would he have done? Meekly prise its jaws from his hand and nurse it to health or finish it off with the car jack? In fact, what actually happened, was he popped him straight into his pot.

Anyway, my point is actually in relation to Fifteen Restaurant, where wayward youths are given the chance to turn their lives around. But not in the eyes of everyone. After a booked customer discovered that a chef at Fifteen had been found guilty on an assault charge, he was in contact to immediately cancel his booking, citing his abhorrence to the notion that a man convicted of assault should cook his meal.

The Independent's article this morning about Rooms without service - lambasting the industry for its high rates and lack of service and quality does the indsutry an injustice.

We all know there are some bad examples in the industry - but to tar the whole industry with the same brush is unfair and close to irresponsible.

At a time when the indsutry is struggling against so many factors: rising energy and staff costs, low cost airlines threatening to take more and more people abroad for holidays, the announcement last week that capital allowances will be phased out, have all hit hoteliers directly in the back pocket; so it's no wonder prices are high.

So James Horler, chief executive of spanish tapas chain La Tasca, looks set to become a very rich man.

Bolstered by private equity backing from new owner Blackstone, Tragus, owner of Cafe Rouge, is continuing in maurading down the UK's high streets with a £96m deal for La Tasca.