The Caterer Blog

Say cheese, or a few other choice oaths if you’re Domino’s Pizza.

Hey inflation does funny things but it seems Europe’s crazy weather this year has compounded things and claimed another victim, with soaring milk and wheat prices causing the pizza chain some heartburn of its own.

Why? Well due to the collapse of its main supplier and the need to set up a new contract at the now higher cheese price, Domino’s has had to shoulder a £1,060 per tonne increase in the cost of mozzarella.

With more than 400 stores that’s significant and has left a stinking additional cost of £450,000.

Still rather than cry over very expensive milk, the company has introduced a new ciabatta base option for its pizzas, which it is sending out in an apparently sleek black box and marketing it as its poshest menu option.

For anyone intimidated by such a posh addition to the company's line up they’ve also published a tongue-in-cheek (I hope) etiquette guide, which is hard to top (sorry).

Cool: Top Cat, Thierry Henry, Zak Morris, trilbies, Scotts, La Petite Maison, Angelus

Not cool: Paul Daniels, Chris de Burgh, Screech Powers, spandex, Wimpey, Aberdeen Steak House, Garfunkels

Who knows what unspoken deity determines coolness. Whoever they are they probably eat seafood. That’s the opinion of Harper’s Bazzar & Moet who, acting as a self-appointed prophet, have disseminated the word on high – through their glossy magazine’s 2008 eating out guide – that Scott’s is the coolest place to eat in London.

Surprise, surprise, 11 out of the top 20 restaurants are in Mayfair or Soho. And all the usual suspects are there; The Ivy, J Sheekey, Le Caprice, Nobu, Zuma. Proving that all you really need to be cool is Russell Brand in you. Which doesn’t rule that much out.

Well Caterer’s Green Month may be over but you can still check out all the cumulative wit and wisdom from the series in our Green Zone.

Despite the apparent need for us all to think about our business practices and become more sustainable, I was still shocked when a glance at a Costa press release seemed to show the coffee bar group was now compacting redundant baristas to be more environmentally friendly.

Fear not, the picture is actually of Gihan Weerasinghe who was named Barista of the Year by the Whitbread owned company.

Weerasinghe represented Costa Middle East and North Africa and is based in Dubai no less.

He ultimately triumphed over 800 contestants from 750 Costa stores around the globe to take the title at a final held at the company’s Lambeth roastery in London on the 31 October and has won himself a trip to Brazil with spending money.

Second In the competition was Xu Jun (Peter) representing China and Danielle Golding, based in Plymouth, flew the flag for the UK placing third.

Costa Coffee reveals China launch plans>>

Costa to open 600th store (possibly)>>

If you want to help, help Children in Need. Or, just donate Terry Wogan’s fee for the night to the charity and solve all its funding problems here on in. Just a thought.

You’d think they’d have fixed that poor bear’s eye by now but alas here he is with Welcome Break’s chief executive Rod McKie (perhaps having just enjoyed a welcome break in the roadside conveniences).

Welcome Break has launched a "spend a penny, spare a penny" campaign to raise funds for the charity at its 26 UK-wide service stations.

Customers using the loos will be encouraged via a large poster to put spare change in a collection tin, so let’s hope they wash their hands.

Welcome Break hopes to raise £100,000 for the charity (its charity of the year) over the next twelve months.

Children in Need holds its annual fundraising appeal on 16 November.

Welcome Break in deal with WHSmith to open stores>>

This week's edition of Caterer looks at the restaurateurs who are brining quality dining to London's fringes. As a man stuck very much in the suburbs of south London I can confirm the palpable excitement that surrounded the opening of a Gourmet Burger Kitchen in Beckenham.

As a resident of Beckenham I am confused. When I buy a train ticket I am told I am in zone four of London (London has six transport zones, so the further out you live the more you pay). But my postal address says Kent, historically the county in which the towns of Bromley borough resided before creation of the borough for administrative purposes in 1965. The fine dining restaurants of central London are 12 miles and a hefty taxi journey south of the river away. Grabbing a quality, quick, bite without a train journey rather limits your options.

But recently Beckenham has shifted upmarket when it comes to dining (it all began when the Hog's Head turned into a Slug and Lettuce). Despite the average price of a one bedroom flat topping £200,000, if you wanted to eat it it was a local Italian, a local pizzeria or a Pizza Express. They still exist and are unbelievably still busy. But last month my world just got a little bit more exciting. A small shop next to the abandoned police station had closed for renovation. The small sign outside made my mouth water and heart race. Opening soon, it read, Gourmet Burger Kitchen. Thank you Clapham House Group, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

The proof may well be in the pudding but a Devonshire catering company reckons it has the solution to festive stress – it’ll do the cooking of the notorious Christmas lunch for you.

As long as you get your orders in before the 15 December, Banquet in a Box will deliver an allegedly gourmet meal straight to your door.

Whether you’d be able to wing it at the Hilton on Park Lane to give the brigade a well deserved rest I’m unsure, but if the Christmas lunch simply isn’t very (a)ppealing maybe this is the answer (or a simply crackers idea).

Apparently all you have to do is cook the turkey – this is already sounding personally challenging – and reheat the traditional accompaniments and sauces.

Better still, no cleaning up either so you can hit the wine and fully enjoy that traditional afternoon kip.

Heard of any other time saving ideas or cool Christmas party venues? As ever, do le me know.

Remember though, a pre-packaged dinner is for Christmas not life you skank!

A Wirral pub manager has his hands full with locals over complaints that the outside pub sign resembles Adolf Hitler.

Spare a thought for the hungry this Christmas. Or, more specifically, the Caterer staff.

We’re closing in on the time of year when every vague friend, acquaintance or social-networked punk wants advice on a restaurant for their office party, expecting some inside-industry tip that will shower them in glory before their own colleagues.

“Yeah sure, there’s a place I know called Le Gavroche, just ask for their £12 turkey deal, they’ll sort you out.”

Quietly handing out recommendations with the calm grace of a UN aid convoy, what then happens as the powers-that-be cut a cheque for the Caterer office party? The restaurant in question (Magnolia in Wimbledon) doesn’t answer its phone, or indeed have a BT landline anymore, deletes its website and sells its fixtures and fittings. In lay terms – closes down.

Most people enjoy a good chunk of stilton as part of a cheese board selection, along with some crumbly biscuits and perhaps a drop of port or wine. Not the founders of Brighton-based Moo Juce, who have created a range of stilton smooth-shakes.

No viable responses as of yet to our appeal for Christmas party salvation. We can only presume because all you restaurateurs are still pouring over the foie gras and alba truffle menu you’ll be whipping up for us and confirming Bryan Ferry as a spot of post-meal cabaret.

There was, however, one reply. An anonymous, and seemingly angry, tipster laid down a simple one-liner: http://psycho-chef.blogspot.com/.

Being an investigative journalist par excellence I followed the clues and reached the blog spot Psycho Chef, a web forum for angry chefs to vent their spleen.

Described thus:

“place for Chefs to share all those horrible moments that no one else will ever understand or want to listen to.”

The great and good of the hotel industry will hopefully by now have shaken off the effects of last night's inaugural Hotel Cateys at the London Hilton on Park Lane. The Caterer team were certainly quieter than usual today.

It was an undoubtedly successful evening and our congratulations go out to all the winners, and indeed those shortlisted, as we had hundreds and hundreds of entries - Housekeeper of the Year alone received 50. Grant Hearn, from Travelodge (pictured) was the big winner with the Outstanding Achievement award.

Jumeirah, owner of the landmark Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai, is extremely ambitious and the state-owned company is clearly one of the coming forces in global hospitality.

Speaking on Thursday (15 November) at HR consultancy and executive recruitment firm Chess Executive’s latest H Talk, Gerald Lawless, executive chairman of the Jumeirah Group, said the company was holding some 130 discussions about potential sites to build or take over the management of luxury hotels at.

Jumeirah, which has 11,500 employees (or colleagues as Lawless prefers) in Dubai alone has set itself the target of having a presence in 26 locations around the world.

It wants to be viewed as nothing less than the very best everywhere it operates and I wouldn’t bet against them achieving this having listened to the scale of the company’s operations and commitment to doing things properly.

On top of this morning's news that sales of beer have dropped to their lowest level in the UK since the Great Depression in the 1930's - a warning has come that beer prices face above average inflation next year and we could even see the first £4 pint.

This is not the news that the pub trade needs. Already this morning Britain's second largest pub operator, Enterprise Inns, has predicted a tough year for pubs in 2008. Next year could see a situation where prices are up, sales are down and the market is saturated with identical food offerings cannibalising each other's sales potential. It could turn out to be a bit of a car crash.

I wrote a while ago in relation to ‘Monkey Tennis’; Alan Partrdige’s last desperate pitch to the BBC, and compared it to the mooted idea by Fresh One Production to purchase Little Chef and have Jamie Oliver save it on screen.

And, annoyingly, I tried to be too funny too soon.

But then could anyone know that the BBC would actually go ahead and commission Monkey Tennis – or as close as you could get – and I’d be left sounding repetitious.

Expecting to watch Countdown, I switched on BBC2 the other afternoon I saw a listing that blew my mind – Food Poker.

Wow.

And more importantly: How?

With knife crime doggedly in the headlines and the Government keen to be seen to be tackling it, it seems chefs may find themselves public enemy number one.

I took a call from a reader that as well as running a business consultancy lives a life as a chef for hire.

He’s found himself in hot water a few times recently after The British Transport Police launched Operation Shield.

The nationwide initiative is designed to combat knife crime on the rail network. Part of the way officers have been doing this is through the use of portable and fixed metal detectors at mainline stations.

The chef in question said that as he often worked in Manchester taking a car around the city was a pain and the train was his preferred means of travel. Problem being that he’d set off the detectors a few times and had a lot of explaining to do when police opened up his case and found, well, a damn lot of knives.

Apparently a bit of fast talking and a membership card for his local chef association has thus far got him off the hook but conversations with colleagues reveal he is far from unique.

So have you been caught out and what advice if any can you give?

Forget the phrase "cold turkey", these turkeys in America are fed beer to fatten them up in time for Christmas.

And look at the size of them, they're enormous!

Click here to watch mini film: http://www.fwi.co.uk/blogs/rural-life/2007/11/turkeys-drinking-beer.html

School dinner campaigner Jamie Oliver is many things to many people but a metaphor he is not.

That’s why in September we launched our tongue-in-cheek campaign called CAMOT – The Campaign for Original Thinking – on this very blog.

It came after a succession of organisations said they needed a Jamie Oliver-style campaign [or champion] for everything from promoting careers in the construction industry to improving children’s comprehension of literature.

It seems however it’s not just policy makers and associations but our colleagues in the media that are guilty of abusing poor Jamie as well.

A business round-up in the Independent last week about Enterprise Inns managed to shoe-horn in a completely unwarranted Jamie Oliver reference just, it seems, for the hell of it.