The Caterer Blog

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."

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!

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".

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.

As the dust settles on another Cateys awards evening, it's time to reflect on what was a tremendously successful and enjoyable event.

More than 1,000 hospitality decision makers packed in to the Grosvenor House hotel in London's Park Lane for the 25th anniversary of what we like to call the hospitality industry Oscars.

The parade of former winners at the beginning - including Gary Rhodes, Raymond Blanc, Ramon Pajares, Richard Shepherd and Robyn Jones - set the celebratory tone for the evening and there were laughs-a-plenty from presenter Rory Bremner.

As for my personal highlights? The food was absolutely spectacular, with the foie gras starter and the turbot main particularly impressive. A Michelin-starred chef on my table commented that the food - which went out to more than 1,000 people don't forget - was better than the meal he and three companions paid £800 for at an upmarket French eatery that afternoon. Kudos to the Grosvenor kitchen team.

I was very sensible and made by way back to south London at 2am, but my more thirsty colleagues assure me that the Red Bar was rocking until a lot later. As for any misbehaviour, I'm none the wiser. Honest.

We've put together a video of all the highlights.

We've also got a full list of winners.  

And, would you believe, there's more. Vineyard at Stockcross executive chef John Campbell achieved the extraordinary feat of winning two Cateys in one night - only the second time this has happened in Cateys history.

Check out our exclusive video Masterclasses with Campbell.

The Dorchester praised the Grosvenor at Tuesday night's 25th Catey Awards with executive chef Henry Brosi branding the meal an outright success. "The best I've ever had here," were his words.

Galvin at Windows head chef Andre Garrett was equally as complimentary as he polished off the Chilled pea and chervil velout shot. "Marcus Wareing's consulting on this meal, isn't he?" he asked. "I have a lot of respect and it isn't easy to cater for this number of people," he said.

Judging by the collection of empty plates whipped away at the end of each course, the rest of table 88 were in agreement. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Chef Direct's managing director Steve Downey during the ceremony who was flanked by the super-popular 2001 Chef Award winner Michael Caines. It seemed that every time the Gidleigh Park executive chef lifted his fork to his mouth another well wisher was at his side.

On the opposite side of the table John Hudgell, proprietor of Cambridge restaurant Alimentum, one of this year's Adopted Business series, enjoyed the night's events with wife Carlota. "It's an inspiration to be here," he said. "We're having a great time and next time I hope that I'll be up on stage collecting an award," he said.

Lively conversation was halted briefly by the arrival of the sexy String Diva girls while Rory Bremner's set had everyone in stitches. But the fun didn't end there. Guests were invited to sip drinks at the bars or take a turn on the dance floor to the quality cover tracks performed by band Groovin High - that is if they could get past our very own snake hips group sales director Shaun Barton. To view footage from the night click here

While many of you who attended the Cateys on Tuesday night might wish for a quick hangover cure as a superpower, apparently a third of hospitality workers want to be mind-readers.

It may surprise you to know that this enterprising survey was not conducted by a budget hotel chain, but is instead is the work of Learndirect, who for no other reason than to drum up a bit of publicity for its skills survey asked hospitality employees what superpowers they wanted - and which superhero they would like as a boss.

Apparently 36% of you want to be mind-readers - perhaps so you can find out if you had won a Catey on Tuesday night or find out what really happened as people danced the night away at the Grosvenor House in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Putting work firmly second 18% of you want the power to complete tasks in super speed, but managers in the business chose invisibility as their second choice superpower - perhaps in a bid to spy on their employees of the competition (or both).

Worryingly though Bruce Wayne was picked as the superhero most hospitality workers want as a boss taking 15% of the vote. Just remember Batman likes training young boys in tights to fight.

The comic book character you don't want to be your boss was the Joker, soon to be seen played by the late Heath Ledger on the silver screen in the Dark Knight. The Joker is a psychopath famed for his unpredictable behaviour - not unlike most chefs really.

Strange to think the smoking ban has only been in place for just over a year in the UK as a whole, isn't it?

Well, it seems news travels slowly to some parts of Britannia if a recent stay at a B&B in Cornwall's Newquay was anything to go by.

Although the "stag parties welcome" line on the website made it quite clear what to expect ahead of arrival (whitener rather than UHT milk for teas and coffees in the room and a shower set-up best described as 'old school'), the retro approach also extended to the law.

In the same way that it's weird to think of the ban having been with us for only just more than a year now, it's now equally alien to see the occasional furtive fag being smoked indoors.

However our landlady, very much conforming to the Tony Hancock stereotype, presided over her B&B empire from the bar.

The bar featured a rather vocal parrot in a cage, of course, and our landlady occasionally squawked at us patrons herself, usually about keys, whilst puffing distractedly away.

I must admit, having been involved with our Stub Out Smoking campaign I would have had a word with the man of the house, only he was already sitting there belly out, track-suit top undone playing cards.

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A tall slim man and his friends huddle over a line of containers and take it in turns to noisily slurp a dark rich liquid before spitting it out and moving on to the next.

This might sound like a rowdy wine tasting session but it is actually the daily routine of the Twinings' tea tasters.

The slurping sound is so loud and sudden that it sounds positively indecent and not something you'd associate with such a refined British beverage. But with over 200 varieties of tea sold across 100 countries you can understand the experts' need to ensure consistency of quality and taste.

According to one of the tasters, it takes around five years to fully develop a tea tasting palette and as we discovered, that slurping technique is something of an art. Our feeble attempts left a lot to be desired.

With so many teas to try under the black, green and white categories it is amazing to think that they all originate from the same one plant, Camellia Sinensis. Much like wine, it is factors such as climate, altitude and humidity that account for their differences.

The bergamot oil and black tea blended Earl Grey is Twinings' biggest seller closely followed by English Breakfast although the company offers all matter of teas to suit every mood or state of mind including the Infusions.

Customers looking a bit stressed out? You could suggest Camomile and Spearment. Or if they're looking a bit sleepy serve them Lemon and Ginger.

I thought I'd give the Lapsang Souchong black variety a go. The tea leaves are flavoured by laying them over bamboo trays and smoking them with pinewood.

Sounds great but my tea-tasting palette must be pretty pathetic as I was soon reaching for the traditional English.

According to Twinings, making the perfect cuppa involves four simple steps.

1. Make sure the kettle is regularly de-scaled and use fresh water every time.
2. Use one teaspoon of tea per cup plus one teaspoon for the teapot.
3. Brew tea for three to four minutes or one to two minutes for white/green tea
4. Add milk first and then tea before serving

p.s. I always thought the rule was tea before milk but unlike Twinings I don't have 300 years of experience in tea-making so I think I'll let it rest.

The Second Test in the four-match series between England and South African starts today at Headingley.

While most cricket watchers are expecting another close game, after the bore draw at Lords, one London-based South African restaurateur has, quite literally, put his shirt on his country winning series.

Gerrie Knoetze, owner of Vivat Bacchus in Farringdon Street, has promised his (largely England-supporting) customers that if South Africa lose the test series, he and his staff will wear the England cricket top for a week. 

As we all know golf ruins a perfectly good walk but for one rubbish player it also netted him a brand new car after a wonderfully flukey hole-in-one.

Errington - who up until this point had been slogging around the course averaging seven on each hole - hit a perfect shot on the par-three hole nine and thanks to a company deal with the National Hole in One Association won himself a £15,000 VW Golf.

The rub (of the green)? Following his feat Errington is now classed as a professional standard golfer and can no longer enter competitions as an amateur.

The solution? Errington has retired from the game and will no doubt be shortly driving off into the sunset in his new motor.

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Now, now children, play nicely. A fight has broken out in Fleet Street with journalists at The Daily Mirror accusing The Independent of foul play over the title's "Fair Tips, Fair Pay" campaign.

Back in April, the Mirror joined forces with the Unite union to launch a "fair tips charter" calling on hospitality employers to end the (legal) practice of topping up minimum wage with tips and demanding that the Government closes the loophole that allows them to do it.

Unite has been running the campaign since last September, when it launched with a protest outside Pizza Express at Haymarket and Smollensky's on the Strand

Then two weeks ago, The Independent decided - with the traditionally news-light silly season approaching - to jump on the bandwagon with its own campaign. 

In times of economic strife it's the businesses that think quickest on their feet that prosper while those failing to get the basics right get just desserts.

Hoping to be the former rather than later, North Yorkshire's Black Swan hotel at Helmsley has created its own take on the world's financial woes with the Credit Crunch Apple Tart.

Created by patisser Martin Towse, the desert is a combination of sweet pastry, almond custard, poached apples, apple vanilla puree and biscuit crumbs - one Credit Crunch that hopefully won't upset anyone.

At £3.25 in the hotel's tea room and £2.50 to takeaway the desert even comes with a Bank of England pleasing food inflation free price.

The hotel meanwhile is hoping that interest rates will soar off the back of the Credit Crunch making it a sound investment.

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Contract caterer Blue Apple's team at Motorola have won the second Association of Catering Excellence Clean Kitchen Awards.

The awards, run in conjunction with kitchen hygiene company Two Services, are in their second year and prove cleanliness is next only to Godliness.

Blue Apple beat seventeen rivals to the title with final judging undertaken by Geoff Ward from HMS, part of the National Britannia Group.

For their troubles the team received a cheque for £1,500 and a stainless steel plaque to commemorate their success.

Second place was Accent Catering's Devonshire House with Elior's Baker McKenzie third. Second place received a cheque for £1,000 and third place £750.

Blue Apple recently landed a deal to feed EasyJet's staff at its new headquarters in Luton, Bedfordshire.

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Having had time to draw breath after the LACA school dinners conference earlier this month I thought I'd share the results of the delegate voting with you.

Given the disappointing news that school meal uptake in secondaries has slipped futher, it's hardly surprising that there's a fair bit or worry and consternation amongst school dinner caterers.

While no one has an issue with Jamie Oliver's ultimate vision for healthy, better school meals, there is a growing difference of opinion about how best to move the service on without threatening it's future.

The poll results of the electronic voting at the LACA conference by its 500-plus delegates were as follows:

Do you believe we have halted the decline in secondary school meal take up?

Yes: 10% No: 68% Maybe: 22%

Please rank these barriers to raising the take-up of school meals, starting with your biggest barrier

Price: 11%

Food on offer: 12%

Environment: 18%

Length of lunch break: 20%

Rebellious attitude: 7%

Teachers: 8%

Parents: 5%

On-site opportunties: 19%