The Caterer Blog

Gordon Ramsay turning up to slam you on Kitchen Nightmares is not the reason chefs have sleepless nights, its the damn competition and turning a decent profit.

A survey by Unilever's Knorr, conducted last month, asked chefs what puts them under pressure most at work.

Surprisingly it’s not AA Gill sitting out front, pen poised, although the apparent relentless march in global food prices is likely to cause a few grey hairs in coming months.

The Chef Pressure Survey of 120 chefs found that the two biggest causes of stress are competiting (78%) and profit (82%) – that need to stay a step ahead is causing sleepless nights.

Perhaps surprisingly, around half of chefs (52%) don’t think marketing is important either. However, I can’t help thinking that bums on seats equals turnover, which is a basic requirement of profit, so someone somewhere is missing a trick.

No 10 video - Hightlights from Gordon Ramsay in Hell's Kitchen>>

Congratulations to Daniel Cox who has made history by becoming the first contract catering chef to win the Roux Scholarship.

Cox, who can be seen in action with the other finalists on Caterer TV, works for Compass Group’s Restaurant Associates (RA) at investment bank UBS.

He was crowned 2008 Roux Scholar at an award reception at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park on Monday evening (21 April).

RA, Compass’s fine dinning division, has been fighting contract catering’s corner well this year adding a rare Michelin star to the sector’s honours for its joint-venture with Gary Rhodes, Rhodes W1, at the Cumberland hotel in London this January.

Compass’s team of chefs also enjoyed a record-breaking stint of competing at February’s Hotelympia show.

Roux Scholarship>>

Exclusive: Gary Rhodes and Anthony Demetre on winning another Michelin star>>

Albert Roux signs deal with luxury Leeds hotel>>

Forget fish - its not sustainable these days anyway - pigeon and chips is the new dish of choice.

Unlike cod, the humble pigeon is plentiful these days and infiltrating the trendiest of menus.

Marco Pierre White lists a stuffed Bresse squab pigeon in a sea salt crust as one of his ten favourite dishes. Bresse pigeon with fois gras even ordains White's menu at his restaurant at Chelsea Football Club.

But for those of you who can't get hold of wood pigeon, remember that every city centre street is filled with the flying rat, some of whom clearly want to be remembered fondly by hungry diners.

A Worcester chip shop last week told the tale of a hapless pigeon flew directly into one of its deep fat fryers. Yes you read that right - the bird embarked on a kamikaze mission of flying head first into boiling fat.

"It must have been a painful death," said Dawn Jennings, owner of the Angel Plaice, with no hint of irony. "It was quite distressing at the time, but we can laugh about it now."

One wonders what would have happened if the pigeon had gone into a Glasgow chippie. Deep fried pigeon with tatties anyone?

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!