The Caterer Blog

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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The newspapers are full of the demise of investment bank Lehman Brothers, which went into administration in the UK on Monday after its US parent applied for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The knock-on effect is expected to be widespread, with share prices already tumbling and the effects of the credit crunch set to intensify.

The news is also a blow for Restaurant Associates, the fine dining arm of Compass Group, which ran the catering at Lehman's European HQ in London's Canary Wharf.

As well as feeding many of the 5,000 staff, RA provided events and fine dining catering at the rather swanky office block.

RA this morning confirmed to Caterer that it is in discussions with Lehman about the contract.