The Caterer Blog

Well there is nothing more amusing than someone else's misfortune to cheer you up if you think that your day isn't going exactly to plan.

Take Papa Johns pizza boss Nigel Travis, over visiting London last week.The poor chap had 'misplaced' his Blackberry in the back of a London taxi cab. It was quite a blow for the Essex-born but US-based pizza mogul who relies implicitly on the device often known as 'crackberry' (for its addictive qualities) to run the company while overseas. As the interview with Caterer was being conducted word crept through that the device had now been found in Lambeth North police station - not entirely the location for an evening's entertainment Travis had envisaged.

Unfortunately more calamity was to follow..

The pizza is a beautiful invention - from its humble beginnings in the wood-burning ovens of southern Italy to today's supply chain focused pizza delivery organisations - and sometimes a slice of 'pie' (as the Americans infuriatingly call it) is the only thing that will satisfy you.

So well done Domino's Pizza for keeping itself at the peak of the toppings innovation curve. Not content with satisfying our cravings for delivered food with the "meat lover" and the "meat packer" (both containing four types of meat) they followed the Gillette school of razor innovation (who needs four blades when now you can have five?) with the Meateor - a five meat topping pizza made famous in this advert.

As if Pepperoni, Sausage, Meatballs, Ground Beef and Smoky Bacon was not enough (and I can see people crying out for more meat) Domino's is to bring out the Scrummy - a pizza that contains six (count them) types of meat and is aimed at the rugby fan (hence the witty title) as it will be unleashed on unsuspecting customers during this autumn's rugby world cup in France.

While the mystery sixth meat is yet to be revealed (Tandoori chicken seems like a glaring omission) the next logical step has to be a 7 meat pizza. The Seven Deadly Sins perhaps? Domino's can have that idea for free.

Some sad news reached Caterer Towers yesterday: the inventor of the Egg McMuffin, Herb Peterson, died peacefully in his sleep at his home in Santa Barbera aged 89. It is not known whether he was a regular consumer of his greatest invention (and international hangover cure).

Still, at least all at McDonald's can console themselves with a nice cup of tea. PG tips being its brew of choice after it signed a deal today with Unilever to sell sustainable tea in its 1,200 stores throughout the UK and Ireland.

That equates to over 24 million cups a year. Nice to see that the monkey from the ITV Digital adverts is having an effect. Remember monkey prefers his PG made with "three stirs clockwise, two stirs back; one and three quarter sugars and show it the milk". Try asking for that and a McMuffin.

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?

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid, Morecombe & Wise, Chris & Jeff Galvin, the Krankies.

Yes history is replete with great double acts and after watching our latest Caterer video of Leon co-founders John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby I believe I have witnessed another.

Yes, John and Henry were on fine form (note for the purpose of this gag I am excluding Leon's third founder Allegra McEvedy who was one of the hospitality few recognised in the recent Queen's Birthday Honours) at the latest Arena lunch at London's Landmark hotel on Monday (23 June).

Speaking to John in a follow up interview, I asked how he'd found taking the stage in front of an audience of industry peers. He said although nervous he'd written a script to get him and Henry through.

However, as with all good double-acts there always has to be a bit of one-upmanship, and the opportunity to stitch your partner up like a kipper must always be taken.

In this case it most certainly was when Henry apparently nicked the best bits from the prepared script and left Johh scrambling around - in his head - for something to say.

Well, what are business partners for after all?

No news yet on whether John is considering hiring the other Leon to do a bit of boardroom "cleaning" at the healthy fast food chain.

Chris and Jeff Galvin to sign deal in the City>>