The Editor's Hospitality Blog

Last Friday I witnessed the unlikely spectacle of Marco Pierre White and Sunday Times restaurant critic AA Gill comparing leg hair, and saw a member of the aristocracy dressed as a tramp - all courtesy of Hospitality Action.

White and Gill were joined by food columnist and son of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, Tom Parker Bowles at the shooting of the latest Hospitality Action awareness adverts. This ongoing series of adverts depicts top chefs suffering the sort of life-altering set-backs often experienced by beneficiaries of HA funding. Previous ads have portrayed Raymond Blanc being led by a guide dog, Heston Blumenthal living rough and Anton Edelmann languishing in a hospital bed.

Gill arrived on set first, sporting a stained and raggedy jacket and trouser combo that looked as if he had lost one of his review-lunches down the front of it. "I borrowed one of your suits, Marco", he claimed, when the Hell's Kitchen supremo appeared. Marco exemplified Oxford Street doorway-chic, his Robinson Crusoe-style trousers exposing his ankles and calves. After a few moments spent gauging who had the fuzziest legs, they slumped onto a park bench, vodka bottles in hand, singing "underneath the arches" and laughing like drains.

Only last week, Gill wrote in the Sunday Times: "I always book under a false name, but I never wear a disguise. Getting into a wig and a costume and talking in a funny voice to eat dinner is weird and way too self-obsessed – it’s the sort of thing they do in America." According to HA chief exec Penny Moore, he broke that rule last Friday, when he and Marco left the shoot to review a nearby restaurant in full down-and -out garb. Considering that he had sportingly given up a day of his life to support HA, I think we can forgive him ...

Tom Parker Bowles took longer to emerge from make-up than his fellow tramps. "It's hard to make an aristo look rough", quipped Marco.

Look out for the resulting adverts in future issues of Caterer and Hotelkeeper.

In a recent blog I reported on how Marco Pierre White, AA Gill and Tom Parker Bowles had linked up for a photoshoot in support of industry charity, Hospitality Action. this week's Mail on Sunday published the fruits of their labour.

The three agreed to pose together for the latest HA awareness advert. This ongoing series of adverts depicts top chefs suffering the sort of life-altering set-backs often experienced by beneficiaries of HA funding. Previous ads have portrayed Raymond Blanc being led by a guide dog, Heston Blumenthal living rough and Anton Edelmann languishing in a hospital bed.

Once they had finished the shoot, AA Gill and Marco went out to lunch at a restaurant Gill was reviewing for his Sunday Times column, still in full tramps' outift. In the column - which is well worth a read for a first-hand account of the day - Gill describes being "dressed up in a vomitous suit by Detritus and Garbage and a stinking, slimy shirt and dead man’s shoes. My face was distressed and my ankles blackened, and snot was rubbed into my hair."

It's been a busy week! I breakfasted with Jaume Tapies, chairman of Relais & Chateaux, last Friday, at the group's recently-opened 'maison' in London's Beauchamp Place. the property is effectively a shop window for the hundreds of luxury restaurants and hotels within the collection, offering passers-by a chance to browse marketing material and cookbooks, get a sense of the properties and book a stay.

Tapies tells me that Relais & Chateaux has been prospecting British hotels and has for the first time been "knocking on doors" at those hotels it feels would be worthy additions to the brand. He expects that at least ten or twelve more UK properties will feature in the collection in the next two to three years. He also promises that the 2009 guide will "change completely" from previous years' editions, with the generic page template replaced by a fresher and more design-led approach.

Monday of this week saw the start of three days of intensive Cateys judging at the splendid Dorchester Hotel on London's Park Lane. I now know the identies of the majority of Cateys winners for 2008 - but if I told you I'd then have to kill you, as they say, so I'm keeping shtumm. What I can tell you is that the winners were chosen by a bewildering array of hospitality's great and good. Judges included Brian Wisdom of People 1st, the IOH's Philippe Rossiter, Bob Cotton, Heston Blumenthal, Hotelier of the Year Michael Gray, Robert Cook of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin, Travelodge's Grant Hearn, William Baxter, Alaistair Storey, Marcus Wareing and a host of other big names.

Judging is an exacting - and exhausting - process. Luckily, I was able to recharge the batteries with a fortifying dinner at Restaurant Tom Aikens, above the King's Road. the occasion was the restaurant's fifth birthday, and Tom pulled out all the stops to create a stunning tasting menu that was complemented by great wines picked by head sommelier and 2008 UK Sommelier of the Year winner, Gearoid Devaney. Happy birthday, Tom.

One award not yet allocated is the Silver Award - and we need your help with this category. Which individual has, in your opinion, done more to further the cause of UK hospitality in the past 25 years? let us know and you could win yourself a pair of tickets to the industry 's Oscars night in July.

Three-Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal has been forced to close his Bray restaurant, the Fat Duck, following a food scare, according to Telegraph.co.uk.

The article stated that dozens of customers had reported feeling unwell after eating at the restaurant, however, initial tests conducted by environmental health officers as well as the restaurant's own food safety consultants have been negative.

Blumenthal closed the restaurant on Tuesday and reservations for have been cancelled.

It went on to say that no date has been set for the restaurant's reopening.

He told the Telegraph: "After 14 years of work, to come to the point where you have to close the restaurant is upsetting. The Fat Duck for me is very much a labour of love. The samples have all come back negative. It's very strange. We called in the environmental health officers and they said it could be a non-specific virus which is going around."

On Wednesday night, Blumenthal lead a brigade of Michelin-starred chefs who cooked alongside the students of South Downs College for a dinner in aid of The Ark. The dinner raised just under £20,000.

Our hearts go out to Heston Blumenthal, who last week was forced to close his beloved flagship restaurant, the Fat Duck, following a food scare.

Read Guide Girl for the latest developments....

His decision to close the restaurant before the environmental health officers even knew about the situation illustrates what many people already knew about him - that he is one of the most considerate chefs you could ever wish to meet.

Inevitably, this will have financial ramifications for him, but we hope this isn't something that is sustained - 2009 is going to be tough enough for many operators - and so it's good to know that he hopes to reopen later this week. 

Hats off to him for putting on such a brave face and for giving us a lesson in morality. Read Guide Girl for the latest developments....

Fat Duck unlikely to reopen this week>>

Three-Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal has joined forces with a team of scientists at Reading University to develop hospital food recipes.

According to the BBC, the host of Channel 4's Heston's Feasts series and owner of the Fat Duck in Bray is contributing to a project to improve nutrition on elderly care wards.

The Reading University team has been experimenting with introducing umami into British staples such as shepherd's pie to enhance the taste. The long-term aim of the project is to develop a series of recipes that revive older diners' palates. The project is also hoping to work towards combating malnutrition among the elderly. 

Dr Lisa Methven, lead researcher, told the BBC that older people suffering from a deterioration in taste don't get an extra taste bud, while they can be fitted with a hearing aid or a pair of glasses. "Our hope is that we can develop foods that older people can get more pleasure out of and enhance their nutritional status," she said.