The Editor's Hospitality Blog

I recently read Tim O'Reilly's post on the fact that the San Francisco Chronicle was in trouble (this is the man credited with coming up with Web 2.0) and it made me think long and hard about the organisation that owns Caterer and Caterersearch.

I have to admit there is a constant debate here about whether traditional media, such as print will be around in say 10 years time. Well for what its worth I still think there is plenty of room for print, but publishers are changing fast and our publisher, Reed Business Information is investing heavily in online - one of the latest pieces of investment has been to give Caterersearch a makeover, which will be unveiled any day soon (see a sneak homepage preview in the picture).

I met pioneering restaurant critic Egon Ronay last week, who was typically full of opinions on what British chefs and restaurateurs are doing well and not so well.

Egon told me one story, in particular, that demonstrated the way the quality of service has improved in foodservice since he came to the UK from Hungary shortly after the Second World War.

Arriving at London's Victoria Station in need of something hot and wet, he made for a buffet on the concourse and ordered a cuppa. When his tea arrived, Egon asked (impeccably politely, no doubt) for sugar, and was pointed towards a table across the room. There was the sugar bowl - but where were the spoons? The server pointed again, and this time Egon noticed a single, wet spoon, tied to a piece of string and swinging over the table ...

Imagine the money Starbucks and their high street competitors could save on wooden stirrers, if they opted for the spoon-on-a-string option.