The Editor's Hospitality Blog

The world's richest truffle enthusiasts gathered in restaurants in London, Florence and Macau today, for a video link-in to the International Tuscan Truffle Auction. Here in London, the event took place at Reffetorio, Giorgio Locatelli's restaurant in Blackfriars.

The auction, which was reported tonight on the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog
saw one 1.5kg monster truffle sell for a record $330,000. If the successful bidder is reading this post and wondering what to do with this most perishable of investments, they could do far worse than to check out the Caterersearch recipes database for inspiration.

Those nice people at Walkers are giving fans of their crisps the chance to suggest new flavour combinations for their development kitchens to experiment with. Pigeon and garlic nibbles, anyone?

At the Guardian's blog, Word of Mouth, the lobbying has begun for a Great British Breakfast flavour. personally, I'd welcome the arrival of a snack with the crunch and bite of a kettle chip, the heady perfume of a freshly-opened bag of cheesy Doritos and the lip-smacking mule-kick of a Flamin' Hot Monster Munch.

As I write, the top five most suggested flavours on the Walkers website are bacon and egg, blue cheese, escargot, pigeon and garlic and tea and buiscuits. All these sound well and good, but I'm sure the massed ranks of visitors to Caterersearch can do far better.

So, what flavour combination would you like to see Walkers introduce? And can you suggest signature crisp flavours for the like of Heston and Gordon?

While Michelin has delivered a record number of stars to its British and Irish constituency - a total of 137 starred restaurants - the mood across the country is that the Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland 2009 results give credence to the view that Michelin is biased towards French chefs and French cuisine.

Of the four new two-Michelin-starred restaurants in Britain , only one, Martin Burge at Whatley Manor in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, is British, while the other three restaurants, Claude Bosi's Hibiscus, Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester and L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, all in London, are all run by French chefs.