Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 25034
eating to excess all in a good cause
THANKS to Julian Squire, divisional director at Gardner Merchant, it won't just be turkeys that are stuffed this Christmas.
Following a challenge from Mr Squire, GM quality and training manager Alison Tyler has spent the past week trying to eat 100 Christmas lunches at 100 different locations. By tomorrow's deadline she expects to have covered more than 500 miles using motorbikes, cars, lorries and a helicopter.
She is hoping to raise £10,000 for the Children's Hospice Appeal and the Orlando Fund, both charities for sick children.
a bit of a do in birmingham
SOMEBODY at Birmingham Training and Enterprise Council has obviously got in the festive spirit just a wee bit early.
I have just received a fascinating letter about the wonderful training initiatives for chefs the TEC is currently involved in. So wonderful, in fact, that two young chefs have just been promoted to "chefs to partie". Lucky chaps!
high-flyers to toast the new year
WHILE many of us are still deciding what to do to see in this New Year, Ivor Spencer, founder and president of the Guild of Professional Toastmasters, is planning to celebrate the new millenium by raising money for good causes.
Mr Spencer plans to lead a nation-wide, possibly Commonwealth-wide, toast to the Queen and claims he has extracted a promise from British Airways that it will give all passengers a free Champagne cocktail so they can join in the toast.
all aboard the gourmet express
THE privatisation of British Rail could bring sweeping changes to the catering on the East Coast line, where bosses have been working with restaurateurs Tom and Eugene McCoy to improve food in their dining cars.
The McCoys, who run McCoy's restaurant at the Tontine hotel in Staddlebridge, North Yorkshire, have been running experimental gourmet expresses on East Coast routes since the summer with, I am told, notable success.
If East Coast wins the forthcoming privatisation battle, the McCoys' ideas will be implemented full-time, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase fast food.
ladbroke boss is ready for anything
SIR Rocco Forte's "gone shooting" episode at the time Granada launched its hostile takeover bid was carefully noted by Ladbroke chief executive Peter George.
It seems that when Mr George flew to the USA last week in the face of mounting rumours of a possible bid from Bass he set off with a return ticket on Concorde in his pocket.
a winning formula at stapleford
THE ghost of Bob Payton will no doubt be smiling at the upturn in fortunes at Stapleford Park, his old Leicestershire country house hotel.
The current management team has boosted operating profits by 65% in the nine months to the end of September on a turnover up 17% to £1.5m.
vegetarian sales are beefing up
If the clientele at Manchester's Holiday Inn Crowne Plaza Midland Hotel are anything to go by, vegetarian catering is definitely on the increase.
It has been a record year for veggie meals at the 303-bedroom hotel, with nearly 15% of meals being meat-free. Requests for meals featuring red meat fell by about 10% - a figure that will no doubt fall even further if the BSE furore rumbles on.
