In Brief
Steven Saunders launches outside catering company
TV chef Steven Saunders is to launch a new catering venture that will provide restaurant-quality food to private functions, ranging from small dinner parties to large catering events. The owner of Sheene Mill restaurant in Melbourn, Cambridgeshire, is undertaking the venture with the backing of business partner and managing director of King Catering, Richard King, who will personally oversee the management of each function.
Stone quits Bluebird for Aussie TV stardom
Curtis Stone, head chef of the Bluebird Club Restaurant, London, and former executive chef of Marco Pierre White's Quo Vadis restaurant, has secured a TV series on Australia's Channel 7. Stone will leave Bluebird at the end of December and is due to start filming next month.
A spokeswoman for Conran Restaurants' Bluebird said that although the filming is likely to last only four months and Stone is expected to return to the UK, the restaurant could not keep the post open for him. "It's great profiling for Curtis, and it's an incredible opportunity that he just couldn't turn down," she said.
Les Routiers winners
The organisers of the Les Routiers Awards have asked us to point out that the Griffin Inn in Fletching won the regional South & South-East England Hosts of the Year and not the national award as stated. The national award for Hosts of the Year was won by Alison and Christopher Davy of the Rose & Crown in Romaldkirk, County Durham, who also won the regional award for North-East England.
Functional food sales up
The UK's obsession with healthy lifestyles has seen sales of functional food and drink soar, according to a new report published last week.
The report, from Datamonitor, reveals that sales of functional foods, or foods that contain active ingredients that benefit specific health concerns, doubled between 1997 and 2002. On average, UK consumers now spend £110 a year on the category, and it is expected that by 2007 some five million consumers will buy functional food and drinks.
Datamonitor's Andrew Russell said consumers bought into products like energy drinks and energy bars because of concerns over diet. "Consumers increasingly see the link between food and health. Functional foods are filling an important part of our lifestyle, as we look to products enhanced with particular ingredients to get us through the day."
Arla plans job cuts
Newly merged dairy company Arla Foods, created from Arla and Express Dairies, has announced job losses and factory closures as part of restructuring plans to be revealed next year.
In the company's interim results to 30 September, pre-tax profits were down from £14m to £10.3m. Turnover also dropped 6.3% to £345.4m. The company blamed the poor results on interruptions to normal business while it waited for the decision on its merger.
Online farmers' market
A new online farmers' market has been launched in Devon offering organic products for delivery nationwide.
All products on the site, www.theorganicfarmersmarket.co.uk are certified organic, seasonally available and grown in the South-west. Customers' orders can be made up from several different virtual stalls, and then all delivered together.
