Table talk
21st Century man - get yours now
Women who know what they want from their man will find Inter-Continental Hotels' "Prepare your man for the millennium" programme just the ticket, I am told.
The invitation to transform your partner is being offered this Valentine's Day at three of the group's hotels in London. Men will learn how to cook, arrange flowers, make beds and give a sensual back massage, while the ladies take it easy.
Later that night, your man's new-found talents will be displayed when the dinner he prepared is served in the suite.
Prices, from £2,000 a night, sound a bit steep for cooking your own supper, but at least a champagne breakfast is served to you both in bed the next day. Well, he'd need it after all that hard work.
Bum rap for his Lordship
Viscount Thurso, the clubbable head of Hertfordshire health resort Champneys, is enjoying plenty of exposure just now - in the literal sense.
Last week he featured in BBC2's Trouble At The Top, which included shots of him descending naked into a plunge pool. And only the day before, he appeared in the Daily Telegraph, stripped to the waist.
But he was kept in his place at the 1997 General Managers Conference when the Telegraph picture was blown up on a projector for the amusement of delegates. Lord Thurso rode out the embarrassment with his usual good humour.
Infantile delinquents
Conference delegates are behaving worse then ever, according to a recent poll by meetings agency Banks Sadler. Hoteliers, who have to clear up after their rowdy guests, believe that almost one in three events are marred by bad behaviour.
One of the biggest causes of loutish behaviour is apparently the increased percentage of young women delegates - which encourages the males to show off and behave foolishly.
Service? Isn't that something in tennis?
Talking of behaving badly, it seems that the quality service ethos has yet to find its way to the Dôme café in Lon-don's Kings Road. I recently went in and ordered a hot chocolate, but got a cappuccino instead. When I asked a member of staff to change it, she replied: "I'm not on my shift yet." And her colleague announced curtly: "I'm cleaning."
Architectural terrorist
Fledgling hotel group Hanover International looks set to cause a stir with the launch of its controversial £500,000 advertising campaign.
The group's posters feature a two-fingered "reverse Churchill" with the catchline: "Is this how your last hotel saw the back of you?"
"There is a very serious message behind it," claimed Hanover's chairman, Peter Eyles. "Our advertising is designed to cut a swathe, literally, through the elegant facades of the many hotels in this country who purport to give good service - but do not."
Literally, Mr Eyles?
A city full of Worrall wannabes
Despite the ups and downs of Antony Worrall Thompson's career of late, it seems at least Oxford's young chefs want to be just like him.
The City of Oxford Guild of Chefs' junior section recently held its very own Ready, Steady, Cook competition, inspired by the TV programme on which Mr Worrall Thompson often appears.
Stuart McGowan, sous chef at Holywell Manor, part of Balliol College, organised the event to inspire the city's young chefs. What next, I wonder, a catering version of Stars in their Eyes?
