Table talk

l Cooking up a foreign affair?

l Has it had any royal guests recently?

One of the more unlikely names for new hotels that opened at the end of 1998 was the Herods Sheraton Resort Eilat in Israel. Quite why the name of the biblical villain was picked is unclear, but the hotel promises rather sinister-sounding events including "special ceremonies and activities celebrating the legends of the past". Presumably the "ceremonies" will not include slaughtering all children who stay there.

l Another mystery dissolved

Jargon watchers will be amused by what contract caterer Aramark is calling the division which supplies tea, coffee and other drinks. It is, a press release tells us, a "beverage solutions company".

l Service with a snarl

On a recent visit to Germany, I was pleased to note that the decidedly un-German notion of customer service in restaurants seems to be gaining a foothold. The Ochs'n Willi eaterie in Stuttgart, for example, combines traditionally huge portions of pig knuckle or roasted ox with friendly waiters and waitresses and even a customer comment card boasting: "We never think we're too good to improve ourselves". Somewhat better than the service at most of the other restaurants visited, where questions as to what food or drink I required were still delivered with a brusqueness and insistence that would have been more suited to an interrogation at Colditz. One surly waitress even finished with the line: "Have a nice evening. I won't."

l Yodelling club's weekend away?

One of the most considerate guests of 1998 must be the man who booked three rooms at the Marcliffe at Pitfodels hotel in Aberdeenshire. He wanted the rooms on either side of his own to be empty, so that nobody would be disturbed by the noises he and his partner made in the middle room.

l Look, gran! Lesser-spotted boobies

Hooters, the US chain which shamelessly employs nubile young waitresses dressed in skimpy tops and orange shorts to bring a smile to the faces of its diners, seems to have had a few problems with its new openings. According to a recent feature in The Times, some locals in Newport News, Virginia, thought the name had something to do with owls. Several grandmothers took children along on the first day, believing it was a nature-based theme restaurant.

l If you can't seethe heat…

Caterer is used to getting odd requests for help and information, but one recent call has us stumped. A chef who has recently taken to wearing glasses in the kitchen asked if we knew how to stop his lenses from steaming up all the time. Any suggestions from bespectacled chefs?