Table talk

Nessie shoot backfires

When a Los Angeles film crew arrived at Loch Ness to look for possible locations for scenes in a film they were making, they could not believe their luck when they were given free hotel rooms. The hotel gave them the rooms as encouragement for the huge lump of bookings it thought it would get when the shooting proper began. But when the film crew got back to the USA, they announced they had managed to do all the shooting they needed during the freebie.

Giggs all over the pitch

German tourists would have stood no chance of taking all the seats at a holiday camp swimming pool in Devon recently. The first towel belonged to a Gigg, as did the second and the third. In fact, all 81 towels belonged to members of the UK Gigg clan, who were at Braddicks holiday camp in Westward Ho! for their annual holiday. This year they were also joined by family members from the USA, Chile and Dubai.

Holidays from Hill

A temporary spell of unemployment doesn't appear to be causing chef Toby Hill any financial worries. Hill, who was made redundant from his post as executive head chef of London's Halcyon hotel a couple of months ago (Caterer, 29 June, page 4), was rather surprised when he got a call from a travel agent last week. Apparently, his ex-girlfriend of 12 years ago had tried to book a holiday with her new boyfriend, but the agent wouldn't accept her credit card. So she gave the agent Hill's phone number and told him to call him and take his credit card details because he would pay for the holiday. Asked whether he would, Hill said: "I'll wait until she gets hysterical and then, yes, I probably will."

When you wish upon a star

The owners of smart new London restaurant High Holborn are reluctant to characterise it as a restaurant in search of a Michelin star. But its 1,400-strong wine list is certainly Michelin material. On only its second night last week, the restaurant sold a bottle of Mouton-Rothschild '83. Price: £1,200. Customer: a member of the Saudi Arabian royal family. Result: a warm feeling for restaurateurs Shaun Wilson and Robbie O'Neill.

Dripping with disgust

Channel 4 launched its series Anatomy of Disgust with an episode that would have appalled many a restaurateur. Apparently, Silesian peasants living in the sewers of old Vienna used to earn a crust by scraping congealed fat from the sewer walls and selling it to restaurants. What a mouth-watering thought.

What's sauce for the goose…

Tasters who took part in the Chef pasta sauce test in Cardiff (Caterer, 27 July, page 54) have been receiving hate messages on their answering machines following their less-than-glowing words on some of the products. The anonymous caller has been spitting venom at the chefs, asking why their comments should count when they don't use any of the sauces. Has the caller forgotten that professional chefs are able to decide what is good or bad regardless of whether it appears on their menus?