Table talk
Just give up and call her "McDonald's"
What's in a name? Quite a lot, according to chef Gordon Ramsay and his wife, Tana, who have just five days in which to end an amicable dispute and decide on a name for their baby daughter. The girl, their third daughter and fourth child, was born on 8 November (Gordon's birthday) and must have her name registered by 8 January. According to Tana, the baby is called Matilda Elizabeth. But Gordon has other ideas. He said: "I want her to be called Coriander. I cook for a living and I think it would be nice to name her after a food." Had Gordon been feeling more adventurous, who knows what name he might have fancied - maybe Turmeric, or Fenugreek, or perhaps even Galangal.
Sounds like the start of a fun evening to us
In the USA, a land where television viewers are bombarded on a daily basis with sordidly themed chat shows, it comes as some surprise to learn that British chef Nigella Lawson has been branded too saucy. The New York Times described her first appearance on US television as "gastroporn". It said: "Lawson's sexy roundness, mixed with her speed-demon technique, makes cooking dinner with Nigella look like the prelude to an orgy." We assume that they consider this to be a bad thing.
Jubilee, OK - but it could be tricky making it golden
Could the Queen's forthcoming Golden Jubilee celebrations prove as tarnished a business opportunity as the recent eclipse, or Millennium Eve, when people spurned over-priced hotels and put on their own entertainment? Scepticism seems to be growing at the Wren's hotel group. Plans by its Sir Christopher Wren's House hotel in Windsor, Berkshire, to hold a gala fˆte over the June holiday, including river events, have been sunk by the indifference of local traders to sponsoring it. Meanwhile, a £55-a-head gala dinner and four-day package at its Wyck Hill House hotel in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, has also met with little response.
Put itching powder down - that'll stop him
Reas Kondraschow, managing director of Ramada International, is a tough customer for housekeepers. His habitual test of the cleanliness of hotel bedrooms is what he calls the "white sock test". This is straightforward. It involves putting on a pair of white socks, walking around the room, and then checking to see if the socks are dirty. High standards indeed, but Table Talk wonders if he ever has to clean bedrooms himself.
Tell the truth? Outrageous! Is the man mad?
Meetings, the independent newsletter for the events industry, does not believe in mincing words. The leader in its latest issue ridicules the British Tourist Authority's effort to get British people to encourage their overseas friends and relatives to visit. It asks, incredulously: Supposing they come and "have a rotten time"? The newsletter's editor, Peter Cotterell, is evidently a plain-speaking chap and finds that Britain's faults are many and varied. They include, in no particular order, high prices, restaurant and hotel guides that are "funded by those they praise", fifth-rate street food, dangerous pavements, "millions of saddos" overusing their mobile phones, and appalling public transport. All in all, suggests Cotterell, would it not be better to "tell the truth about the place"? The truth? Now there's a revolutionary idea. Can't see the public relations people going for something as bizarre as that, though.
