Table talk
Consumer education fails the test
There's a new disease facing the meat supply industry, or so it seems. During a recent poll of consumers carried out by British Meat, researchers asked how important it was to know the country of origin when buying meat. One interviewee replied: "It's very important to know where meat comes from, with lots of diseases going around - and you know we had that BSM." Driving instructors beware.
A few tasty mortals
In the depths of our hot, sweaty kitchens lurk some of the most eligible male totty, according to New Woman magazine. Thumbing through a feature listing 100 of Britain's best bachelor dates, we stumbled on two stars of the stoves: Jun Tanaka, head chef of the QC restaurant at the Renaissance London Chancery Court hotel, and Jean-Christophe Novelli, directeur des cuisines at Brocket Hall.
Oiling the wheels of progress
From January, Asda supermarkets' trucks will carry the slogan: "This vehicle is powered by chicken fat." The supermarket chain has found a way of using cooking oil to power its fleet of cars and lorries. Disposing of millions of litres of used oil and frying-pan fat from its canteens and restaurants had been a real headache; then it heard that by cleaning the waste oil and mixing it with methanol a cheaper alternative to diesel could be produced. Ironically, in an unconnected development, hundreds of drivers in South Wales were found to be running their cars on "moonshine" - supermarket extra-value cooking oil mixed with methanol - to avoid paying tax.
… and a gottle of geer for my partner
Vasco & Piero's Pavilion restaurant in London has received an unusual booking request. Sterling Huck of Nashville, Tennessee, writes: "I am a semi-professional ventriloquist and always travel everywhere with my partner, Little Sir Pitney. With talk of the London trip, he has worked himself into a froth of excitement, practising expressions like ‘Ello guv'nor' and ‘Cor blimey, I'm knackered.' Would it be all right if I dined with Little Sir Pitney at your restaurant? He's very well behaved, though I admit he does have a roving eye and has been slapped once or twice for his off-colour comments about the female anatomy. I'll need a high chair for him, preferably one with a restraining seat belt." Any advice welcomed.
EU makes spiced mixed fruit of our traditions
Those pesky bureaucrats in Brussels want to ban the names of traditional British foods such as lemon curd and mincemeat because they're afraid foreigners will think they refer to dairy or red meat products. Andrew Wild, owner of Farmhouse Preserves, which supplies the Ritz hotel in London, pointed out that Europeans do not eat these products, so there is little risk of them being misled. If the directive is passed, mincemeat may become "spiced mixed fruit" and lemon curd "lemon preserve". A Christmas spiced mixed fruit pie just doesn't have the same ring, does it?
Welcome to the reel world
Anthony Levin, the new GM at the Carlton Mitre hotel in Hampton Court, Surrey, was "literally blown away", the hotel tells us, during his first week at work. And it wasn't our recent gale-force winds. Nearly 100 pipers descended on the hotel from all over the world to compete in the annual Bratach Gorm bagpipe competition.
