Table talk
One more reason for wanting a Lamborghini
TV viewers will watch Gary Rhodes waxing lyrical about his latest culinary creation with a sense of queasy unease after the spiketastically gifted chef's shocking revelation at last week's Gordon Ramsay Scholar competition. Rhodes told how, on a recent visit to a sports car enthusiasts' club, Gary and his son met up with retired Formula One driver Damon Hill, who offered to fire up a Lamborghini. "Do you want Damon to turn on the engine, son?" Gary asked. "Yes, dad," his son replied. Hill offered to rev the engine. "Do you want Damon to rev the engine, son?" Gary asked. "Yes, dad," he replied. But when Hill revved the car, a strange look crossed Rhodes junior's face. "What's the matter, son?" asked Gary. "My willy feels funny," came the answer. And what's that got to do with cooking? Apparently, that's the feeling Gary gets when he creates a new dish. So now we know why he looks so transported on the telly.
Who needs a Rolex when you've got Concorde?
Staff at the Hell Bay Hotel on Bryher Island, on the Isles of Scilly may have to invest in watches now that supersonic alarm clock Concorde has made its last flight. Every day for the past 25 years, Concorde's fly-by at 10am signalled time for the staff's early-morning meeting. Bryher was the last point in the UK that Concorde flew over before the 3,000-mile journey to New York. Staff recently gathered to toast the plane's final flight at a peninsula named, wait for it, Droppy Nose Point.
Of course, Devon is famous for beetroot soup
Football club Arsenal's caterer, Letheby & Christopher, has been preparing for imminent visits from Locomotiv Moscow and Dynamo Kiev. They could have called the Russian chairman of Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, for a few culinary tips on how to make the teams' directors and entourage feel at home. But instead they got in touch with a restaurant nearly 200 miles away - the Red Square in Exeter. Phil Sowton, who runs it with his Russian wife, said: "The call came out of the blue. They asked us to send a menu and suggest some traditional dishes and I was only too happy to help, even though I'm a Crystal Palace fan. They did not ask me to supply any food. I suppose it would have been a bit cold by the time I had driven it from Exeter to Highbury."
In any case, 30 minutes is never long enough…
It's unlikely that when Grant Hearn left Hilton to run Travelodge he envisaged working for an organisation that rents rooms by the half-hour. But that is precisely what he is doing. The budget chain is offering rooms for 30-minute slots at £5 a go.
The deal is apparently for tired drivers to have a quickie - a quick nap that is - and a strong coffee. Sounds more like the perfect opportunity for a brief steamy tryst, but, sadly the spoilsports at Travelodge have restricted the deal to one person per room.
