table talk
But I thought we ordered the low-fat menu option…
Picture this. You're catering for a VIP party on a private yacht meandering down the Thames on a glorious summer's day. The well-groomed guests glow with good health as the Champagne flows and they enjoy your exquisite canapés.
All of a sudden, a nearby sewage outlet expels a huge chunk of congealed fat and vile gobs of grease rain down on you and your guests. Could this happen? Thames Water assures us it's no urban myth that huge blocks of cooking fat are causing serious problems in our sewers.
The water provider has teamed up with Dartford MP Dr Howard Stoate to highlight how fat blockages can cause sewage to flood homes, gardens, rivers and streams.
Five-star thrones fit for royalty
Moto has the cleanest toilets on Britain's motorways, according to the organisers of Loo of the Year competition. Judges paid secret visits to the loos at motorway service areas up and down the country.
More than 20 of the Compass-owned Moto sites carried off five-star awards and a further 22 were given four-star awards at a presentation in Birmingham last month. Operation director Brian Lotts said his staff had done a "magnificent job".
Avocados have feelings too, you know
A chef who cut his finger while tackling an avocado is attempting to sue his former employer for £25,000 because no one warned him about the danger.
Michael McCarthy, 21, sliced into his finger when the unripened avocado he was trying to cut slipped and he lost control of his knife. He claims he had been shown how to cut the fruit, but hadn't been told the fruit might not be ripe. McCarthy also claims the 10in knife he was using was the wrong one for the task.
The accident happened in the summer of 2000 at the Dalmunzie hotel in Spittal of Glenshee, Perthshire. The chef, who was off work for more than two months after the accident, needed surgery and claims the injury prevented him from joining the RAF as a chef.
Hospitality website offers a blast from the past
Following the success of the Friends Reunited website, hospitality has launched its own. Have you ever wondered what happened to those industry friends and contacts you lost touch with? Restaurant & Bar, the hospitality exhibition at Manchester's G-Mex Centre from 5 to 7 April, is now giving you the opportunity to find out.
Visit www.restaurantandbar.co.uk register on the reunited section, and your details will be posted on a message board. Responses from long-lost colleagues will then be e-mailed back to you, enabling you to meet up while visiting the show.
Aaargh! Guess who's coming to dinner?
Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher has emerged as most people's idea of the dinner party guest from hell, according to a poll conducted by the maker of Famous Grouse whisky. Other dreaded guests included Anne Robinson, "my mother-in-law", and the taxman.
The UK-wide poll found that Robbie Williams, Billy Connolly and Rugby World Cup golden boy Jonny Wilkinson were the top three most welcome dinner party guests.
