Table Talk
They didn't know their arias from their elbows A few snippets of gossip have filtered down from our very own star-studded awards bash, the Cateys. Entertainment on the night included renditions from Nicola Benedetti, the beautiful Young Musician of the Year 2004. One of the middle-aged men left panting over the lithe teenage violinist appears to have been Robin Hutson, former owner of Hotel du Vin, whose wife remarked: "I never knew you were so interested in classical music." And, it seems superchef Rick Stein is a bit of a party animal. He moved on to the trendy Embassy Club in Mayfair and was still going strong at 2am. For more hospitality gossip, check out the kitchen rat blog at www.bizbuzzmedia.com.
One reviewer's lamb is another reviewer's poison
Inverness restaurant Chez Christophe has provoked schizophrenic coverage at the Herald. The Saturday edition of the Glasgow paper awarded the new restaurant's food a generous eight out of 10, but the Sunday edition gave the same restaurant a miserly four. Embarrassingly for the Herald, the two reviewers managed to eat and disagree on the same dish. On Saturday Ron MacKenna wrote: "The lamb turned out to be the best dish of the evening, the fat is crisp and juicy, the meat tender and well-flavoured." The next day Joanna Blytham begged to differ: "Roasted canon of Scottish lamb was an ugly piece of meat. The meat itself was served Arctic Roll style, inside a thick layer of browned, but otherwise unrendered fat that was more or less inedible." Can a restaurant really be this inconsistent or is there just no accounting for tastes?
Now there's a fleming coincidence…
Staff at Glasgow's Buttery restaurant were left shaken but not stirred recently when a booking enquiry was received for a party of 14 from none other than Sir Sean Connery. Could Sir Sean have been attracted by the fact that the Buttery's owner bears the same name as Bond author Ian Fleming? Intriguingly, sister hotel the Lake of Menteith boasts front-of-house manager Mrs Bond and an executive chef also called Ian Fleming. What would Blofeld make of it all?
