Table Talk
Broccoli whip… With a chocolate flake, please A range of vegetable ice-creams has been developed by Gordon Ramsay's wife Tana. Her "ice-greens" come in the unusual flavours of broccoli, carrot, lettuce, pea, tomato and yellow pepper. She has blended the vegetables with flavourings and cheeses, including mascarpone and ricotta. The mother-of-four hopes her foray into food will tempt children with fussy eating habits. She said: "Child obesity is a huge problem. One way to counter this is to makevegetables more attractive to kids."
To Victor, the spoiler, why the big u-turn?
Victor Lewis-Smith, TV critic at London's Evening Standard, really has it in for Rick Stein. Under the headline "Very hard to stomach," the dreadlock-sporting hack gave Rick Stein's French Odyssey a real roasting. He called Stein "sickeningly self-effacing" and "nauseating", and laid into his habit of "heaping exaggerated praise on every dish he encountered". He also believed Stein was "getting lazier with each passing series, and is as fake as a nine-bob note". Can this be the same Victor Lewis-Smith who described Stein's Taste of the Sea as "a first-class series, intelligently constructed by its producers and introducing us to a thoroughly natural and engaging performer"?
Has fawlty towers moved to blackpool? Life behind the scenes of a struggling Blackpool hotel is revealed tonight (8 September) in Hotel On Sea, a new BBC1 comedy documentary series. Viewers will meet the President hotel's "shambolic but loveable staff" as they attempt to dust down, shake up and put the seafront hotel back on its feet. The series kicks off with manager Mrs Walsh and her canine companion Biggles making a ruthless inspection of the premises.
Candy bar wins the (GAY) day over striptease
The Candy Bar, Soho's only venue exclusively for gay women, was celebrating last week after its application to allow striptease was granted. This was contrary to Westminster City Council's policy, but the committee accepted that there were exceptional circumstances, namely that the premises were very well run and unique. It's the only venue for gay women in the country that has been granted a striptease licence.
For more hospitality gossip, check out the kitchen rat blog at www.bizbuzzmedia.com
