Table talk
Butter wouldn't melt in his mouth
When Mike Fox of The Buck Inn, Thornton Watlass, north Yorkshire, got a bill for butter from supplier Booker Fitch of Tyneside, he found the price for a box had risen by £5.
He rang Booker to check whether a mistake had been made. No, the finger of blame was pointed at one Nick Leeson, wanted for crimes against financial institutions.
Who would have thought the collapse of Barings could have such far-flung consequences?
Talking of leeson…
His wife Lisa has taken the sensible option of starting a new career. She is reportedly working as a waitress in a Kent restaurant. If things work out for the better, maybe the couple will open their own restaurant. One cheeky Table Talk reporter suggests the name - Les Derivatives!
What, no regulations?
Michael Portillo, the employment secretary, caused a few puzzled looks when opening Whitbread's latest superpub at Beckton, east London, earlier this month.
The anti-regulation champion remarked that the UK is one of the few countries that does not deter employers through excessive regulation.
He must have forgotten about that legislation that forces pubs to shut by 11pm and prevents them employing anyone aged under 18.
At home with all night breakfasts
True to his offbeat humour, John Benson-Smith, executive chef at Manchester's Victoria & Albert hotel, named his new country home in rural Wigan The Nosh House.
Not long after moving in, he and his wife, Alison, were rudely awakened at 7am by a local farmer hammering on the door. He had noticed the name on the door and presumed it was the latest local eaterie.
Without hesitation, the two servants of the hospitality industry dutifully offered tea and toast to the farmer and explained the origins of their abode's unusual name.
Presumably, gross profits in the V&A hotel's kitchen vegetable section are suddenly doing surprisingly well.
A pressing date for Californians
"Tired of watching chefs cook your dinner in front of your eyes?" reads a recent newspaper report in California, referring to the state's preoccupation with open kitchens.
It then asks: "How about watching a 9ft-tall granite crusher go to work on some olives instead?"
Frantoio restaurant, which is due to open in San Francisco this September, comes complete with its own glass-enclosed olive oil production facility.
It will be hailed as the only place in the USA where diners can watch olive oil being made.
Table Talk has its doubts as to whether this will be a trend likely to catch on across the Atlantic.
Xenophobic, us? Never!
Ve day proved a boon to most in the hospitality industry but it didn't go entirely smoothly for everyone…
At Stapleford Park, Leicestershire, general manager Mark Scott was midway through inflating a Spitfire-shaped balloon when a party of German guests arrived. "They took it in good spirits," said a relieved Mr Scott.
Meanwhile, at the Savoy in London, some departing Russian guests emptied the contents of their mini-bars into their suitcases. One enterprising Russian even managed to raid his mini-bar twice by checking out then returning to his room to collect his suitcase after the fridge had been restocked.
