Kitchen Rat: comfort food for chancellors and baguettes at dawn

Burger it

Is it something about endlessly getting the wrong answer from an Excel spreadsheet that drives chancellors to comfort food? Probably.

Back in 2013, then chancellor George Osborne tweeted a picture of himself eating a Byron burger as he put the finishing touches to the Comprehensive Spending Review, and just last week Sajid Javid sought comfort in a Five Guys burger, delivered to his home hours after he quit Boris Johnson’s Cabinet. Perhaps they consider it the efficient and prudent way to sate one’s appetite.

At the other end of the scale, Andrea Leadsom consoled herself on losing the business secretary post with what The Daily Mail bellowed was a “CHAMPAGNE lunch” at the Goring. One of the advisors present responded on Twitter: “We also had FISH.”

Propose a toast

Leap-year proposals traditionally see women getting down on one knee, but who cares about tradition when there’s a free magnum of Taittinger Brut Reserve Champagne on offer?

Searcys at the Gherkin, apparently determined to take full advantage of a marketing opportunity that only comes round every four years, is offering the bottle to anyone of any gender who plucks up the courage to propose on 29 February. I wonder if my ratty partner fancies another turn down the aisle?

Baguettes at dawn

The Guardian’s restaurant critic, Grace Dent, was at the Global Restaurant Investment Forum in Amsterdam last week, divulging how she chooses which establishments to review. Dent explained that after going through lists of new openings and crossing off those that fail to excite, she has to battle her Observer colleague Jay Rayner to decide who will take the top pickings. However, far from drawing baguettes and staging a bread-based swordfight for the right to take a winding tour through the life of Tom Aikens, the pair go through an intermediary, ensuring everything remains civil. How dull.

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