Restaurants waste 600,000 tons of food each year – For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

Restaurants waste 600,000 tons of food each year
Read the full article in The Independent on Sunday >>

UK Starbucks to trial location-based mobile phone marketing scheme
Starbucks is to be one of the first UK companies to trial a scheme that will transmit electronic discount vouchers to shoppers’ mobile phones as they pass stores that are offering deals. Offers can include 50p discounts on a take-out coffee from a Starbucks café or on the Via instant coffee it sells in supermarkets. The six-month UK trial is being run by the 02 mobile network and Californian firm Placecast, which is already using the technology in the US to promote stores and restaurant chains. The personalized ‘Ping’ or geographical marketing scheme is based on GPS satellite systems that track people’s location through their mobile phones and is activated when customers pass through a ‘geo force’ within a set distance of the restaurant. To counter privacy fears, phone customers must opt into the scheme, which has already signed up more than one million Britons. Placecast estimates that 65% of customers in its initial programmes made a purchase after receiving an electronic voucher. â€" 16 October
Read the full article in The Daily Mail >>

Pizza Express unveils new look, opening hours and menu
Pizza Express will this week unveil a new look, longer opening hours and a new daytime menu to boost sales by attracting more parents and children. The new design created by Ab Rogers, who revitalized Little Chef, will debut at its branch in Richmond, London. It includes booths topped by floating domes that allow diners to control their own music and lighting, striped tableware, red pepper grinders and blue glasses. The restaurant will open at 8.45am â€" more than two hours earlier than usual - to attract the breakfast and morning coffee crowd, and will serve snack food such as stuffed pitta breads, doughballs with Nutella and mini chocolate fudge cakes from a coffee counter during the day. If the first 10 revamped restaurants are successful, Pizza Express plans to extend the new format to between 30 and 40 refurbished restaurants and 20 new sites this year. The group, which has just regained control of its international business, will offer its overseas partners the chance to adopt the new look. â€" 17 October
Read the full article in The Sunday Telegraph >>

New jail menu rules spark outrage
New rules on prison food that give inmates a choice of at least five different dishes for dinner have sparked outrage among critics. The new regulations â€" which came into force in England and Wales on 1 October but were only published on Friday â€" also insist that prisoners must be consulted about the quality of the menus, which must be changed regularly to ensure the same options do not appear more than once a month. The daily menu must provide one hot and one cold meal, a vegetarian and a dairy-free option, and a halal dish to cover all the prisoners’ nutritional and cultural needs. Fiona McEvoy, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, complained: “While the law-abiding brace themselves for cuts in services, criminals are being fed better than patients, schoolchildren and the elderly in many cases.” â€" 16 October
Read the full article in The Daily Mail >>

Jamie Oliver wins Observer food personality award for third year Campaigning TV chef Jamie Oliver has been voted Food Personality of the Year for the third year running in the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2010. The awards, voted for by the magazine’s readers, gave the Lifetime Achievement accolade to Prue Leith and the Outstanding Achievement award to radio food presenter Sheila Dillon. Tom Kitchin’s Edinburgh restaurant, The Kitchen, scooped the best restaurant award while Steve Parle, owner and head chef of the underground Dock Kitchen in London’s Notting Hill, was named UK Young Chef of the Year. Other winners included the Hawksmoor steakhouse in London (for best Sunday lunch), Bristol’s Thali Café (best cheap eats) and Riverford Farm in Buckfastleigh, Devon (best ethical restaurant or café). â€" 17 October
Read the full article in The Observer >>

Fire destroys 250-year-old hotel in Linlithgow
A 250-year-old Scottish hotel has been destroyed by a blaze that closed the nearby railway station and disrupted train services between Edinburgh and Glasgow for several hours. The fire broke out in the laundry room of the Star and Garter hotel in Linlithgow around 7am on Friday and spread quickly, forcing the five guests to flee. Some 60 firefighters were needed to tackle the blaze, which built up and intensified in the thick walls of the historic hotel, blocking access to the second floor. The roof and part of the chimney collapsed in the blaze and the extensive damage is expected to keep the hotel out of commission for some time. The Star and Garter, which was built around 1759 and has a black and white Georgian facade, is a well-known local landmark. â€" 16 October
Read the full article in The Scotsman >>

TV presenter loses norovirus compensation claim against the Fat Duck
Oxford County Court has dismissed a compensation claim brought by TV sports presenter Jim Rosenthal against Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck restaurant. Rosenthal was demanding a refund for a £1,300 meal that poisoned him and his guests during the norovirus outbreak last year at the three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Bray, Berkshire. The case was thrown out after Blumenthal’s lawyer said compensation of £1,500 each, plus costs, had already been paid. A spokesman for the Fat Duck said Blumenthal had made a full apology and invited Rosenthal to return to the restaurant as his guest. â€" 17 October
Read the full article in The Mail on Sunday >>

Wetherspoon boss denies row sparked top-level departures
Wetherspoon founder and chairman Tim Martin had dismissed speculation of a boardroom row following the sudden departure of finance director Keith Down and chief operating officer Paul Harbottle, who have stepped down and will leave the pub chain this week. “There’s been no bust-up, no misconduct or wrongdoing,” said Martin, who added that he was constrained for legal reasons. “Boards evolve over time. We joined the stock market with 44 pubs and now have around 800. It would be unprecedented if there had been no changes.” City analysts, however, remained unconvinced. “They have not expressed confidence they would be able to pass VAT rises on,” said KBC Peel Hunt. “We believe the departures reflect a strategic disagreement about the use of cost savings to protect margins short term.” Deputy finance director Kirk Davis will replace Down on an interim basis, while chief executive John Hutson will assume Harbottle’s duties. â€" 15 October
Read the full article in The Daily Express >>

Â

By Angela Frewin

E-mail your comments to Caterer News here.

If you have something to say on this story or anything else join the debate at Table Talk - Caterer's new networking forum. Go to www.caterersearch.com/tabletalk

Caterersearch.com jobs
Looking for a new job? Find your next job here with Caterersearch.com jobs