What you might have missed on The Caterer this week

Bring back the boozer

It seems the Young’s pub group has saved £6.1m by allowing its chefs to choose their own menus. Chief executive Simon Todd described how the group recognised that its pubs were working with menus that were either outsourced or dictated by head office. By putting some core pub grub on – burgers, fish and chips, sausage and mash – but letting its chefs choose the rest of the dishes, the group saved money by culling myriad suppliers and its chefs have the more pleasurable job of selecting ingredients from, say, a day boat in Brixham Harbour.

 

The move comes alongside an urge to take all its pubs back to more drink-led venues, stripping off the blue paint jobs from the wood-panelled bars and bringing back a sense of informality. As Todd says: “Pubs shouldn’t be places where you can’t go up to the bar and have a drink on a bar stool, but also have dinner or a Sunday lunch with your family. They’re formal and informal.”

 

Long-lasting legacy

 

Managing director Andrew Ovenstone has the unenviable job of keeping up the design and operational standards of Ken McCulloch, the late founder of the Dakota Hotels group. With three openings in the pipeline for the group, in Newcastle, Manchester Airport and York, there’s a strong brand ethos to replicate across all the sites. McCulloch was, Ovenstone says, “relentless, and if we can carry forward his attention to detail and his style, that would be fantastic”.

 

Each hotel has a ’fun element’ – another edict from McCulloch – such as a cigar terrace, and there is a firm focus on good food. It seems these strong foundations have created a durable brand and Ovenstone revealed that there are further plans for the group to expand into other cities in the UK.

 

Taste of home

 

Chinese takeaway favourite Singapore noodles do not exist in Singapore, according to Ellen Chew, founder of the Chew on This food group. Her restaurant, Singapulah on Shaftesbury Avenue in London, is a centre for authentic food imported from Singapore, cooked by chefs who recreate the dishes Chew grew up eating. The restaurant has been a runaway success, with the police called in at one point the manage the queues, something that Chew puts down to her carefully selected list of “true blue” Singaporean suppliers.

 

The restaurant itself combines a trip back in time for Singapore natives, with illustrations based on 1960s crockery patterns, with being a hotspot for new foodie experiences, such as the durian ice-cream – ordered to gain the bragging rights that it has been tried, even if not liked. 

 

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