Table Talk
Tough old bird chalks up a half-century
A Manchester couple celebrated 50 years of marriage by eating a tin of chicken they were given on their wedding day. Les and Beryl Lailey had kept the can, part of a wedding gift hamper, as a memento of their big day in 1956. Les vowed not to eat it until their golden wedding anniversary, so whenever they moved home, the Buxted chicken went with them. And when they finally reached the milestone, grandfather Les, 73, opened the tin - and found the chicken was as good as new. He said: "I had it with some potatoes and veg and it went down a treat. I knew it would be fine. I've not felt funny at all." Professor Eunice Taylor, a Salford University food safety expert, said: "It can last indefinitely if it has been sealed properly."
Now serving… tea and bums
Seamus Cohen, general manager at Malmaison Newcastle, has seen a few things in his time, but when 1,700 people stripped off outside his hotel for a nude photo shoot for American artist Spencer Tunick, he was speechless. Worse followed when many asked whether they might enjoy a coffee before the shoot in Café Mal, his new eaterie of which he is rather proud. "It was all croissants and bottoms, boobs and baguettes," Cohen recalls. Tunick's photographs are now showing at the Baltic Centre in Gateshead.
Will Paris add more trendy bars to her collection? Socialite Paris Hilton has cemented her party-girl persona with a 50% stake in one of London's hottest bars. The 24-year-old hotel heiress was given a share in swanky Kensington club The Collection - a favourite haunt of Prince William - as a gift from her parents, who hope the venture will develop her business skills. A source told the Daily Mirror: "This is just the start for Paris, and her family would like her to make more investments in London bars. She has the looks and personality to move their success into another arena as the bar industry is huge."
Assets and liabilities
This week's climax to the Caterer Group's Best Places to Work in Hospitality initiative showcases the industry's trailblazing employers. But for every trailblazer there are numerous laggards. Peter Russian, chief executive of Investors in People Scotland, highlighted the substandard recruitment practices at large in hospitality at last week's HIT Scotland Emerging Talent Conference in Edinburgh, and poured particular scorn on companies that boast that "people are our greatest asset", yet do nothing to invest in employees. To illustrate the lack of care sometimes taken by recruiters, a tongue-in-cheek Russian offered the following recruitment advice: "Avoid employing unlucky people - throw half the pile of CVs you receive in the bin without reading them."
