Hospitality quiz 2009 – Question Time

28 December 2009 by
Hospitality quiz 2009 – Question Time

Think you've paid attention these past 12 months? Think you're up to speed with what's been happening in the world of hospitality? Think again. Tom Vaughan serves up 25 humdingers to test how well you really know the highs, lows and outrageous tales of 2009.

CELEBRITY CHEFS

1) Marco Pierre White had a rather damp attempt at reigniting his long-running feud with Gordon Ramsay in February by saying what of his former protégé?
A) "I honestly believe if Gordon was made of chocolate he would eat himself"
B) "I honestly believe if Gordon was made of lollipops he would suck himself"
C) "I honestly believe if Gordon was a chocolate bar he'd be a fruit and nut"
D) "I honestly believe if Gordon was a lollipop he'd be a dum dum pop"

2) What did a spokesperson for Gordon Ramsay say when confronted with the story that the former footballer had the creases on his face filled in with surgery, 10 months before the celebrity chef admitted to the surgery himself.
A)
"Gordon would be the first person to mercilessly take the piss out of anyone that has had surgery"
B) "His mother says they are smile lines. He has a lot of them because he's so light-hearted"
C) "Filling them in would be like filling in the Grand Canyon - a lot of work and daydreaming housewives would complain"
D) "He can't have had them filled in - where would Janet Street Porter sleep?"

3) After brawling with two policemen when pulled over for drink-driving in October, celebrity chef John Burton Race put the cherry atop his dignity pie by asking for what in court?
A)
A video of the fight to improve his technique
B) To pay his £1,430 fine in instalments
C) A double vodka and coke
D) A lift home

4) Ahead of his Channel 4 show Jamie's American Roadtrip, Jamie Oliver made what claim about his heritage?
A)
His family were once Kings of Essex
B) He is sixth generation Sudanese
C) His great grandfather was a celebrity chef in a travelling Suffolk carnival
D) He is a cyborg creation of Channel 4 and his only heritage is a mark one reject robot sold to the BBC called Ainsley Harriott

5) To honour the sad death of TV chef Keith Floyd earlier this year, Hix Oyster and Fish House in Lyme Regis - the location of Floyd's last meal before passing away - commemorated the popular chef by putting Keith Floyd's Last Lunch on its menu the following day. If you were adhering to it strictly, what would it consist of?
A) Potted shrimp, partridge, perry jelly, glass of white Burgundy, cigarettes
B) Oysters, potted shrimp, partridge, perry jelly, glass of white Burgundy, cigarettes
C) Champagne cocktail, oysters, potted shrimp, partridge, perry jelly, glass of white Burgundy, cigarettes
D) Champagne cocktail, oysters, potted shrimp, partridge, perry jelly, glass of white Burgundy, two glasses of Cotes du Rhône, cigarettes

6) What cliché did white-haired, Olympic breakfast-loving chief executive of Little Chef Ian Pegler repeat over and over again, like some corporate jargon mantra, when trying to explain what he wanted from Heston Blumenthal, as the Fat Duck chef helped relaunch Little Chef for a Channel 4 series in January?
A)
Out of the box thinking
B) Blue sky thinking
C) Firework thinking
D) Unthinking

RESTAURANTS


7) On April Fool's Day, property agent Davis Coffer Lyons "announced" that it had been instructed to roll out 1,000 new sites for what slightly left field concept?

A)
A new edible insect group called "Love Bug"?
B) A soup kitchen run by tramps called "Hobos"
C) A chain of mashed potato-themed restaurants by former boxer Barry McGuigan called "Fluff"
D) A chain of low-price, mid-quality Italian bistros, name unconfirmed

8) Which of these celebrities hasn't been linked with a restaurant opening over the past year?
A)
Victoria Beckham
B) Jade Goody's widower Jack Tweed
C) Heather Mills
D) Peter Andre

9) After dozens of diners reported feeling sick after visiting Heston Blumenthal's restaurant the Fat Duck earlier in the year, The Sun newspaper ran which sympathetic and tasteful opening paragraph as its coverage of the story?
A)
Telly chef Heston Blumenthal's famous Fat Duck restaurant has been forced to close after dozens of customers got the RUNS.
B) Telly chef Heston Blumenthal's famous Fat Duck restaurant has been forced to close after dozens of customers VOMIT.
C) Telly chef Heston Blumenthal's famous Fat Duck restaurant has been forced to close after HUMAN FAECES were found in an oyster.
D) Telly chef Heston Blumenthal accidentally serves OYSTER AND FAECES starter at his famous Fat Duck restaurant.

10) When Gallic London restaurant Le Bouchon Breton employed the superbly-named Jean Claude Ali Cherif to look after its large cheese selection earlier in the year, what newly-coined title did it bestow on him? A) Fromanager
B) Frommelier
C) Chees'assister
D) Maitre'brie

11) If Michelin handed out new stars to 32 restaurants in Italy, 24 in Germany and Spain and 12 in Holland in 2009, how many restaurants were recognised in the UK?
A)
10
B) 20
C) 30
D) 40

12) When Yasmina Siadatan, owner of Mya Lacarte restaurant in Caversham, Reading, won Alan Sugar's BBC1 programme The Apprentice, what hospitality related task secured her victory in the final? A) Opening a London-wide room service company
B) Opening a fast-food stall in Covent Garden
C) Creating and marketing a new variety of chocolates
D) Efficiently de-greasing a salamander

13) Still with his finger on the pulse of what London diners want, Sir Terence Conran returned, a year after selling his stake in D&D London - formerly Conran Holdings - with two well-received restaurants, Boundary and Lutyens. Very impressive for a man of what age?
A)
65
B) 68
C) 72
D) 78


HOTELS


14) Wonky-toothed housewives's favourite and Boyzone frontman Ronan Keating made what preposterous claim about UK hotels earlier in the year?

A)
That half the hotels in London had banned Boyzone for trashing their rooms, and that he and Keith Duffy would drink all night then pick fights with staff
B) He often got free hotel accommodation in the 1990s on account of his good looks, but the ravages of time mean he now gets "a free bus ride" at best
C) That he has a vast collection of Gideon bibles stolen from 500 UK hotels, which he has used to build a miniature igloo in his back garden for his kids to play in
D) That he is owed a thank-you from the hotel sector for inventing the term "staycation" during an improvised Osmonds cover song performed live in Cardiff in 1995

15) Which hotel group was named the official hotel services provider for the 2012 Olympics, to proudly sit alongside official branded food outlet McDonald's?
A)
Travelodge
B) Holiday Inn
C) Hilton
D) Best Western

16) Which of the following wasn't a genuine request from a list of the strangest to have been received from guests at the Great Hotels of the World group? A) Whether staff at one particular coastal hotel could turn down the noise of crashing waves outside an irritated guest's room
B) Whether a guest could keep his door open while he slept because he was feeling claustrophobic - and have security guards stationed outside his room
C) If the hotel in question could source enough milk for the guest to bathe in. And not any old milk - only milk from glass bottles
D) Whether staff could provide a monkey to keep the guest's children entertained for an afternoon

17) After being postponed from a 2009 opening to a possible April 2010 one, who can remember when the Savoy first closed for its £100m refurbishment?
A)
December 2006
B) July 2007
C) December 2007
D) July 2008

18) During the second quarter of the year, as the recession peaked, how many hotel companies were going bankrupt?
A)
One a day
B) One every two days
C) One every week
D) One every fortnight

19) Government-backed company Dubai World is hoping to avoid one of the biggest debt defaults in financial history with the success of its newly opened luxury hotel Vdara in Las Vegas. What makes the hotel so controversial?
A)
You can't smoke
B) You can't gamble
C) It costs £1,200 a night
D) All of the above

CONTRACT CATERING


20) Which word did contract caterers Artizian ditch from job description roles because of the bad connotations associated with the word during 2009?

A)
City
B) Corporate
C) Money
D) Minister

21) Which smelly, angry and hairy collective trapped Lexington Caterers in their City offices earlier in the year?
A)
A sizeable troop of baboons escaped from London Zoo
B) Pun-loving Northern razor-phobes the Hairy Bikers after contract talks at the Beeb stalled
C) Former Lehman Brother employees back from their last-minute ski seasons and still angry at their treatment in the hands of the corporate world
D) G20 protestors

22) In September, BaxterStorey - amazingly - became the first contract catering company in the UK to do what?
A)
Source all its meat from the UK
B) Only sell sustainable fish
C) Cater for fruitarians - people who will eat only what falls, or would fall, naturally from a plant
D) Release a 12-track LP

23) Research undertaken exclusively for Caterersearch.com found that which factor most influences schoolchildren in their uptake of school food?
A)
Value
B) Taste
C) Celebrity endorsements
D) Chips to salad ratio

24) Colin Prentice, support services manager for Compass Group-owned Eurest Services at Stormont, admitted to Caterer's Minute on the Clock that he almost set back the Northern Ireland peace process by doing what in the Northern Ireland Assembly's building a few year's back?
A)
Realising he'd inadvertently employed only Catholics to work for the Eurest services in the building
B) Putting a garland of lilies - a symbol for nationalists of the Easter Rising - up in the building as part of the day-to-day service
C) Putting up fruit-led "five a day campaign" posters emblazoned with the slogan "Go Orange!"
D) Playing The Billy Boys on his flute without realising the loyalist connotations

TIE BREAKER/BONUS QUESTION
25) As of 1 January 2010, how many days do we have until the 2012 Olympics are officially over?

ANSWERS
1)=A, 2)=A, 3)=B, 4)=B, 5)=D, 6)=B, 7)=A, 8)=D - Peter Andre is rumoured to be writing a cookbook, 9)=A, 10)=B, 11)=C, 12)=C, 13)=D, 14)=A, 15=)B, 16)=D, 17)=C, 18)=B, 19)=D, 20)=D, 21)=D, 22)=A, 23)=A, 24)=B, 25)=955

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking