Paul Heathcote to highlight misleading menus – For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

21 June 2010 by
Paul Heathcote to highlight misleading menus – For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

Paul Heathcote to highlight misleading menus
Read the full article in the Sunday Express >>](http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/181961/Restaurants-are-lying-on-their-menus)


Premier Inn bans vuvuzelas to protect customers sleep
Budget hotel chain Premier Inn has banned vuvuzelas - the noisy plastic horns that have become a notorious soundtrack to South Africa's hosting of the World Cup- to prevent their guests' sleep being disturbed. A spokeswoman for the Whitbread-owned chain said customers had been blowing the vuvuzelas in hotel bars on Friday night during England's match against Algeria. "At the Newcastle Central hotel last night fans were blowing the horns in the bar during the match and right outside the hotel as they left to go on to clubs and bars," she said. "They were causing such a racket the manager himself was kept awake." She added that, when 100 people packed into the Heathrow hotel to watch the game in the restaurant: "There were loads of people in and the manager could not ask the ones with vuvuzelas to stop playing because there was no policy but staff are emphatic they don't want people playing them any more." Guests who bring the horns into Premier Inn bars will be now be asked to return them to their rooms. - 20 June, [Read the full story in Scotland on Sunday >> ](http://http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Hotel-bans-vuvuzelas-over-sleep.6372977.jp)


Late-night bars to pay the cost of policing drunken disorder
Late-night bars and pubs that are open after 11pm may have to pay additional fees to help fund the soaring cost of tackling drink-fuelled disorder, which is claimed to be costing the country £13b a year in policing and health care. It is one of several proposals from the government in response to demands for action from police chiefs, who say that almost half of all violent assaults now involve alcohol. Bars and clubs wanting to extend their hours would be asked in license applications to prove that after-hours drinking would offer tangible benefits to the local community. The proposals would also give the police greater power to close down bars that attracted trouble. Other measures include doubling the penalty for serving alcohol to underage drinkers to £20,000, banning shops from selling alcohol below the combined cost of duty and VAT, and reviewing alcohol taxes and prices without penalizing responsible drinkers and pubs. Home secretary Theresa May is believed to be seeking to transfer responsibility for licences from DCMS to the Home Office as a law-and-order issue. - Read the full articles in the Observerand the [Sunday Telegraph ](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/7841660/Bars-with-24-hour-drinking-face-law-and-order-levy.html)>>


Qatari government interested in Savoy hotel and Grosvenor House

The Qatari government is being tipped to snap up London's Savoy hotel and Grosvenor House as the Gulf state - which already owns Harrods, the American embassy building and Chelsea Barracks in the capital - continues to strengthen its London portfolio as part of its commitment to invest in property across Europe. Its main property arm, Qatari Diar, is believed to be interested in buying a 33% stake in the Savoy, which is currently jointly owned by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal's Kingdom Holdings and HBOS. The Qatari government is also one of the last remaining bidders in the auction for Grosvenor House which was put on the market by RBoS. - 18 June, [Read the full article in the Daily Telegraph >> ](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/louise-armitstead/7836186/Qataris-in-talks-to-invest-in-Londons-Savoy-Hotel.html)

Loch Fyne Oysters to create boutique hotel and cook school

Loch Fyne Oysters is planning to have a boutique hotel built on at its Cairndown headquarters in Argyll to house amateur chefs attending a cook school it intends to set up within three years. Guests will learn how to prepare seafood and be given a tour of the company's oyster and mussel farms across the sea loch. "There aren't many places which currently offer specifically fish or seafood cookery lessons," explained Bruce Davidson, managing director of Loch Fyne Oysters. "People tend to be a bit scared of cooking fish. There's a strong demand for some education on how to cook and prepare it." Davidson is currently seeking a celebrity chef to lend his or her name and expertise to the cook school, which he hopes will attract "oyster tourists" to the area. The business was founded in the 1970s by Johnny Noble and passed into the hands of its employees when Noble died suddenly in 2003. It harvests 140 tonnes of mussels and 250,000 oysters a year, which are sold to celebrity chefs, up-market London restaurants and supermarket chain Waitrose. - 20 June, [Read the full article in Scotland on Sunday >> ](http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/scotland/Loch-Fyne-cook-school-plan.6372966.jp)


Public sector told to buy food produce to British standards

Caroline Spelman, the new secretary of state for Defra, the food and environment department, has launched a major initiative to ensure that all food served in the UK's hospitals, schools and prisons conform to British farming and manufacturing standards. She has already told Cabinet ministers their departments must source food that meets British standard, wherever it is bought - although she adds that this must be achieved "without increasing overall costs". This directive, aimed at providing healthy, sustainable and ethically-sourced food, will be rolled out to the entire public sector, which spends £2b a year on food. Defra insists it is not a "Buy British" campaign which would fall foul of EU regulations, but the quality requirements is likely to benefit British farmers who have been undercut by imports of cheaper food made to lower standards. The initiative, which only applies to foods that can be produced in the UK, which judge foods against established standards such as the Red Tractor mark, approved organic schemes, Quality Meat Scotland and the RSPCA's Freedom Food Scheme. - 20 June, [Read the full article in the Sunday Telegraph >>](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7840521/Buy-British-standard-food-Defra-head-tells-Cabinet.html)
By Angela Frewin

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