Food News And Food Nudes

One link that I've had on my blog virtually since I started up is to the food website CatererSearch. This excellent website is effectively the on-line arm of the UK-based Caterer Group, best known for its magazine "Caterer and Hotelkeeper", now in its 128th year of publication (over half the time the US has existed as an independent nation)! Caterer Group is part of Reed Elsevier, one of the world's largest media corporations. CatererSearch provides tons of UK-focused but globally-aware hospitality info - structured into a job search section, a news section with a 37,000+ article archive, a directory of 9,000+ suppliers, profiles of leading figures and companies in the industry, analysis and reports, a property database, over 1,000 professional recipes, health & safety advice and a directory of the best places to work in hospitality. You can see from this brief résumé why I subscribe to CatererSearch and have browsed it on a regular basis for the past few years.

The point of this posting, however, is not to promote CatererSearch - which can market itself very successfully without help from me - but to give you just a flavour of some recent news items. There's always something here to amuse you or raise your hackles, and sometimes both at the same time!

Domino's Pizza to be free from hydrogenated fats. Yet another small but significant sign that the fast-food industry is [taking the initiative]/[being forced into] addressing the problems of food content and obesity.

Jean Christophe Novelli teams up with Findus to create ready meals. Just when you were starting to feel a bit better about the fast food industry you read the publicity blurb surrounding this jaw-dropping news item ("it is a pleasure working with people who share my high standards in food preparation and presentation") and you wonder if it's all a spoof...

Robert De Niro's New York restaurant owes staff £166K in overtime. Now here I draw the line. Robert de Niro has been a hero of mine since my parents considered I was old enough to start watching his films. Over the years I've seen Mean Streets, Godfather II, Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Once Upon a Time in America, The Untouchables, Goodfellas, Cape Fear, Casino, Heat, Ronin and one or two that I've forgotten. Full-sized posters of Goodfellas, Raging Bull and Taxi Driver hang in my living room. This man can do no wrong! Except, apparently, fail to pay his staff the proper overtime rate at Nobu New York.

Naked chefs pose for charity calendar. Well, pleasant relief after the last two news items. Not for me, you understand. I have no interest whatsoever in ogling naked bodies in hot steamy kitchens, well not male ones anyway. Try this for starters - "Chef Ian Hewitt from 'Bistro on the Beach' in Bournemouth posed with just a life ring and a bunch of asparagus to keep his dignity". Eat your heart out, "Naked Chef" Jamie Oliver (or perhaps nibble your own asparagus)!

Well the naked chef thing seems to have caught on alright. This photo from BBC Derby was the result of Chesterfield College setting its catering students the following challenge: "Students, your task is to come up with an imaginative way of promoting the college's @SPIRE2 restaurant." It's enough to make shivers run down a chap's spine. The hot ovens. Boiling water. Meat slicers. It just doesn't bare thinking about!