A monthly feature where we take a look at a couple of news stories from the catering and foodservice industry.
Bring Your Own Booze
Fine diners are drinking wines at plonk prices as a bring-your-own (BYO) booze trend gathers pace in top restaurants in London and across the country.
Hit by a drop in takings in the recession, a group of eateries – including a few with Michelin status – are letting diners bring their own favourite wine for now extra charge or a modest corkage fee instead of paying often huge mark-ups on the house list.
Resturants such as Aubergine, Abutus, Club Gascon and Boisdale, £50-a-head restaurants (without wine) which are a far cry from the cheap curry houses associated with the practice.
Jamie’s Big Giveaway
Jamie Oliver plans to spend millions of pounds of his own money in the next 10 years to improve food education and meals in UK primary schools.
Schools will be able to bid for “literally hundreds of thousands of pounds” to take measures including building gardens and kitchens.
He said he wanted to “touch 1,000″ of the UK’s 20,000-plus primary schools.
Although plans were at an early stage, he hoped the scheme would provide a model for government policy.
Jamie’s was speaking after it was reported that he was in 22nd place on the Times Giving List, which estimates he has given £2.7m to charity.
His 15 restaurants support a charitable foundation which funds chef apprenticeships for disadvantaged young people.
Cafe campaign gets green light
A charity is celebrating after being awarded enough money to open up a café at a local train station.
The Strawberry Line Café Project has received more than £200,000 to start building works at Yatton Station, where it intends to train youngsters with learning difficulties in catering.
“We are very excited that funders have wanted to support our work,” said Marina van Vessem – one of the project’s directors. “We want to meet the community’s needs and will provide a training venue for people with learning disabilities who want to work in catering.”
Safety Signs Cut Accident Risk
Restaurant, hotel, pub and catering businesses across the UK are risking prosecution by not having safety signs in place despite them being one of the cheapest and easiest ways of preventing workplace accidents. Many operators are still unsure of their basic legal obligations.
Under the health and Safety Regulations 1996, employers are required to provide specific safety signs whenever there is a risk that has not been eradicated by other means.
In cases where a safety sign would not help to reduce the risk, or where the risk is not significant, there is no need to provide a sign.
The regulations also state that unfamiliar signs should be explained to the employees and all signs should be well maintained.
See the August Edition of Eat Out Magazine for more great news and articles.
Good on Jamie Oliver. Nice to see he has a passion for something and he is willing to spend millions of his own money on helping children. That’s real care for our future generations. Some people need to learn from this.