The Guardian
By Terry Macalister
Compass, one of the school catering firms at the centre of the Jamie Oliver row over junk food, is to sell its £500m vending machine business after reporting a 4% annual fall in revenues in the education sector.
The world's largest contract caterer said its Scholarest canteen subsidiary was missing out at state secondary schools where it had worked hard to improve quality because "the take-up of healthier options remains slow". Its performance in primary schools was much better, it said. In September it had warned that it would pull out of schools if it could not make appropriate returns.
Read more...
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Fungus firsts and morel dilemmas
The Guardian
Mrs Tee-Hillman in wrong in thinking she was the first to sell wild mushrooms to London restaurants (Fifty kilos of pied de mouton in three hours: UK's top mushroomer is back in business, November 25). My Russian father was gathering fungi in the woods around London from the 1920s onwards. During the 50s and 60s my family would collect and dispatch hamperfuls of morels every spring.
I still have a carbon copy of our invoice, dated May 28 1963, to the Mirabelle Restaurant in Curzon Street for their month's total purchase of 28 pounds of morels at 27 shillings and sixpence (£1.37) per pound. Carriage, by train, was charged extra, although I remember delivering them at the kitchen entrance behind the restaurant, too. We also sold chanterelles and other freshly gathered fungi to Palm's delicatessen in Oxford market.
My father would be highly amused at the popularity of wild mushrooms today, although he would not have welcomed the competition. Mostly we picked to eat and not for profit, but selling the excess brought a welcome bonus.
Natasha de Chroustchoff
Fishguard, Pembrokeshire
£3,000 per daily delivery of mushrooms/fungi to London? Not bad for someone who pays nothing for the upkeep of the land from which she harvests them. I wonder how much she pays her "mostly young Pole" pickers? Probably not nearly enough for getting them to break the Wild Mushroom Picker's Code and open themselves to legal action. I wonder if any of them have a partner who is in the legal profession.
Peter J Berry
London
Read more...
Mrs Tee-Hillman in wrong in thinking she was the first to sell wild mushrooms to London restaurants (Fifty kilos of pied de mouton in three hours: UK's top mushroomer is back in business, November 25). My Russian father was gathering fungi in the woods around London from the 1920s onwards. During the 50s and 60s my family would collect and dispatch hamperfuls of morels every spring.
I still have a carbon copy of our invoice, dated May 28 1963, to the Mirabelle Restaurant in Curzon Street for their month's total purchase of 28 pounds of morels at 27 shillings and sixpence (£1.37) per pound. Carriage, by train, was charged extra, although I remember delivering them at the kitchen entrance behind the restaurant, too. We also sold chanterelles and other freshly gathered fungi to Palm's delicatessen in Oxford market.
My father would be highly amused at the popularity of wild mushrooms today, although he would not have welcomed the competition. Mostly we picked to eat and not for profit, but selling the excess brought a welcome bonus.
Natasha de Chroustchoff
Fishguard, Pembrokeshire
£3,000 per daily delivery of mushrooms/fungi to London? Not bad for someone who pays nothing for the upkeep of the land from which she harvests them. I wonder how much she pays her "mostly young Pole" pickers? Probably not nearly enough for getting them to break the Wild Mushroom Picker's Code and open themselves to legal action. I wonder if any of them have a partner who is in the legal profession.
Peter J Berry
London
Read more...
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Fifty kilos of pied de mouton in three hours: UK's top mushroomer is back in business
The Guardian
By Aida Edemariam
The group has been foraging for about an hour when Brigitte Tee-Hillman strikes gold. She bends down and pushes away an overhanging fern, gently lifts away some leaf mould and with a brisk, practised pinch, claims her prize, leaving the roots behind.
The unusually large brown chanterelles have pale frilled edges and undersides like pleated skirts in mid-pirouette. She fits them together into a bouquet in her hands and holds them up. "Look!" Her face suffuses with light that has nothing to do with the sunshine dappling fitfully through the tall trees. "They are like flowers. Aren't they lovely? Now you see why I get excited."
Read more...
By Aida Edemariam
The group has been foraging for about an hour when Brigitte Tee-Hillman strikes gold. She bends down and pushes away an overhanging fern, gently lifts away some leaf mould and with a brisk, practised pinch, claims her prize, leaving the roots behind.
The unusually large brown chanterelles have pale frilled edges and undersides like pleated skirts in mid-pirouette. She fits them together into a bouquet in her hands and holds them up. "Look!" Her face suffuses with light that has nothing to do with the sunshine dappling fitfully through the tall trees. "They are like flowers. Aren't they lovely? Now you see why I get excited."
Read more...
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Literary lunch? Just take one potboiler...
The Times, T2
By Andrew Billen
Irish stew courtesy of John Lanchester and cheesecake à la Nora Ephron: our writer discovers a novel way to feed his dinner guests with recipes gleaned from his favourite fiction
Read more...
By Andrew Billen
Irish stew courtesy of John Lanchester and cheesecake à la Nora Ephron: our writer discovers a novel way to feed his dinner guests with recipes gleaned from his favourite fiction
Read more...
Monday, November 20, 2006
First catch your radish ...
The Guardian
We claim to be a nation of foodies, yet vegetables still mystify many cooks - especially those weird specimens that turn up in the weekly organic box. What exactly do you do with chard or salsify? Do turnips have to be a turnoff? Zoe Williams gets out the pots and pans
Read more...
We claim to be a nation of foodies, yet vegetables still mystify many cooks - especially those weird specimens that turn up in the weekly organic box. What exactly do you do with chard or salsify? Do turnips have to be a turnoff? Zoe Williams gets out the pots and pans
Read more...
Friday, November 17, 2006
Ad industry attacks 'flawed' proposals
The Guardian
By Leigh Holmwood
The advertising industry has reacted with alarm to Ofcom's junk food ban, saying that the proposals go much further than originally envisaged and would harm British television.
Ian Twinn, the director of public affairs at advertisers' trade body ISBA, said that Ofcom had been influenced by political opinions rather than hard evidence.
"These proposals are harmful to UK television, damaging to the competitiveness of UK plc and will not reduce obesity," he said. "We fear that the Ofcom board members have been influenced by political opinion and the campaign's assertions, not the evidence."
Read more...
By Leigh Holmwood
The advertising industry has reacted with alarm to Ofcom's junk food ban, saying that the proposals go much further than originally envisaged and would harm British television.
Ian Twinn, the director of public affairs at advertisers' trade body ISBA, said that Ofcom had been influenced by political opinions rather than hard evidence.
"These proposals are harmful to UK television, damaging to the competitiveness of UK plc and will not reduce obesity," he said. "We fear that the Ofcom board members have been influenced by political opinion and the campaign's assertions, not the evidence."
Read more...
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Free range egg fraud claims prompt inquiry
The Guardian
By Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent
The government has launched an investigation into claims that millions of eggs are being falsely sold as free range every year to UK shoppers.
Up to 30m non-free range eggs could be deliberately mislabelled so that they command higher prices, it is alleged.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has ordered the industry and retailers to check immediately that the illegal practice is no longer taking place and that all produce on shop shelves is accurately labelled.
Read more...
By Rebecca Smithers, consumer affairs correspondent
The government has launched an investigation into claims that millions of eggs are being falsely sold as free range every year to UK shoppers.
Up to 30m non-free range eggs could be deliberately mislabelled so that they command higher prices, it is alleged.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has ordered the industry and retailers to check immediately that the illegal practice is no longer taking place and that all produce on shop shelves is accurately labelled.
Read more...
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Spice is right as La Mancha relaunches saffron as luxury brand
The Guardian
By Dale Fuchs in Madrid
Saffron, the spindly red spice known as "poor man's gold", is staging a comeback in the dusty plains of La Mancha, the seasoning heartland of Spain.
The painstaking production of the delicate filaments, which require 200 purple crocus flowers for every gram and sell for up to £24 an ounce, had been declining for decades because of competition from a cheaper variety grown in Iran.
But the regional government, looking for new schemes to raise La Mancha's profile, is promoting its saffron as a luxury export, following the success of other gourmet Spanish ingredients such as olive oil and wine. It recently established a quality control board with an official La Mancha seal, and is paying saffron producers to show their wares at food trade fairs abroad.
Read more...
By Dale Fuchs in Madrid
Saffron, the spindly red spice known as "poor man's gold", is staging a comeback in the dusty plains of La Mancha, the seasoning heartland of Spain.
The painstaking production of the delicate filaments, which require 200 purple crocus flowers for every gram and sell for up to £24 an ounce, had been declining for decades because of competition from a cheaper variety grown in Iran.
But the regional government, looking for new schemes to raise La Mancha's profile, is promoting its saffron as a luxury export, following the success of other gourmet Spanish ingredients such as olive oil and wine. It recently established a quality control board with an official La Mancha seal, and is paying saffron producers to show their wares at food trade fairs abroad.
Read more...
Monday, November 13, 2006
Devon claims 200-year lead on the Cornish pasty
The Guardian
By Matthew Taylor
For years it has been one of Cornwall's most famous and lucrative exports. But a dispute about the origins of the pasty has sparked a culinary feud, with historians from neighbouring Devon claiming the discovery of a 16th-century recipe proves it first appeared in their county.
Todd Gray, chairman of the Friends of Devon's Archives, who found the recipe between the pages of a 16th-century audit book, said: "It has been a great joy for me, as a local historian, to have discovered that pasties may have originated in Devon and spread to Cornwall later.
Read more...
By Matthew Taylor
For years it has been one of Cornwall's most famous and lucrative exports. But a dispute about the origins of the pasty has sparked a culinary feud, with historians from neighbouring Devon claiming the discovery of a 16th-century recipe proves it first appeared in their county.
Todd Gray, chairman of the Friends of Devon's Archives, who found the recipe between the pages of a 16th-century audit book, said: "It has been a great joy for me, as a local historian, to have discovered that pasties may have originated in Devon and spread to Cornwall later.
Read more...
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Cornish? No, pasties are from Devon
The Guardian
By Robin McKie
They have proudly borne the name of Cornwall to every part of the globe and become a culinary mainstay for Britain and many parts of America and Australia. Yet Cornish pasties are imposters, it transpires. They really come from Devon, historians argued last week.
As suggestions go, it is one of the most regionally inflammatory claims that could be made: the equivalent to saying Rangers and Celtic are really Edinburgh clubs, or Yorkshire puddings are from Lancashire.
Read more...
By Robin McKie
They have proudly borne the name of Cornwall to every part of the globe and become a culinary mainstay for Britain and many parts of America and Australia. Yet Cornish pasties are imposters, it transpires. They really come from Devon, historians argued last week.
As suggestions go, it is one of the most regionally inflammatory claims that could be made: the equivalent to saying Rangers and Celtic are really Edinburgh clubs, or Yorkshire puddings are from Lancashire.
Read more...
Friday, November 03, 2006
Organic sales double in six years
The Guardian
By Katie Allen
Organic food sales have doubled over the past six years and shoppers' rising demand for healthier foods means fast growth should continue, a report out today says.
Around £1.6bn was spent on organic goods last year, up from £800m in 2000, according to Datamonitor. The market analysts said concerns over safety and health were some of the main reasons why people go pesticide-free. As awareness of health and environmental issues gathers steam, Datamonitor predicts the UK market will hit £2.7bn by 2010.
Read more...
By Katie Allen
Organic food sales have doubled over the past six years and shoppers' rising demand for healthier foods means fast growth should continue, a report out today says.
Around £1.6bn was spent on organic goods last year, up from £800m in 2000, according to Datamonitor. The market analysts said concerns over safety and health were some of the main reasons why people go pesticide-free. As awareness of health and environmental issues gathers steam, Datamonitor predicts the UK market will hit £2.7bn by 2010.
Read more...
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
U-turn as Blanc backs own reality restaurant TV show
The Guardian
By Matthew Taylor
When the French chef Raymond Blanc unleashed a scathing attack on those star-struck colleagues prepared to swap the kitchen for the television studio it seemed clear where his priorities lay.
The 55-year-old did not name names but said chefs who appeared on television shows degraded the profession and provided "sensational rubbish" for "morons" adding: "We have 8 million morons watching these programmes. The brains of the British have gone soft."
But yesterday as he launched his new reality television show, The Restaurant, it appeared all such concerns had disappeared. "To set up a business, especially a restaurant business, and make a success of it is one of the hardest things in the world," he said. "I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with like-minded people who are eager to enter this crazy but irresistible world and achieve the dream for themselves."
Read more...
By Matthew Taylor
When the French chef Raymond Blanc unleashed a scathing attack on those star-struck colleagues prepared to swap the kitchen for the television studio it seemed clear where his priorities lay.
The 55-year-old did not name names but said chefs who appeared on television shows degraded the profession and provided "sensational rubbish" for "morons" adding: "We have 8 million morons watching these programmes. The brains of the British have gone soft."
But yesterday as he launched his new reality television show, The Restaurant, it appeared all such concerns had disappeared. "To set up a business, especially a restaurant business, and make a success of it is one of the hardest things in the world," he said. "I look forward to sharing my experience and expertise with like-minded people who are eager to enter this crazy but irresistible world and achieve the dream for themselves."
Read more...
Monday, October 23, 2006
Leader: In praise of ... Serge Hochar
The Guardian, Leader article
Barring an infestation of phylloxera, the worst calamity that winemakers in most places have to worry about is unsuitable weather. Naturally, these perils also matter to Serge Hochar, winemaker of the justly celebrated Chateau Musar. But Mr Hochar routinely has to contend with an additional hazard that happily afflicts few of his peers. For Chateau Musar's vineyards lie in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, between Beirut and Damascus, which means they have repeatedly found themselves in or near some of the world's most violent conflicts. Battles raged around the vineyard throughout the 1983 grape harvesting season, while in 1989 Mr Hochar's home and the Chateau Musar winery suffered direct hits from shelling, and his wine cellars served regularly as bomb shelters for local people. Yet through it all Mr Hochar has continued to produce often spectacular amounts of one of the world's more improbable fine wines. Remarkably, he missed only two vintages during Lebanon's 15-year civil war. This year he has triumphed over adversity again. In spite of the Israeli invasion in the summer, which struck just as early picking had begun at Chateau Musar, and which necessitated a nerve-jangling five-hour lorry trip to carry the grapes from the vineyards to the winery, the harvest has once again been safely gathered. Winemaking has taken place for 5,000 years in Lebanon and not even the Middle East conflict can stop the remarkable Mr Hochar from keeping that tradition alive.
Read more...
Barring an infestation of phylloxera, the worst calamity that winemakers in most places have to worry about is unsuitable weather. Naturally, these perils also matter to Serge Hochar, winemaker of the justly celebrated Chateau Musar. But Mr Hochar routinely has to contend with an additional hazard that happily afflicts few of his peers. For Chateau Musar's vineyards lie in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, between Beirut and Damascus, which means they have repeatedly found themselves in or near some of the world's most violent conflicts. Battles raged around the vineyard throughout the 1983 grape harvesting season, while in 1989 Mr Hochar's home and the Chateau Musar winery suffered direct hits from shelling, and his wine cellars served regularly as bomb shelters for local people. Yet through it all Mr Hochar has continued to produce often spectacular amounts of one of the world's more improbable fine wines. Remarkably, he missed only two vintages during Lebanon's 15-year civil war. This year he has triumphed over adversity again. In spite of the Israeli invasion in the summer, which struck just as early picking had begun at Chateau Musar, and which necessitated a nerve-jangling five-hour lorry trip to carry the grapes from the vineyards to the winery, the harvest has once again been safely gathered. Winemaking has taken place for 5,000 years in Lebanon and not even the Middle East conflict can stop the remarkable Mr Hochar from keeping that tradition alive.
Read more...
Saturday, October 07, 2006
The Times, body & soul, p.15
By Fiona Sims
The two chefs behind the success of Nobu are launching a cookery book with healthy recipes from the restaurant’s repertoire.
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet? Rubbish! Kipling didn’t know what he was talking about. But, to be fair, he died 60 years before the opening of Nobu, the super-glamorous (and sometimes infamous) Japanese restaurant in Park Lane, West London, and so he never tasted the creations of the owner Nobuyuki Matsuhisa (known as Nobu) and his head chef and right-hand man Mark Edwards.
Read more...
By Fiona Sims
The two chefs behind the success of Nobu are launching a cookery book with healthy recipes from the restaurant’s repertoire.
East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet? Rubbish! Kipling didn’t know what he was talking about. But, to be fair, he died 60 years before the opening of Nobu, the super-glamorous (and sometimes infamous) Japanese restaurant in Park Lane, West London, and so he never tasted the creations of the owner Nobuyuki Matsuhisa (known as Nobu) and his head chef and right-hand man Mark Edwards.
Read more...
EU cheese ban is 'attack' on British dairy industry
The Times, p. 11
By David Charter, Valerie Elliott and Russell Jenkins
BRITAIN’S £5.6 billion dairy industry was facing serious food safety questions yesterday after European officials discovered cheese polluted with antibiotics, dyes and detergents and announced a series of emergency inspections.
The Government was forced to defend its health and safety tests for milk and insisted that dairy products were safe for consumption, but the European Commission gave warning that Britain must change its approach to guarantee hygiene standards.
A row that began as a dispute over sharp practice at a Lancashire cheesemakers escalated during the day to threaten the reputation of the entire dairy industry and raised the spectre of another food scare after the disastrous foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001 and the beef ban over “mad cow” disease.
Read more...
By David Charter, Valerie Elliott and Russell Jenkins
BRITAIN’S £5.6 billion dairy industry was facing serious food safety questions yesterday after European officials discovered cheese polluted with antibiotics, dyes and detergents and announced a series of emergency inspections.
The Government was forced to defend its health and safety tests for milk and insisted that dairy products were safe for consumption, but the European Commission gave warning that Britain must change its approach to guarantee hygiene standards.
A row that began as a dispute over sharp practice at a Lancashire cheesemakers escalated during the day to threaten the reputation of the entire dairy industry and raised the spectre of another food scare after the disastrous foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001 and the beef ban over “mad cow” disease.
Read more...
Monday, September 18, 2006
Choice and chipolatas
The Guardian
By Roy Hattersley
A revolt at a Rotherham school involving a piece of processed meat raises important political issues.
Read more...
By Roy Hattersley
A revolt at a Rotherham school involving a piece of processed meat raises important political issues.
Read more...
Crunch time for Tesco in row with crisp maker
The Guardian, p.25
By Dan Milmo
Tesco has bowed to the demands of a small supplier and withdrawn a product from its shelves after the supermarket was accused of "devious" behaviour in stocking a brand of crisps without the owner's permission.
Will Chase, the founder of Tyrrells Potato Chips, had threatened to sue the UK's largest supermarket because it was selling his produce despite having been asked not to stock the crisps. Tesco, which had sourced packets of Tyrrells from a wholesaler instead, yesterday said that it would stop selling the product.
Read more...
By Dan Milmo
Tesco has bowed to the demands of a small supplier and withdrawn a product from its shelves after the supermarket was accused of "devious" behaviour in stocking a brand of crisps without the owner's permission.
Will Chase, the founder of Tyrrells Potato Chips, had threatened to sue the UK's largest supermarket because it was selling his produce despite having been asked not to stock the crisps. Tesco, which had sourced packets of Tyrrells from a wholesaler instead, yesterday said that it would stop selling the product.
Read more...
Pay more or we quit, canteen operators to tell schools as vending machine purge hits profits
The Guardian, p.11
By Simon Bowers and Paul Lewis
Firms say pupils buy fizzy drinks and crisps outside
Setback for Jamie Oliver as new TV series begins
Read more...
By Simon Bowers and Paul Lewis
Firms say pupils buy fizzy drinks and crisps outside
Setback for Jamie Oliver as new TV series begins
Read more...
Ghetto-lattes have baristas in a froth
The Guardian, G2
By Dan Glaister
Think you know your coffee? Sip on this: what is the difference between a triple long extra pump white mocha and a triple long espresso con panna with white mocha? The answer, if you live in Seattle, home to Starbucks, is about $1.50 (80p). The drink is exactly the same, the difference is in the asking.
Some customers, though, have wised up to the world of à la carte coffee, and some baristas are, as they say, pissed. Call it the ghetto-latte wars.
Read more...
By Dan Glaister
Think you know your coffee? Sip on this: what is the difference between a triple long extra pump white mocha and a triple long espresso con panna with white mocha? The answer, if you live in Seattle, home to Starbucks, is about $1.50 (80p). The drink is exactly the same, the difference is in the asking.
Some customers, though, have wised up to the world of à la carte coffee, and some baristas are, as they say, pissed. Call it the ghetto-latte wars.
Read more...
Friday, September 15, 2006
Mothers deliver burgers to healthy-eating school
The Guardian
By Press Association
Two mothers have set up a delivery food service to pupils at a school that has cracked down on junk food and set up a healthy eating canteen.
Julie Critchlow and Sam Walker said they have supplied children at Rawmarsh comprehensive school, in South Yorkshire, with a range of food from burgers to potatoes since the school brought in a new healthy menu and banned pupils from going to local takeaways.
Mrs Critchlow said they are not selling only junk food to the children, but today delivered jacket potatoes and salad sandwiches. "It's not about junk food and it's not about healthy eating, it's about the freedom of choice," she said.
Read more...
By Press Association
Two mothers have set up a delivery food service to pupils at a school that has cracked down on junk food and set up a healthy eating canteen.
Julie Critchlow and Sam Walker said they have supplied children at Rawmarsh comprehensive school, in South Yorkshire, with a range of food from burgers to potatoes since the school brought in a new healthy menu and banned pupils from going to local takeaways.
Mrs Critchlow said they are not selling only junk food to the children, but today delivered jacket potatoes and salad sandwiches. "It's not about junk food and it's not about healthy eating, it's about the freedom of choice," she said.
Read more...
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