I’m not sure if this article about the most expensive restaurants in America demonstrates perfect or disastrous timing. It was published last April, just a few months before several high profile American banking institutions...
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that these are not the happiest of times for restaurants. One of the latest to close its doors is the Grassroots Café in Glasgow. Just a few months short of the caff’s tenth...
National stereotyping is a terrible thing but you have to admire the Australians for coming up with a beer so typically saucy, so un-PC and so cheeky that it might have been invented by Sir Les Patterson, Australia’s...
As everyone bunkers down against the economic chill, sales of childhood comfort food are booming. Bisto Gravy, Birds Eye Custard and Fray Bentos pies are among the heritage brands reported to be flying off the shelves. Arctic...
According to the Evening Standard, a Chinese firm which catered for last year’s Beijing Olympics is bidding to cater for the London Olympics in 2012. Specialising in Szechuan cooking, the South Beauty Group is planning to...
An Italian entrepreneur has invented a vending machine which can make pizza from scratch in three minutes. Having slotted around £2.50 into the machine, customers can view their pizza’s progress from base ingredients...
When you leave a job voluntarily or are sacked from one, it can be tempting to burn your bridges behind you. Once beyond the reach of their revenge, who hasn’t wanted to tell their boss that their management sucks and that...
Edinburgh diners with long memories might recall the two branches of Tapas Ole which did much to popularise the concept of tapas in the capital during the Nineties. Cheap, cheerful and often raucous, I have hazy memories of...
There is a serious side to this story in The Record about a pub landlady who mistakenly fitted ultra-violet lights in her bar. Customers and staff are reported as suffering from sunburn and worse before the mistake was...
There is a cracking story in The Times today about umami. According to the piece, umami is the Japanese word for deliciousness. Identified as the fifth taste after sweet, sour, salty and bitter, it could be described as...
I went out last night to a French restaurant in Edinburgh which is just finding its feet after recently opening its doors. It’s called L’escargot Bleu and it ticks most of the boxes needed for a typical French bistro. From...
Scotland has its fair share of themed restaurants but few are quite as bizarre as the Taiwanese ones shown in this Guardian photo spread. I can easily understand the appeal of the A380 In-Flight Kitchen which is modelled on a...
I liked the idea of restaurant staff wearing T-shirts displaying bad reviews as noted by Alan in one of yesterday’s blogs. It shows a sense of humour which isn’t always apparent in the storms that can follow bad reviews. ...
These are unhappy days to be a celebrity chef. Or at least they are if your surname is Ramsay or Blumenthal. According to a story here in The Herald, over half of the restaurants featured in Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares...
After a devastating fire smoked Khushi’s out of their Victoria Street home last December, the popular Indian restaurant re-opened recently on West Nicholson Street. While the blaze was terrible and put several businesses out of...
The Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa in Edinburgh is holding one of its sensory dining evenings on Friday night. The idea is that customers are blindfolded for the duration of their meal. With their sight removed, the roles played...
