FoodBriefs
UK well represented in US contest
Pub chefs are strongly represented in the Best of Britain BBQ team heading out to the Jack Daniel's World Championship Invitational Barbecue in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Union Pub Company catering development manager Ben Bartlett, award-winning chef Mathew Shropshall from the Royal Oak in King's Bromley, Staffordshire and award-winning Paul Morgan all take a place in the Heinz Foodservice-sponsored team.
Master butcher and Meat and Livestock Commission ambassador Viv Harvey and head of new product development UK, Burger King Mark Dowding complete the team that will be burning coal from 27 to 28 October.
Geronimo Inns extends its portfolio
Geronimo Inns has opened its first country site to extend its award-winning portfolio to 15 pubs. Geronimo said that the Black Swan at Ockham in Surrey had undergone a major refurbishment to create a stylish, food-focused pub sympathetic to the original building.
Head chef Mark Blatchford has included ham hock & baby vegetable terrine with piccalilli (£5.50), grilled yellow fin tuna, roast fennel and tomato, olive dressing (£14) and pepper-crusted lamb rump, creamed white beans and rosemary jus (£12.50) on his first menu.
Thatcher to spearhead sausage week
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here star Carol Thatcher is to spearhead this year's British Sausage Week (30 October to 5 November). The journalist, and daughter of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, said she was a "banger lover and proud of it"
Thatcher, pictured, will be one of the judges in the search for Britain's Supreme Sausage Sarnie. Pub chefs across the country will be using British Sausage Week, now in its ninth year, to run themed events and introduce new sausage varieties and flavours to their menus. For more information contact the British Sausage Appreciation Society on 0207 861 3030.
Fishmongering weekend for chefs
The Union Pub Company (UPC) has teamed up with the Sea Fish Industry Authority to send eight chefs on a fishmongering weekend in London.
As part of Seafood Week (6 to 13 October), UPC is inviting its 1,850 pubs to enter a competition to win a place on the training trip, which includes dinner at a seafood restaurant, a visit to Borough market and a fishmongering course at Billingsgate.
The chefs will be judged on the quality and success of their seafood dishes during Seafood Week. UPC catering development manager Ben Bartlett said: "We want to get pubs excited about seafood and help them make it part of a profitable menu.
"By teaming up with Sea Fish, we are giving our pubs a fantastic opportunity to gain some real skills."
Catering equipment prices set to rise
Catering equipment could be heading for a hike in prices in the wake of big increases in the cost of stainless steel and energy.
The warning comes after the Catering Equipment Suppliers Association (CESA) - whose members make and supply the vast majority of UK catering equipment - carried out an audit on rising production costs.
Research by CESA into stainless steel costs among manufacturers is projecting a year-on-year rise of 30% by the end of 2006, partly because of the accelerated global demand for steel, but mainly through the doubling of the cost of nickel, one of the metals which makes steel stainless. The main metal used in the manufacture of catering equipment is stainless steel.
