Meaty Treaty

Hanna Frederick has developed venison chocolate truffles, made from a blend of dark chocolate and ground-up salty dried meat.

Shaped like small sausages, the sweets have a salami aftertaste, she said.

Admitting it was a weird combination, she said meat and chocolate went together "amazingly well".

"There's this smoky taste to start, then a strong chocolate flavour comes in, and at the end you have this wonderful taste of salami,"

Apparently these meaty chocolate treats are massively popular with men, let’s wait for them to hit Blighty’s shores.

Tally ho, time for Spotted Richard

The traditional suet pudding Spotted Dick has been renamed "Spotted Richard" at a council canteen because customers keep making jokes.

The new name for the dessert, with another alternative Sultana Sponge, has appeared on the menu at Flintshire Council headquarters in Mold.

The council said catering staff made the decision after "immature comments" and it was not a policy decision.

Who says they are taking the fun out of everything, I mean who doesn’t like an immature joke...!

It ain't easy being squeezy

Making reductions in plastics and the use of plastics has become a key culture in the world of brands. Being seen to make a real difference to help save the planet is beneficial to many, however not being able to get the product(s) out of said plastics is somewhat less helpful.

Heinz has had to rethink its new packaging for tomato ketchup after a spate of complaints from customers who couldn’t get the ketchup out of the bottle. The new packaging is made from clear plastic and 9% lighter than before, however the bottle has a defect that meant it quickly became brittle and difficult to squeeze.

So what they plan to do next is interesting as they will want to continue with the use of less plastic, but it would also be nice if you could get to the ketchup. But don’t fear, a spokeswoman has said the quality is unaffected, so if you can get it out you can still enjoy some quality tommy k on your Sunday morning sarnie.

How would you like your latte sir?

Pho Café, which serves fresh, authentic street food in London has added “Weasel Coffee” to it’s menu, it is however one of the rarest coffee’s in the world.

Sourced from Vietnam, Pho will be the only retailer to serve such coffee but that comes at a hefty price tag, £6.

Before you get put off by the price tag, wait till you hear how the beans are made. The weasels eat, digest and defecate only tiny quantities of fresh coffee beans each year, making it so rare. Their intestinal enzymes break down bitter proteins in the coffee creating a rich, unusual coffee that is the most expensive in the world.

So next time you ask for a coffee at a chain store, be grateful it’s not made from poo…!!

LOL – love our local

Reports from the British Beer & Pub Association reveal that in the past 12 months, 2,377 pubs called time on trading (52 closures a week!), causing 24,000 job losses and leaving a chasm in many small communities where the local boozer was traditionally a place to meet and interact as well as sup a pint or two.

The smoking ban, tax hikes on alcohol and changes to the Licensing Act have all contributed to the decline with the recession being the final nail in the coffin for many. People are opting to stay at home instead and crack open a tinny – when my local charged £2.85 for a pint of lime and lemonade last week, you can kind of understand it – however, pubs are as much a part of the British culture as fish and chips and Coronation Steet and some closures are generating social repercussions on a par to the Post Office closures of 2007/08.

Imagine, where would the residents of the Street be without the Rovers? How would Dot Cotton cope without her daily tomato juice and a gossip at The Queen Vic? Some residents like those in Mersham, Kent are getting physically hands on in the quest to save their local, doing everything from investing cash in the Farriers Arms to installing new plumbing after the sudden departure of the previous landlord.

Pubs offering food are faring better but then you generally can’t take your whippet into those or keep your pewter jug behind the bar or sneak a cheeky lock-in. It’s these curious freedoms that make our British boozers great and we should cherish them as extensions of our own home, stained patterned carpets and all.

Organising a p*** up in a brewery

The age old saying goes, “you couldn’t organise a p*** up in a brewery”, well don’t fear, because neither can a beer festival.

In a turn of events that no one saw coming, the Beer on the Wye festival, which is the Herefordshire Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) annual event now in its fifth year, ran completely dry of beer and food, a day early.

Extra provisions of 18 barrels were delivered as an emergency but the Sunday session had to be called off due to overwhelming demand.

Whilst this is was a major disappointment for the organisers and festival goers at the time, the amount of coverage across many sites and news stories will do the popularity of the festival the world of good.

You can guarantee next year that despite some jokes at its expense, it will be one of the better known beer festivals outside of its local community, and this is proof that out of adversity can come light!

From the brink of collapse…

Sky News has just broken a story that details the accounts posted by Gordon Ramsey Holdings to Companies House.

You can read the full story here.

To sum up, over the past year GRH has seen profits fall to just £383k from over £3m, with net debt rising from £4m to £9.5m.

We have written about the massive programme of expansion Ramsey embarked upon throughout 2007/08, which coupled with the recession has certainly has played a part in the demise of the brand.

What is very interesting however, is right at the end of the story. GRH has to an extent been saved by Ramsey’s book deals and TV contracts, which have undoubtedly allowed the company to survive the first half of 2009. And the article hints at the signs of some sort of recovery for the business. Income is expected to grow into next year, and service resuming at Petrus and Savoy Grill.

Do we spy the faint shoots of economic recovery in the midst of this story? Is our industry on the brink of some brighter days? It is obviously way to early to tell, but it’s nice to hear something positive for a change hey!

#Habitat cont...

For any and all that are interested, click here to see the story that broke on Sky News.

Now that's some bad PR!

#Habitat

As the hype and frenzy surrounding the micro-blogging site twitter continues to escalate, increasing numbers of people and businesses are looking to take the plunge.

It’s therefore quite interesting to see that there are still plenty of warnings that, brands in particular, must adhere to and be wary of. While still in it’s relative infancy, Social media and the way marketers use it, require probably more thought and planning than any other form of marketing we undertake. We all know the obvious pitfalls that accompany a product launch, an ad campaign or a media event, but do we truly understand the do’s and don’ts of social media, and more importantly the consequences of failure.

One brand that got a recent lesson, is Habitat.

Habitat were using their Twitter profile to offer promotions, capture data, and keep followers up to date with news from the brand – nothing wrong with that I hear you cry. However the mistake Habitat made, was in their abuse of hash tags (#). Hash tags signify topics within a tweet, so people searching Twitter for a specific topic get relevant posts. And so in their infinite wisdom, Habitat decided to attach things like #Iran and #iPhone to tweets about a gift card promotion. Bad Idea.

Not only did Twitter users slam Habitat, but also the story broke across mainstream news as a result.

So beware, there are fantastic rewards on offer for brands that effectively use social media, just don’t dive in without proper planning expertise. The results can be catastrophic.

Carrots at dawn!

Carrots boiled whole before being cut up are better at fighting cancer and are tastier than when they are sliced before being cooked, a study has shown.

Quite why we needed a study to tell us this is beyond me, however it is nice to know how to maximise my carrot based nutrition.

We all know that carrots don’t actually help us see in the dark, that was a fiendish little myth made up by Blighty to keep the Germans knowing we had radar during WWII.

However this myth has continued to do the rounds as parents tell their children in hope they can see better in the dark, I am pretty sure I was once duped by my parents, although I don’t know how this new idea will go down at the council of children…!

Sell By Date

It has come out today that environment minister Hilary Benn wants to see the abandonment of sell-by-dates. It will apparently save the 18 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, as every year we the public throw away £10 billion of edible food, £400 per family.

Sell-by-dates are something that have become noticeably shorter over the past few years, on the basis that supermarkets and stores and worried about selling out of date, or produce which is not 100%, and being sued.

I can not really see how this is going to help, because for all the cash a family saves on not buying a new pot of cream, they will spend double on suing someone for gross negligence, food poisoning, or loss of work et al.

So I say lets keep the sell by dates, its safer, and more to the point, when customers go out to eat, they will be safe in the knowledge the food they are eating is ‘in date’, and so more willing to eat out.

'Tis the season to be a cow

Recent reports have come out telling us all about Marcello Bedoni singing to some cows. This rouse was thought up by Antonio Federici who, as part of the re-launch for his 100 year old ice cream brand. His reasoning, apparently ‘singing to cows makes the milk taste better’.

Not to be out done, Really Welsh Ltd have decided a range of patriotic ice creams were needed for their re-launch, cue Swirley Bassey. A female impersonator dressed up and sung to the cows, I am guessing to make the ice cream taste better.

Whether or not it makes the ice cream taste better is a matter of debate, something my stomach and I will hotly research for you don’t worry, however, if you do live near any of our bovine friends, and you see someone singing opera to them, don’t be alarmed, it’s all for a better glass of milk…!

The summer just got a little less British

Sad news from the newspapers today, An award-winning strawberry farm has been forced to close down its pick-your-own fields after 40 years because its insurance company is demanding handrails are installed on drainage ditches and cordons placed around potholes.

I remember going to the fields and enjoying a PYO session, getting out in the fresh air and having fun with the family.

Whilst we often complain about political correctness or health and safety ‘gone mad’, it is more a sad event that families can not go out together and pick some of their own fruit. And whilst we live in a ‘must have now’ society, our last few family ‘days out’ are being spoilt, I don’t think family trips to Sainsbury’s are quite as fun, they have proved rather more stressful before.

A Mars a day...

The size of Mars and Snickers chocolate bars has shrunk by more than seven per cent over the last year as the company tries to cut costs, and all this whilst the cost stays the same.

This sticky predicament for consumers will leave them more out of pocket than ever before, however, if they have cut the equivalent salt and sugar levels by the same seven per cent, then not all is lost. You will be ever so less portly than two years ago.

Yet if you and I were to reduce our output by seven per cent, as were everyone else over the course of the year a lot less work would be done. And Mars’ famous strap line was ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play’ means that in actuality, you are working seven per cent less, resting seven per cent less and playing seven per cent less, a total of 21 per cent less a day.

I hope you all enjoy your extra time a day…

Craft Guild of Chef Awards 2009

I attended the coveted Craft Guild of Chefs awards last night and a jolly good time was had by all. Great to catch up with so many industry faces all positive about the times ahead and once again the event proved an inspirational showcase of the industry’s culinary talent. A personal congrats to Dennis Mwakulua – well overdue and completely deserved and Simon Stocker a worthy winner of the education chef award…big congratulation hugs to both of you.

Heston deservedly, if not slightly prematurely, won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the ripe old age of 43…but then hey what else is there left for this awesome culinary genius to achieve? And as ever his acceptance was personable and gracious…he really does bring a bit a ‘cool’ to our industry.

And the answer is ‘yes I am’ for those of you who may have been wondering…the food was good but I didn’t indulge that much.

Hot Profits...

When I was out and about this weekend, there were many smells that were swirling about the atmosphere, but none more prominent or evocative than a barbecue.

One of the most recognisable and popular smells of the summer, for many this is the highlight of summer.

This is one of the most profitable opportunities of the summer for publicans, so make sure that the local communities and passers by can smell it.

Make the most of the sporting events taking place during the summer, The Ashes series, Twenty20 World Cup, Wimbledon and U-21 European Championships are just a few events that will get people out.

Make sure they know you are holding a barbecue or alfresco dining, have sporting competitions or prize to be won all of which will make the predicted hot summer yield hot profits.

The power of Irn Bru

It has been announced today that AG BARR's chairman Robin Barr is standing down after 48 years at the helm. And with his departure comes the tricky manoeuvre of passing on the recipe for Irn Bru.

Mr Barr is one of only two people in the world who knows the secret recipe. And he and the second unnamed person will never travel on a plane together to preserve the heritage of the drink.

It is rare that such a global product/regime is held with such secrecy, but it is refreshing. Heritage is a big seller, so don't forget your beginnings. They are often the key to the success of the company. Does this also mean Robin Barr is as powerful as Barack Obama? I very much doubt it, I havn't seen Air Bru One yet...!

Rising price of tea time

With the news of crippling debts and unemployment continually filling the news stories, serenity used to be found in a cup of tea. An English institution – something this great nation was built on. However enjoying a good old brew is soon going to be decidedly more expensive…

A combination of rising demand, crop failures and the weak pound has led to an increase in the cost of a cup of tea by up to 15 per cent. This is sad news for all that enjoy a cup of tea or ten at work. It’s not all bad though, you will avoid oesophagus cancer if a recent study is to be believed…!

The Data Debate

Finally we’re seeing b2b marketers increasingly embracing digital, with communication using traditional direct mail now migrating to other channels, the quality of email data has never been more important.

But it’s not that simply to get your hands on a fresh, quality database of industry decision makers email addresses and there aren’t many options to choose from...and even more difficult to gain ownership to manage your own e-marketing campaigns.

If you’re considering third party data owners you should enquire about their methods of data collection such as whether the data is collected through web-trawling or over the telephone, how often the data is refreshed and whether there is a guaranteed hard bounce rate. The best advice is to test smaller quantities initially from a number of well-selected lists in order to see which perform best at minimal risk. It is obviously then possible to rollout to larger numbers of the best-performing lists in the knowledge that it's money well spent.

Or you’ll need to rely on ‘piggybacking’ your message on other brand’s opt-in communications such as publisher’s e-alerts where your brand can be taken to an unsoliticited but altogether ‘warmer’ potential customer base. However, you have limited control and access to post campaign reporting.

There simply aren’t any shortcuts to acquiring reliable, quality data. The only option to guarantee a receptive, responsive audience is to acquire your own data directly. These recipients will remember giving you permission to contact them and will be anticipating the communication, making a positive response more likely. We now encourage our clients to collect an email address at every point of customer contact and entice e-mail sign up via their website at every opportunity.

Never underestimate the power of the data you have at your disposal, it’s worth every penny of invesment.

Public Relations

Never has the need for PROs been so evident as it is in political circles at the moment with MP’s expenses coming sharply into focus.

Companies who are found to have misled or deceived their customers often never recover from such damage – think Coca Cola’s ill-fated bottled water launch.

With the negative effects of the economy, PR is an effective way to manipulate & maintain your reputation. A relationship with the key press associated with your chosen targets needs to be carefully managed. PR is a substantial investment, not necessarily in budget, but in time and resources, and so fully understanding the position and perception your brand currently holds is absolutely vital before you can begin to influence or change it. A well targeted PR campaign sends your message out to the masses at a fraction of the cost of advertising.

Nice to meat you

On receiving one of these business cards this is perhaps one you won't forget in a hurry! They are made from 2 ingredients: meat and lasers...see it for yourself here.

Pay-per-view news?!

Later this year The Wall Street Journal is to introduce what it calls a ‘micro-payment’ scheme.

In the face of continued reductions in advertising spend, publishers everywhere have been looking at alternative ways of bolstering revenue, and I’m sure many will be watching the Wall Street Journal with great interest.

However, it should be noted that a significant amount of its online content can only be accessed after you have paid a $100 plus annual subscription anyway - so pay as you read might well work out cheaper for some. Either way it is a hell of a lot easier to offer alternative charging methods for something, than it is to introduce new ones to a service that was previously free.

Also, this is the same Wall Street Journal that has only just recently launched applications for a number of smart phones, that grants access to most of its online content for free - strange enough in the face of a one off subscription fee, and even odder if micro-payment is really expected to be a serious revenue generator.

Above all however, the biggest problem they will surely face, lies in overcoming the very nature of the Internet itself - a platform that was specifically designed to facilitate the sharing of ideas, news and information.

Thanks for reading, that’ll be £0.99. Cheers.

A brave new world...

As the popularity, capability and availability of online and digital marketing tools continues to grow, a brand new era of measurement and accountability in marketing opens up to us.

We know how many people visit our websites, what pages they visit, what links they click, and exactly how far down the sales funnel they are at any given time.

This is of course a world away from more traditional forms of marketing, but can it go too far the other way? These new tools seem to be generating a new breed of figure obsessed marketers. How many visitors am I getting to my website? How many clicks are my online ads generating? And more recently, how many followers can I get on Twitter?

Unless you are converting all your web traffic, ad click-throughs and social media subscribers to sales, then there’s a good chance the question is not how can we generate more, but how can we make better use of what we already have.

Finger lickin' profits

I read with interest today that KFC is set to turn eight of its branches into halal-only sites in a seven month trial. Having been given the stamp of approval by the Halal Food Authority, Islamic customers will be able to tuck into chicken in a bucket, fillet burgers, chips and beans (they don't know what they've been missing!).

I ask myself, good, innovative customer service or a clever marketing ploy to take advantage of the boom in fast food sales during the downturn....

Swine Flu

Swine flu is obviously a hot topic at the moment, it is very easily spread and contagious, apparently. But whilst the media continue to frenzy about it all, hand wash companies have seen sales rocket, as have handkerchief and tissue companies.

Not a bad idea I suppose, but this pandemic will highlight the cleanest restaurants about, continual cleaning and good hygiene practices will be the perfect foil for any kind of bad press around your restaurant. So my advice for the day, making sure you give a little extra scrub at the beginning of every day will help reduce any chances of a swine flu out break at your place.

Happy birthday to us!

Happy Birthday Hub…5 yrs today, which I believe makes me a bit of a veteran in today’s business world. An achievement not to be underestimated when you consider the statistics that 50 percent of businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within five years. So what have I learned?

It’s not for the faint hearted in fact you’ve got to be a bit on an adrenalin junkie and thrive off the buzz of putting yourself out there; love people, appreciate your team, look after your clients passionately, and definitely never be satisfied with the place you’re at. It’s my baby and watching it grow and blossom into an agency that competes and wins over its competitors, generations older, I can’t help but give a little smile. It was about time our sector got a wake up call, B2B marketing demands creative professionals with vision and the conviction to challenge a higher standard. Watch out foodservice we haven’t even started…

Catch of the day

Great to hear chef and presenter Nigel Barden singing the praises of the humble gurnard on last night's Chris Evans show on BBC Radio 2. A relatively unknown fish, we've long been working hard promoting sustainable fish and encouraging chefs to champion this and other similar under-utilised species.

Hopefully the power of national radio can work some magic and get the masses out there asking for this delicious fish to be sold not just on the menus of in-the-know restaurants but the slower to act supermarkets too!

Stories of chalk and walls

Following on from the 'big bad wolf' post, here is another beautifully crafted piece of animation for the Firekite's track 'Autumn Story.' It was created frame by frame in white chalk on a series of chalkboards and took 6 months to complete...watch it here.

And if you found that interesting, you must take a look at an animation created on walls in the city of Buenos Aires by an artist named BLU - the scale of this project is most impressive! Click here to watch it.

The plight of the celebrity chef - continued

It’s hard to argue against the fact that Ramsay has had a key role in the renaissance of British
cuisine, particularly on the world stage. But at the same time, watching his rapid fall from grace does beg the question – Where did it all go wrong?

If this episode has taught us anything, perhaps it should be that the key word in the title ‘celebrity chef’ must be chef. And that Ramsay’s success was built on quite brilliant use of the freshest ingredients, and the finest flavours – not pre-pared food reheated by one of his employees!

The plight of the celebrity chef

The cult of the celebrity chef is often looked upon with some disdain from within the hospitality sector, and so I’m sure that there were a few wry smiles over the weekend as news emerged that Gordon Ramsay has been dropped from The Sunday Times Rich List. And all at the end of a week that saw Restaurant Gordon Ramsay drop out of the San Pellegrino 50 (and indeed 100) best restaurants in the world.

For all that Ramsay has done for the British hospitality sector, could it be that he has finally overdone it, grown too big too fast?

Hell's Waiter

This week during Hell’s Kitchen Marco Pierre White handed out punishment to two celebrities who had failed in their cooking task. Their punishment? To do a shift as front of house waiters. While we are big fans of Marco and the show, it is important to remember the vital role waiters/waitresses play in the success of restaurants. Now, as a professional in the foodservice industry I like you understand the importance of such a role. They take the brunt of customer complaints all with a smile on their faces, and while this makes good tv it does send out the wrong message to the next generation of aspiring waiters/waitresses in my opinion. So with service skills under the microscope can I wish all those taking part in next week’s Sommelier of the year the best of luck.

Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

I stumbled upon this fantastic form of animation, dubbed 'stop motion animation'...

Click here to have a look at the video yourself.

It allegedly took more than 1,500 photographs to complete, and who knows how many hours!

Cheers Darling!

Why does the Government seem hell bent in punishing the hospitality sector when other industries are being given a helping hand? It wasn’t long ago they declared hospitality the UK’s second largest potential sector for economic growth…sorry but am I missing something? The Chancellor has just signed the average British Publican’s death warrant. Even a lowly marketer like me can see that hiking duty on beer, wine and spirits is going to prove counter productive and give the consumer even more reason to stay put at home on the sofa. I’m off down the pub to show some great British camaraderie – and have a nice cold glass of wine before the price goes up AGAIN!