On its 20th birthday on Tuesday, fast-food company Nando’s will close every one of its 250-odd stores around the country and bring its 6000 employees to Johannesburg to celebrate. Kevin Utian, the MD of Nando’s South Africa, says the company will make use of 20 planes and 100 buses to transport staff, 99% of whom have never flown before. He says there may be some aggrieved customers on Tuesday, but he hopes they understand that Nando’s employees are there for them the other 364 days a year.
Some tips on how to avoid miserable meal experiences at airports include getting access to one of the Business Lounges by hook or by crook. Don’t linger, you’re there to catch a plane after all, head for a reliable fast food option. If you wander into a restaurant by mistake and the food is taking longer than 45 minutes to get to you then chances are you’re going to have a really mediocre meal. Remember the first rule of a visit to any unfamiliar restaurant – “Look for the thing they can least screw up,”. Breakfast like a king, after all it’s hard to screw up an egg sandwich, or a glass or orange-juice concentrate, or a rasher or two of bacon. If in doubt simply follow the pilots, they know the ropes.
The Michelin Guide Las Vegas 2008 has just been released and features 127 restaurants and 30 hotels in a gambling mecca that is more renowned for the sheer volume of food consumed rather than quality thereof. Among restaurants receiving stars, Las Vegas garnered one three-star restaurant, Joel Robuchon; three (3) two-star restaurants and 12 one-star restaurants. How money can change things – there’s hope for Grandwest yet.
The 10th anniversary issue of EAT OUT magazine, South Africa’s leading restaurant guide, will hit the news stands on 26 November 2007. The glossy annual publication will provide restaurant lovers with a list of South Africa’s EAT OUT Top 10 Restaurants, as well as an independently reviewed selection of 800 of the finest restaurants in the country.
Supermarkets in the UK are now selling beer at a cheaper price than water, fuelling concern over their role in Britain’s binge-drinking crisis.Despite repeated public health warnings, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Asda now offer lager at just 22p a can – less per litre than their ownbrand-mineral water and cola, and cheap enough to allow someone to get drunk for just £1. Lager is now so cheap that the stores pay more in excise duties than they charge at the till.
.Blundering Gordon Ramsay has sent sales of an endangered fish soaring after he told millions of TV viewers to eat it. The influential chef said there was “plenty of skate in the sea” and they were a “delicious” alternative to cod. In fact, the respected Marine Conservation Society has placed the fish on its “do not eat” list and classed it as “critically endangered”. Ramsay was a guest on BBC1’s Friday Night with Jonathan Ross when he warned 4.3 million viewers off cod, saying: “Cod stocks are diminishing.” Yet he went on: “It’s important to eat skate because it is sustainable. There are plenty of them.” Conservationists now fear the Michelin-starred chef’s error might help make skate extinct. Fishmongers and chip shops have seen demand for the fish rise since last week’s show. Poor old Gordo, skating on thin ice as usual.
