Whatever caused Mr Struchen to switch professions we fear we’ll never know, but in 1947, two years after the culmination of World War II, the former manufacturing manager of a prestigious watch company decided to try his hand in the world of gas fryers. Struchen, with the help of two initial employees, began to import specialist fryers from American for the commercial Swiss market.
After a year being strictly an import business, Struchen & Cie decides to manufacture their own range of electric fryers under the bespoke brand names of De Luxe, Room, Doppo and Captain.
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Could the Bocuse d’Or, the World Cup of cooking, be heading to our nation’s capital in 2018?
The United Kingdom’s team has put forward an application to host the European heats of the prestigious competition in London. The formal announcement was made at a private function, sponsored by the catering manufacturer Manitowoc, at Quaglino’s earlier this month.
If successful, the continent wide event would be hosted at the famous ExCeL Centre in London which has hosted a number of high profile trade shows, expositions and was turned into a sporting auditorium for the 2012 Olympics.
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As the calendar flipped from May to June, some of the world’s greatest chefs and restaurant owners gathered at London’s Guildhall for the unveiling of The World’s 50 Best Restaurant list for 2015.
The awards ceremony, now in its fourteenth year, brings together the supposed brightest and best in the culinary world. And following a slap up dinner at Fera at Claridge’s the great and the good, sponsors and members of the press headed off to the big event where they saw the Catalan restaurant of El Celler de Can Roca claim top spot.
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“Food is something people have to buy every day, so it generates income every day,” says David Bispo, the owner of a boteco (a small café bar) in the Chapeu Mangueira area of Rio de Janeiro. “You probably haven’t bought any clothes today, but you’ve probably bought food.” And of course, he’s correct.
Bispo opened his café a couple of years ago when his work as a fisherman dried up and it’s one of a number, possibly thousands, which are found in Brazil’s most famous city. It’s not particularly flashy by all accounts, but there’s a steady trade that takes advantage of the cold beer and petiscos, small snacks which are often deep fried.
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Spring is slowly turning into summer, though if the weather forecast for the next week is anything to go by it won’t be a smooth transition. But once the sun finally takes up residence in the clear blue sky, a new dawn of recipes and menus will come out to populate boards, cards and placards.
One perennial summer favourite is ice cream. Over the years the simple dish, which can trace its lineage back to 400BC, has been reinvented and has at times resembled both a staple of the desert menu and an abstract incarnation of contemporary culinary and chic trends.
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The Scottish government has announced that food exports topped £1bn last year, reaching an impressive total of £1.1bn. This increase – a rise of about 3.5% – was largely driven by the addition of extra sales of fish and fresh seafood which account of £613m of the total.
But add drink exports to the mix and that number skyrockets to in excess of £5.1bn, which just goes to show how popular whisky is around the world.
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With competition fierce in the catering sector, bars and restaurants are increasingly looking for new ways to spruce up their dining and service areas. Never before has the visual appeal of an establishment played such a crucial role.
Ensuring that your main areas such as the kitchen, preparation stations and eating tables are well lit is imperative, not only to create a luminous working environment, but also to dictate the ambiance of your premises. To achieve this and offer an affordable and practical solution for the catering trade, Hatco have recently released a range of contemporary decorative lamps and luminaires.
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So you’ve been checking the weather forecast repetitively for a couple of days and after a few anxious moments and flirtations with storm warnings, the usually temperamental British Summer is set to serve up a series of warm, sunny days.
With the sun out and those black clouds on hold, you’ll have a chance to flex your catering muscles. “It’s time,” somebody cries, trying hard not to put on a faux-Australian accent, “to bring out the barbecue!”
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The Roman writer, senator and historian Tacitus once called described the British weather as being ‘objectionable’ and lamented that our climate wasn’t beneficial to the growing of certain types of vine and other crops, ones that would typically flourish in the warmer climes of Italy.
We’ll forgive him for his disparaging remarks, but at least we know that some Romans tried to establish vineyards here in Britain. And that should really come as no surprise given that by all accounts the Romans were fond of a glass of wine or two – a bit like us really.
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If you have had one eye on social media whilst dancing round the kitchen in preparation for the evening dinner rush, you surely can’t have missed the debate –and furore – surrounding the Twitter account @WeWantPlates. There have been some staunch defenders of traditional table-tops and some fierce critics of it, arguing that the current trend for theatrical centre-pieces adds to the enjoyment of dining out.
But are burgers on boards (surely standard practice?), bread in flat caps (how Yorkshire) and fry-ups on a spade (so customers can literally shovel down a few sausages and rashers of bacon) really necessary?
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Author
Damien Wilde