Scottish catering and hospitality news in Scotland

Three talented young chefs have reserved their places in the Glasgow Scottish Food Scholarship Final which will take place on 20 March 2006 in Glasgow.

The Edinburgh semi-finalists were tested on their preparation, timing and presentation at the competition by Martin Wishart, Jeff Bland, Matthew Gray and Chris Firth-Bernard.

'It's an important time to encourage young chefs to develop and build their skills with the current shortage of professionally trained staff in the industry, says Wishart. 'The Scottish Food Scholarship has been established to reward the effort and dedication of those at the beginning of their careers.'

In its first year, the Scottish Food Scholarship received a large number and calibre of entries. The Michelin-star chefs chose eight contestants from each region of Scotland to participate in the Regional Semi-Finals. The Winner will carry out an internship with both Martin Wishart and Andrew Fairlie of Gleneagles and will win a trip to Melbourne Australia to learn from Raymond Capaldi at Fenix in Melbourne.

The lucky chefs from today's Edinburgh cook-off, are:

Christopher Turnbull from the Roman Camp Hotel, Callander
Kevin Sutherland from the Balmoral Hotel, Edinburgh (pictured, top-right)
Anna Collier from St Andrews Bay Golf Resort & Spa in St Andrews (pictured, bottom-left)

The next Semi-Final will take place at Ayr College on 6 March, with the final at Glasgow Metropolitan College on 20 March 2006.

Visit the Scottish Food Scholarship website For more information.

Visitor numbers to the attraction have risen by 116% to more than 150,000, which is now in the running for Britain's biggest arts award, the £100,000 Gulbenkian Prize. Concorde was donated to the Museum of Flight at East Fortune, East Lothian, in late 2004, after the fleet was retired.

Its success came as new figures show Scotland is attracting rising numbers of tourists from around the world throughout the year. Last year saw visitor numbers increase and even the controversial G8 summit at Gleneagles is thought to have helped boost figures. VisitScotland said there had been a significant rise in tourists especially between January and September.

Five of Aberdeen's best known pubs have been bought out of administration from PwC for £7 million by Dundee's Commercial Pub Company, which now owns 20 hotels and nightclubs in Scotland, in a deal financed by Clydesdale Bank. The deal comes only weeks after the company disposed of 18 of its 32 pubs to the Globe Pub Company in anticipation of next month's smoking ban.

The acquisition involves the Prince of Wales, the Bex Bar, Bell's Bar, the Balmoral Lounge, O'Donoghues and Estaminet. Company secretary Jimmy Marr said the Prince of Wales, which has been trading for 155 years, was the "jewel in the crown" of the deal. He said: "we hope it will continue to trade for another 155 years and more."

The deal secures about 120 full- and part-time jobs.

Leeds based Q-Hotels has made its first venture into Scotland with the purchase of the Westerwood Hotel, in a deal reported to be worth around £15 million. Q-Hotels has announced it will spend £5m "to make the Westerwood one of the most outstanding hotels in the UK".

The four-star, 100-bedroom hotel in Cumbernauld, which includes an 18-hole golf course in a total of 400 acres of land, was bought from Dundee's Morton Properties.

The company, formed in 2003 by Alchemy Partners in collaboration with company management, now owns eight hotels and has indicated it will continue its expansion programme in 2006.

Kim Falconer, Corporate and Leisure Sales Executive at Edinburgh's Balmoral hotel, has been awarded a prestigious training scholarship by Hospitality Industry Trust (HIT Scotland).

The award ceremony, which took place on 10 February at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, was part of the Emerging Talent Conference. For the last 10 years, HIT has sought to encourage and develop emerging talent within Scotland's hospitality industry by offering practical support through bursaries and work placements.

'It is an honour to be recognised by HIT Scotland, and I am delighted to be awarded this accolade,' said Kim. 'I am passionate about the Scottish hospitality industry, and thrive in my sales role at The Balmoral. I look forward to further strengthening my skills and knowledge of this dynamic industry.'

Kim was one of only 20 of the original 78 applicants who were awarded the prestigious scholarship.
'She demonstrated all the positive attributes that our industry needs,' said HIT Chief Executive, David Cochrane. 'She was enthusiastic, committed to the industry, had a good sense of humour and her drive to reach her goals was tangible. This made her stand out against the rest of the applicants.'

Kim will meet with the Committee within the next month to discuss a tailored training programme. As a management applicant, Kim hopes to attend either Lausanne's hotel training school in Switzerland, or the Disney Institute in Florida.

For more information on HIT Scotland and to find out how you can help, visit the all-new HIT Scotland website.

The 2006 HCIMA Fellows' Dinner will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel Canary Wharf in Westferry Circus, Canary Wharf, London on Thursday, 9 March 2006 starting with a champagne reception, followed by a sumptuous three-course dinner accompanied by excellent wines.
The striking river-front Four Seasons Hotel, with its panoramic urban vistas (pictured), will be the main setting for the 2012 Olympic Games.

For further details and bookings, contact David Golder at the HCIMA, on: 020 8661 4924, or email david.golder@hcima.co.uk.

Work has started on a long-awaited £1.8million visitor centre at Arbroath harbour. Construction work has now started on the centre with Angus Council overseeing the running of the project.

The development features an information centre, a cafe, restaurant, two shops and offices which will form the centrepiece in a project to revitalise the whole harbour area and transform it into an attraction for tourists and residents.

Other regeneration work already completed in the area includes new pontoon berths, which have doubled the amount of boats mooring at the harbour.

VisitScotland area director for Angus and Dundee Patrick O'Shaughnessy said: "This is an exciting project which we're confident will have an immediate and positive impact both to the visitor and to those involved in the tourism business.

"More than 600,000 visits are made by tourists from the UK and abroad to Angus and Dundee each year and the new centre will have a vital role in ensuring the greatest possible enjoyment of the experiences to be had in Arbroath and the surrounding region."

The final phase in the environmental improvements will include new pedestrian walkways, visitor information signs, improved seating and lighting and public artwork.

Over 2005, Scotland's butchers saw direct, over-the-counter sales of red meat jump by 14 per cent to £43.6 million, according to a study on behalf of Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) by independent market research firm TNS.

'This is excellent news for the hundreds of independent butcher businesses operating in Scotland,' said QMS marketing controller Andrew Ovens said. 'The figure for lamb is particularly encouraging, making it the fastest-growing red meat in the Scottish butcher shop sector as a result of a 37 per cent increase in value sales.'

According to the figures, Scots bought around 11 per cent more pork, ten per cent more beef and four per cent more lamb in 2005 than the year before. But Mr Crombie said that despite all the scare stories meat continued to be a good seller, adding that 2006 had got off to a strong start, with sales over January up around 15 per cent compared with last year.

The meat industry in Scotland employs around 34,000 people and contributes around £1.6 billion to Scotland's GDP.

The Aberdeen-based offshore division of ESS Support Services Worldwide has secured a three-year contract with Cal Dive International Limited worth £1.4 million total turnover.

Under the contract, 18 ESS staff will supply catering and hotel services for around 110 Cal Dive employees onboard the company's MSV Seawell, the world's first light well intervention vessel equipped to work on the Subsea wells installed in the North Sea and West of Shetland.

'Cal Dive is pleased to award the Seawell catering and housekeeping contract to ESS due to its commitment to delivering a safe, adaptable, high quality and cost- effective service for the next three years,' said Kevin Ferrol, Cal Dive's Supply Chain Manager.

'Our team has an excellent track record with a wealth of marine experience and we are pleased to add this contract to our portfolio,' said Peter Bruce, Managing Director of the UK division of ESS Support Services Worldwide.

Tickets for the Edinburgh Military Tattoo have sold out in record time, with fans throughout the world buying up all the tickets six months before the first performance.

The Tattoo said all 209,000 tickets had been sold six weeks earlier than last year. The event in August is one of the jewels in the crown of Scottish tourism and has netted £4.6 million in ticket sales and organisers have put up "sold-out signs" at ticket offices.

Over 1,000 performers from Australia, Switzerland, South Africa, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are set to feature in this summer's Tattoo, which includes the largest gathering of pipes and drums ever to grace Edinburgh Castle's esplanade.

Macdonald Hotels is to sell off a large amount of its non-Scottish property portfolio to raise more than £200 million for further development projects.

A spokesperson for Scotland's largest hotel chain said more than 20 of its 65 hotels would be put on the market on a sale and manage back basis. None of the 17 hotels the company owns in Scotland will be part of the sale.

Dewars Whisky is holding a special open day next Saturday for anyone interested in joining their team. The company is arranging special tours of their Glasgow premises for those interested in helping to make Scotland's national drink.

From 10pm until 3pm, Dewars will be opening their doors to prospective employees, explaining everything from the bottling process to packaging.

The company has dozens of positions available including bottling hall operators, team leaders, fork lift truck drivers and seasonal tour guides at their World of Whisky Visitor Centre in Aberfeldy.

Most of the positions with Dewars are full time, apart from the seasonal work in Fife and the position of Supply & Development officer.

For more information call 0141 551 4011.

Catering in Scotland currently has over a hundred and thirty jobs advertised online throughout the country. Click here to search our jobs database.

Sanjay Majhu, Chief Executive of Glasgow-based Harlequin Leisure Group, has won the Business and Commerce Excellence Award at a recent award ceremony in Manchester.

Sponsored by Lloyds TSB, the Asian Jewel Awards were established to recognise the achievements and success stories within the Asian business and corporate sector throughout the UK. Mr Majhu was presented with his award before an audience of 800 at a special ceremony held at Old Trafford.
'I accept this award on behalf of all my fellow directors and staff at Harlequin, Apple and Starlighting,' he said.

A successful entrepreneur with an expanding portfolio of business interests, Mr Majhu has worked in the restaurant trade ever since landing his first part-time job as a waiter in the Ashoka West End, Glasgow, while still at school. He assumed ownership of Glasgow-based Harlequin Leisure Group from Charan Gill, MBE, in an £8 million deal last March. Comprising 16 restaurants employing 350 staff and generating an annual turnover of £12 million, Harlequin Leisure Group is now gearing up for a period of rapid expansion.

THE flagship hotel based in the former offices of The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh has been sold to a billionaire Saudi businessman for £63 million. Mohamed Bin Issa al-Jaber multinational MBI International group is valued at £2 billion.

An MBI spokesman confirmed that the group intends to use the Scotsman's model as the basis of a new trans-European hotel brand, starting with ongoing £32 million refurbishment of its London property the Berners Hotel.

A spokesman for the Scotsman hotel called the purchase a "new dawn" for the group, which also includes the upmarket hotels 42 The Calls in Leeds and La Tremoille in Paris.

The Scotsman hotel is popular with business travellers and well-heeled leisure users which is reflected in high occupancy rates and a string of industry awards. Its restaurant, the Vermillion, has won two AA rosettes.

Richard Brook, group chief financial director for MBI International, said: "Sheikh Mohamed is very excited about the Scotsman and we have high expectations of taking the group on to greater things. This transaction puts the group firmly on its feet."

Victoria Chalmers has become the first female winner of the top hospitality award by impressing judges of the James Sankey Award for excellence in service with her in-depth knowledge of wine.

The first prize includes an exclusive handcrafted silver trophy and a trip to the Pommery in Champagne, France.

The 25 year old Queen Margaret University hospitality student, who works part-time in the Edinburgh restaurant Calistoga, won against competition from four other finalists from Dundee, Auchterarder, Korea and France.

The Ramada Mount Royal Hotel on Edinburgh's Princes Street is to be completely refurbished for £1m after hotel group Ramada Jarvis renewed the lease on the building. The bedrooms, restaurant and bar facilities of the fifty year old hotel next to Jenners are to be given a make over as part of the refurbishment.

Linda Watson, general manager of the three-star hotel, said: "We are all looking forward to starting a new chapter in the hotel's life. "This investment will reaffirm our position locally as a leading venue in the corporate and leisure break market."