Friday Wrap: A round-up of the week's hospitality news

Although Friday Wrap can’t promise controversy in the league of Brand and Ross, there was still plenty to ponder within hospitality this week to delight and get the blood boiling in equal measure.

Certainly if you’re a supplier of London chef Tom Aikens it’s likely he’s off the Christmas card list. But despite putting the business into administration last week before selling it to new owners and thus sidestepping awkward issues such as paying bills, Aikens claimed this week that he still had the backing of his suppliers. A neat trick if you can pull it off. 
 
The Liberal Democrats unleashed another salvo on the Government’s much maligned tourism policy and specifically its decision to slash VisitBritain’s funding (again) last year.

The British Beer & Pub Association was definitely in a glass-half empty mood when they pointed out that the decision to raise beer tax in the Budget coupled with plummeting sales meant the Treasury would likely be £1.2b worse off during the next three years.

Restaurant operators headed an official list of businesses employing illegal immigrant workers and councils are cracking down on pubs but opting for inexpensive licence reviews rather than prosecutions.

Caterer revealed that catering giant Compass Group was retiring its ESS brand, which achieved a certain infamy a few years back in connection with a UN supply scandal.

The Restaurant winners were revealed, we had an exclusive chat with series star and Michelin-starred chef Raymond Blanc and caught up with The Restaurant judge David Moore.

Marcus Wareing entered into a partnership with caterer Aramark and Mark Broadbent called it a Day at D&D’s Bluebird in the capital to be replaced by Mark Block.

Harbour & Jones are looking forward to a religious experience having landed the catering deal at St Paul’s Cathedral and the massive new Westfield shopping centre opened in West London allowing shoppers to worship at the alter of consumerism instead.

And to end on a positive note Britain’s Culinary Olympics team returned from Erfurt, Germany with 35 medals. Good show. 
 

Editor's Pick 

• Westfield Shopping Centre not firing on all cylinders 
• Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay in "mates" shocker
• Tom Aikens: all still rosy in celebrity chef land
• Andrew Fairlie cooks pumpkin and chorizo risotto

Quote of the Week 
“This Government has been about as helpful to the pub trade as Margaret Thatcher was to the mining industry.”
Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland demands more support for community pubs.