Celebrating 23 years of helping our clients grow their businesses

Super sprinters Natalie and Charlotte looking fresh as daisies after the race

Natalie and Charlotte didn’t let the driving rain stop them from completing the Hotelympia 10km race in 56 minutes. Well done and congratulations on raising funds for Hospitality Action!!

This Sunday Charlotte and Natalie are lacing up their trainers and dashing across the Hotelympia 10km course for Hospitality Action. The William Murray team is behind you all the way (in spirit of course!) and wish you all the best. If you want to sponsor them please click the link: http://www.justgiving.com/natalieandcharlotte

The office is celebrating the return of London Restaurant Week – one of our highlights of the year.

Throughout March London Restaurant Week allows diners to enjoy a two course lunch for £15 or a three course dinner for £25 at some of London’s best restaurants. With 1 Lombard Street, Chutney Mary, Tamarind and Marco to choose from we are spoilt for choice.

Keep posted for reviews of our favourite eateries.

With reports in today’s press claiming many best-selling soups contain too much salt (some having as much salt as three Big Macs and fries) why don’t we just make our own?

All it takes is an onion, a stock cube (Knorr of course), some water and whatever veg is left in the fridge. Chop it up, chuck it in, and let it bubble for half an hour or so. Soup done.

A study by ‘Little Heroes’ found that Coca Cola is the most littered brand in Britain, with the firms bottles and cans accounting for 4.9 per cent of rubbish dropped around the country. Following closely behind was Walkers Crisps and McDonalds.

Around 70 per cent of the country’s litter comes from the ‘food on the go’ industry, so calls are being made for prominent anti-litter messages to become mandatory on packaging. It is a sad sign of the times that we have to be told that we need to dispose of our rubbish responsibly. What happened to good manners and common sense?

For some reason many of us do not view fish in the same light as land animals and subsequently may not equate their suffering in the same way. But intensive rearing of sea animals in confinement is fundamentally underwater factory farming.  Today’s Guardian has reported that industry guide, The Handbook of Salmon Farming has identified six “key stressors in the aquaculture environment”. It is alarming to see that these include water so fouled, it is hard for the fish to breath, intensive crowding leading to cannibalism, invasive handling, disturbance by farmworkers and wild animals, nutritional deficiencies and the inability to form a stable social hierarchy.  It is against this backdrop that is reassuring to know that there are companies out there, such as Lyons Seafood, that place great emphasis on ethical sourcing and sustainability.

Our South African team member here at William Murray was feeling patriotically pleased this week to hear that South African wine has overtaken French wine in the volume stakes. The growth is said to be driven by a combination of quality wine, affordable prices and South Africa’s increasing popularity as a holiday destination.  VIVA SOUTH AFRICA !!!

Peter Backman’s opinion piece in today’s Times states that ‘the recession has taught us all to be more demanding – food must be good quality, service must be efficient and friendly and value for money is paramount’.

From my experience at the weekend, there are some restaurants that would do well to take heed of this advice. At one unnamed restaurant in West Hampstead a portion of mushrooms on toast with poached egg arrived sans egg. When we dared to mention this to the waitress she implied we were lying, before ten minutes later plonking a wet poached egg in a ramekin down on the table to accompany the now cold mushrooms on toast. A visit to the toilet was met by, em, no women’s toilet and no alternative, and an attempt to pay the bill resulted in a 10 minute delay.

At the end of the ordeal, I mean meal, the waitress was shocked when we asked her to remove the service from the bill. More assertive customers will force restaurants to up their game.

With Fairtrade Fortnight kicking off on Monday the team at William Murray has been busy sharing customer Fairtrade news with the press.
One particular story has captured our imagination – wine company ViVAS is encouraging customers to support Fairtrade Fortnight’s Big Swap initiative by asking them to trade one wine on their current list to its Fairtrade and organic Viñedos de la Posada.

As well as sounding very tempting (the Torrontes has delicate citrus, floral, green apple and pineapple aromas, and a long, clean finish – yum!), the wine comes from Viñedos de la Posada – the world’s largest producer of certified organic-Fairtrade wine and the first winery in Argentina to receive Fairtrade certification in 2006.

Workers at the Vinedos de la Posada farm

It’s days like these I’m glad I live in Brighton.

Vietnamese restaurant Pho has announced it’s expanding the business outside of London, and is set to open its fourth site in Brighton this April.

Gingerman Restaurants, who currently own a few Brighton favourites –  including The Ginger Man and The Ginger Pig – are also opening a new site in the city this year. The new venue, to be named The Ginger Dog, will open in Kemptown.