‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme’s success questioned.

New fi ndings from the British Chambers of Commerce’s quarterly economic survey indicate that the ‘Eat out to help out’ scheme, which ran throughout August and off ered discounts on meals in pubs, restaurants and cafés, had a fairly marginal impact on the sector as a whole.

The survey, which questioned 6,410 companies employing 580,000 staff , found that 66% of respondents in hospitality and catering reported a fall in sales and bookings between June and the end of September.

For the hospitality sector, returning to normal is now bound to be a long process, but with the right support, it is an industry that will be vital to the future growth of the economy, employing 1.6million people, point out the British Chambers of Commerce.

Private equity investment has been one of the only areas able or willing to provide growth fi nance to businesses in this arena, who are looking to grow during lockdown, they observe. It is also a sector that has provided vital survival fi nance to fi rms unable to access any government support as many pubs were, they add. “Gimmicky schemes like ‘Eat out to help out’ will not help create longevity in the hospitality industry,” said Luke Davis, chief executive of SME investment fi rm IW Capital, and who believes a lot more needs to be done to help the hospitality industry to survive.

“The sad truth is that in the hospitality sector, many businesses rely on packed spaces to make the most of custom. While the scheme may have helped to increase the number of bookings and footfall during the month of August, the rise of COVID-19 cases since then means that people are once again nervous to go out and dine.

“A real quick win and something that would give longevity to the sector would be to encourage investment, and allow hospitality businesses to qualify for EIS. To bring the sector back to life, it’s going to need a lot of investment. The government isn’t going to be able to stop the rot. You do need people to come along and buy up these assets, people who are willing to take the risk.”

EIS is a government scheme that off ers tax reliefs to individual investors who buy new shares in companies that qualify, but changes to the legislation in March 2018 mean that it is no longer applicable to the hospitality industry at large.

The UK’s favourite cuisines revealed

A new study has revealed the favourite global cuisines in 15 major cities in the UK and the most Instagrammed dish from each.

The research, conducted by meal kit delivery company HelloFresh, looked at the search demand for diff erent cuisines in cities across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland across a 12 month period. Of the 15 cities analysed, Chinese food is the most popular in four cities — Glasgow, Newcastle, Belfast and Plymouth — making it the UK’s overall favourite cuisine.

Brits are also keen to share snaps of their food on social media. On Instagram, fans of Italian food are most likely to share photos of pizzas (to date, there have been an incredible 55,600,000 pictures of pizza shared on the platform, the research found). In terms of the dishes we want to make at home, lasagne takes the top spot, with 70,000 people searching for a recipe each month. Other classic Italian dishes followed in second and third place, with 54,000 searches for pizza dough recipes and 31,000 searches for spaghetti Bolognese recipes.

Speaking about the data, Andre Dupin, head chef at HelloFresh, commented: “It’s great to see that a range of global cuisines are so popular in the UK and that a growing number of Brits are cooking their favourite dishes at home. Lockdown changed the pace of life for many of us, giving us more time to explore our hobbies and interests. For some, this has meant spending more time in the kitchen, developing skills that we can benefi t from long term.”

To fi nd out more, visit htt ps://www. hellofresh.co.uk/grocery-delivery/uksfavourite-cuisines

New pizza book from Pizza Pilgrims

Pizza: History, recipes, stories, people, places, love is a new book by the Pizza Pilgrims - Thom and James Elliot, who have spent years researching the best pizza that the world has to off er, including a pizza pilgrimage to Naples that involved a visit to the famous Caputo fl our mill in the run up to launching their now very popular pizzerias in the UK. The book covers everything from pizza’s history and family tree, to world famous pizzerias, and there’s even an exploration into the pizza variants we love to hate (hamburger crust pizza anyone?), say the Pizza Pilgrims, and can be bought online at Amazon. Alongside pizza maps of their favourite global pizza cities (so you can conduct your very own pizza pilgrimage), the book is also packed with over 30 recipes, interviews, pizza facts, movie scenes, world records and even pizza tattoos, having also been illustrated with all manner of pie-based fun and written with a hearty dose of humour.

Foodservice wholesaler says “Lockdown 2.0 will be completely different”

Vernon Mascarenhas - one of the UK’s leading fruit and vegetable wholesalers at Nature’s Choice, which supplies many of London’s top restaurants including the capital’s Michelin restaurants (The Lecture Room & Library at Sketch in Mayfair, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester and Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea) – has said that he feels ‘Lockdown 2’ as it is already being dubbed by some, will be totally diff erent for the sector than what was experienced before. Nature’s Choice launched a fruit and veg delivery box service for the fi rst time back in March when restaurants closed. The wholesaler is based at New Covent Garden Market in Vauxhall - the largest fresh produce market in the UK – so is well placed to see changes in the market and eating out sector early. “This lockdown will be completely diff erent to last time. Where home deliveries were a success during the fi rst lockdown when supermarkets failed to maintain stock levels in the face of panic buying, this is now the reverse. The supermarket supply chain is really strong and so we’re likely to see home delivery services get a lot more imaginative in this second lockdown,” said Vernon Mascarenhas.

“Takeaways and click and collect will become the norm as high street chains and restaurants learnt from the experience of the fi rst lockdown in March. They’re no longer scared to adapt to these new ways of working as they know they can do it well. For example, I know that Sketch will be launching a take-away menu, but almost all fi ne dining establishments will be forced to close in their entirety. The same delivery options aren’t open to them since so much of the experience is impossible to replicate on a takeaway basis.

“We’re also likely to see local neighbourhood restaurants shift into the deli model and become a hub for local communities. They will become places where those working from home can still enjoy the simple pleasures of a morning coff ee, or a takeaway lunch and dinner with a restaurant quality feel.”

First fresh frozen restaurant-quality pasta to launch in the UK

UK shoppers could get their fi rst taste of fresh frozen pasta in the new year as Beroni gets ready to launch restaurant quality pasta that can be made at home in as little as 30 seconds. Developed and manufactured in the UK, Beroni pasta dough is freshly prepared by mixing the fi nest durum wheat semolina with water. The fresh dough is then shaped into penne, fusilli or macaroni formats before being cooked ‘al dente’ then immediately frozen to preserve its freshness.

With families increasingly looking for quick meal solutions, with speed to prepare being a key consideration for shoppers when buying pasta, Beroni says that it ticks these boxes because it can be cooked in boiling water in only 30 seconds; microwaved at 800W for two minutes and 30 seconds or pan or wok-fried in three minutes. It contains no preservatives or additives. It is also suitable for vegans.

Aimed at families looking for an everyday meal option, Beroni pasta is produced in recyclable 1kg bags with an estimated MRP of under £3 per pack, and that it will be the fi rst fresh frozen pasta to have been launched in the UK, claim the fi rm. Manufactured in the UK by Ebrofrost, which has supplied fresh frozen pasta to restaurants around the world since 1998, Beroni is a three-way joint venture with FMCG and retail specialist Bridgethorne, which will handle commercial and marketing activity, and Food Team International, which will handle retail distribution and logistics.