Yes, it’s food time once again, and let us think differently. At YOO BY THE LAKES in England’s Cotswolds, the 170 designer ‘units’ – independent houses and luxury apartments that can be rented – have superb inbuilt kitchenettes with washing machines. The units are self-catering, other than a breakfast hamper delivered to your door. For those who do not want to cook, help is at hand. Elsa’s, the hub of the whole complex, is one giant tepee, with a darned good chef who produces regular Friday night pizzas, Sunday lunch-time roasts and, anytime until that order runs out, fish and chips. Complementing this is a Citroen truck, above, a bar that is also used for parties and other events.
Food trucks are not unique. LE RITZ PARIS takes its sweet-oriented truck to the USA for Netflix shooting, showing off patissier Francois Perret’s mouthwatering pastries. And LUX* properties in the Indian ocean have food trucks as permanent garden-set bars.
LUX sibling Salt Hotels has a splendid cookbook, The Salt Cookbook: Mauritius Homegrown. Its foreword is by Paul Jones, CEO of both LUX* and Salt, who is passionate about sustainability and flavour. Think local, is his message, and the book’s recipes include, for instance, a beer tart, made with Mauritius favourite, Phoenix.
Rise to any challenge. Don Sloan, CEO of the admirable Oxford Culinary Collective OCC, is working on projects in Bangladesh and Scotland, where a culinary educational facility is being constructed outside Leith, neighbour to Edinburgh.
In Dubai, mighty conglomerate MAF had a challenge. How to encourage retail loyalty when your Mall of the Emirates has competition in this seat of shopping? Turn offices in the integral KEMPINSKI HOTEL – the one with the internal ski slopes – into a private members’ club. Only hotel guests and the higher-spending retail consumers have access. Food, drink and networking (if by any chance you are bored whizz down the snow). The 9, an exclusive private members club PMC for highest spenders in the adjacent MAF shopping mall as well as hotel chalet-suite guests (there is free club membership and access but pay at-cost for dining at the club’s GARTH Mediterranean bistro and for alcohol, with a range of Champagnes that includes Dom Pérignon)
And now, good news. Today is the launch of MARY’S INNER CIRCLE, the weekly up-to-the-minute newswire. See https://www.patreon.com/mginnercircle
