Zizzi & Gizzi
Italian restaurant chain Zizzi has announced a partnership with food writer and chef Gizzi Erskine to create a special three-course Autumn menu that will be sold nationwide to raise money for The Prince’s Trust. Erskine and Zizzi were initially helped by Prince’s Trust to find an up-and-coming talent in food, who had been helped by the youth charity, to work with Erskine in creating the menu.
After a cook-off between the final four candidates, 29 year-old London chef Joe Gray was chosen. Together, Gray and Erskine will develop a seasonal three course menu that will be available in over 120 Zizzi restaurants nationwide this September. For every dish sold from their menu, Zizzi will make a donation to The Prince’s Trust. For more information, visit www.zizzi.co.uk/freshtalent.
Flower Show Tea
London Hilton on Park Lane has put together the the ‘Flower Show Afternoon Tea’ - a floral afternoon tea feast in honour of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Executive chef of the Podium restaurant Anthony Marshall, has created the tea which celebrates the Flower Show and the arrival of spring with the sights, smells and tastes that the season brings.
Items on the menu include strawberry and lemon meringue flower lolly; white chocolate lolly with crystallised violet petals; and passion fruit and elderflower macaroon with a crystalised rose petal. The Flower Show Afternoon Tea is available from 2:00pm – 6:00pm on 21 - 27 May and is priced at £32.50 per person, or £39.50 per person with a glass of champagne.
Cinematic partnership
The Salt Yard Group, which operates Salt Yard, Dehesa and Opera Tavern, will be teaming up with roaming cinema The Nomad as their official food partner for a series of pop up cinematic events in London’s Queen’s Park this summer. Using their newly launched catering arm, Salt Yard Group will offer cinema goers their own creative take on traditional cinema and al fresco fare, with a selection of dishes to choose from, including Ibérico burgers with manchego and guindilla, Ibérico hot dogs with romesco sauce, caramelized onions, guindilla and mustard alioli.
The events will take place on 18 August, 8 September and 22 September. The Salt Yard Group will also donate a £1 of each bill to The Nomad’s chosen charity The Sustainability Institute for any Nomad ticket holders who dine at their three restaurants during August.
Writers' Rooms
The Westin Dublin has chosen to name nine of its refurbished room after Irish writers, including Bram Stoker, Jonathan Swift and Patrick Kavanagh. The inspiration for the theming comes from the hotel's location at the heart of a UNESCO City of Literature. The Writers’ Rooms boast extra ‘character’, with a different feature in each room setting it apart. In addition to the nine Writers’ Rooms, four of The Westin Dublin’s suites – known collectively as the Library Suites – already bear the names of illustrious writers George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, W.B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde.