Friday Five: The week's top news
-A chef at one of London’s best-rated Thai restaurants has been fired after he was found to have posted a number of racially offensive Instagram posts and YouTube videos. Som Saa chef Shaun Beagley also ran Thai food pop ups which he promoted through his Instagram account @boring.thai, and managed a YouTube channel dedicated to Thai recipes.
-The Gaucho restaurant group is preparing to file for administration, putting 1,500 jobs at risk. The business, which includes 16 Gaucho sites and the 22-strong Cau chain, had been in last-ditch talks to secure a buyer.
-As the pioneer of casual dining in the UK, PizzaExpress holds a unique position in the nation's hearts. And it is now hoping to pull at its strings. We looked at how the pizza chain has weathered the casual dining storm.
-Speaking at Restaurant magazine’s Congress event last month, Stem restaurant manager and partner in the TMRW Project Emma Underwood talked about why front of house need stages too.
-Real Junk Food Manchester (RJFM) is to open what it says is the North’s first outside catering business to only cook with food waste. RJFM is a non-profit project that takes unused food from supermarkets, wholesalers and other food businesses and turns it into healthy meals.