- Belfast chef Niall McKenna and Cosmo Restaurant Group chief executive Kan Koo are among the hospitality professionals to have been recognised in the 2025 New Year’s Honours list. McKenna received an MBE for services to hospitality and tourism, while Koo received an MBE for services to the hospitality industry. Designer and Coal Office co-owner Tom Dixon received a CBE for services to design; CH&Co Group CEO William Toner received an MBE for services to the hospitality sector; and Master Chefs of Great Britain chair George Alexander Sutherland McIvor received an MBE for services to the catering and tourism industry, as well as his charity work.
- Boxpark has secured a short-term lease to continue trading at its original site in London’s Shoreditch and says that ‘negotiations are positive’ about a further extension. The group had expected to have to close its Shoreditch outpost last summer after its landlord announced its intention to trigger a break clause in the lease. However, in its latest accounts for the year ended 30 April 2024, the group confirmed that the site continues to trade.
- Persian restaurant brand Berenjak is to open a third London site later this year in Mayfair. The group, which is backed by JKS Restaurants, has secured a site on the corner of Duke Street and Brown Hart Gardens. It announced its plans in a post on Instagram over the Christmas period. The site is currently undergoing a complete refurbishment and is expected to open in either the spring or the summer.
- Casual dining operator Tasty has agreed an insurance claim relating to losses in 2020. The group, whose portfolio consists of the Wildwood and Dim-T restaurant brands, has reached a full and final settlement with its insurer for £2.5m (£1.5m, net of creditor costs and legal costs) in relation to a claim for breach of a contract for insurance for losses arising in 2020. Tasty said the settlement sum is payable to the company within 21 days.
- A photographic book showing chefs in their restaurants during the 2020 lockdowns is seeking funding to become a reality. Photographer John Carey spent much of 2020 documenting the Covid-19 pandemic through the eyes of top chefs forced to close their restaurants by the UK Government. Called Chefs in Lockdown, the book shows the isolation, vulnerability, and raw emotion experienced by chefs and is designed to be a historical document to commemorate a unique moment in time, according to Carey. Due to be published in March to coincide with the fifth Anniversary of when the restaurants were forced to close, it features more than 180 chefs from across the country, including Angela Hartnett, Claude Bosi, Jason Atherton, Paul Ainsworth, Nathan Outlaw, Jack Stein and Alex Nietosvuori.