Friday Five: The week's top news
- Former Midsummer House chef Danny Gill has launched his first pop-up restaurant in a school in a bid to tackle the chef shortage at grassroot level. Gill is calling on other chefs around the country to help with the scheme to get teenagers interested in a career in catering.
- Restaurants developing groundbreaking recipes and cooking techniques could be missing out on thousands of pounds of research and development tax relief, a new study has found. Previous tax breaks have been granted for the time spent testing the ageing process of beef, and a new technique to remove the fish skin on wild trout without damaging the flesh.
- Affinity Group has abruptly closed its two London gastropubs and Dickie Fitz restaurant in Fitzrovia. The company's Princess Victoria pub in Shepherd's Bush posted on Twitter that 80 staff had lost their jobs across the three venues, but its account has since been shut down.
- There was more bad news for the industry after Handmade Burger Co was confirmed to have gone in to administration. Nine of the group's 29 restaurants have immediately closed, and administrators have been appointed to 'save as many jobs as possible'.
- Finally Indian Accent, the high-end restaurant brand helmed by chef Manish Mehrota, has announced it will open a London outpost later this year. The original restaurant in New Dehli has been named the Best Restaurant in India by Asia's 50 Best Restaurants for three years running, and the group also has a site in New York.
For a full rundown of this week's news click here.
