Little Chef

[Stigand]

A little bit off topic but I bet most of the service station and railway franchise operators really hate the M&S Simply food outlets - vaguely edible food with no price premiums (Not as far as I have noticed - appears to be the same prices as high street shops).

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They would do - were it not for the fact that they're run by the same people.

Many airport, railway and service station food concessions are owned and operated by a company called SSP, until recently owned by Compass, the catering company. (There will normally be a little brass plate on the wall of the concession by the cash register telling you the owner, if you're curious.)

SSP operate M&S Simply Food stores at Airports, Railways and Service Stations under a franchising agreement with M&S.

I agree - M&S Simply Food is great.

From SSP's website:

From our exclusive agreement to operate M&S Simply Food franchises in travel locations in the UK, to our huge Burger King estate, we have relationships with many famous names. Locally and nationally, we have agreements with key franchise partners such as Germany's well-known Ditsch pretzels and local Singaporean noodle house Chen Fu Ji.

[malcolmwilliamson]

It was Little Chef's 50th birthday yesterday. Did anyone remember to send or deliver a card?

The Guardian reports (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/28/food-and-drink-heston-blumenthal-little-chef) that a party was held to celebrate the launch of Heston Blumenthal's new menu for the Popham branch. Their reporter selects these as highlights:

Breakfasts

Olympic breakfast, £6.95. Two outdoor-reared pork sausages, Wiltshire-cured bacon, two free-range eggs, Ramsay of Carluke black pudding, roasted mushroom, baked beans or chargrilled tomato

Starters

Scottish mussels in white wine sauce, £4.95

Mains

Braised ox cheeks in red wine sauce with mushrooms, £9.75; Beer and vegetable casserole, mustard dumplings, served with chopped parsley, a drizzle of olive oil and grated vegetarian, Italian-style hard cheese, £7.50

Desserts

Chocolate truffle slice, £3.75

Jay Rayner was at the launch. I'm looking forward to his review.

[PhilD]

Jay Rayner was at the launch. I'm looking forward to his review.

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Jay has already blogged in the comment section.

[Basildog]

It was Little Chef's 50th birthday yesterday. Did anyone remember to send or deliver a card?

I would send a wreath, if only the fucking chain would die

[Harters]

They've been doing the free range/outdoor reared thing for a while now. Stopped for brekkie at one earlier in the year - it actually was none too shabby. Not as good as your favourite greasy spoon, of course, but not bad if you're away from your normal brekkie haunts

[gingerbeer]

here is heston's full little chef menu... http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guar...porary_menu.pdf