Held at its new dates May 6-7 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, IWSB is the only forum in the world focused exclusively on the role of beverage alcohol in the restaurant and hospitality industry.

“The Star of the Bar mixology competition provides a great opportunity for mixologists to see who can create the most modern, inventive and marketable cocktail of the year,” said Jack Crawford Convention Chair for NRA Show 2012 and President and CEO of Ground Round Independent Owners Cooperative, LLC. “Whether you’re a head mixologist at the hottest spot in town or simply an alcohol artist, you just might be the next Star of the Bar.”

Interested individuals who would like a shot at the title, a trip to Chicago to demonstrate their skills at IWSB, as well as $5,000, should complete the following:
• Perfect a signature cocktail recipe that prominently features at least one product from an IWSB exhibitor.
• Create a video no more than 2 minutes long and upload it to YouTube describing and mixing the drink.
• Submit the entry form online by April 6, 2012, including a link to the video in the written recipe section.

Voting will take place at www.winespiritsbeer.org from April 9-11. Six semi-finalists will be flown to Chicago to demonstrate their cocktail live on the exhibit floor in front of top food and beverage industry leaders at IWSB on Sunday, May 6, 2012.

IWSB attendees will help narrow the field down to the top three finalists, who will then advance to the final round of live competition to be judged by Tony Abou-Ganim “The Master Mixologist,” “King Cocktail” Dale DeGroff, and Bravo’s Top Chef superstar Spike Mendelsohn at Restaurants Rock, the official party of the NRA Show and IWSB. All proceeds will benefit ProStart, the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation’s high-school culinary training program.

No purchase necessary. Limit one video submission per person. Content open to all legal residents of the 50 United States, 21 years of age or older. Void where restricted by law. See Official Rules online. Please bartend responsibly, depictions of unsafe or reckless mixology will not be accepted.

Now celebrating its 5th year, the International Wine, Spirits & Beer Event—co-located with NRA Show 2012—is the only forum in the world focused exclusively on the role of beverage alcohol in the restaurant and hospitality industry. IWSB features domestic and international brewers, distillers and vintners showcasing hundreds of established and emerging labels, beverage alcohol-focused, industry expert-led education sessions, hands-on demonstrations, dynamic mixology competition and access to professionally paired menu items from local Chicago restaurants.

The annual National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show is the largest single gathering of restaurant, foodservice and lodging professionals. NRA Show 2012 will be held May 5-8, at McCormick Place in Chicago. The event attracts 58,000+ attendees and visitors from all 50 states and 100+ countries, and showcases the latest products, services, innovative ideas, up-to-the-minute information about trends and issues and other growth opportunities than any other industry event.

For more information, visit the Show Web site at www.restaurant.org/show.

Highlighting The Bannatyne Spa Hotel’s excellent levels of customer service, facilities and cleanliness, the ratings are part of an internationally-respected quality scheme designed to promote high standards of guest accommodation in England.

Previously holding three stars, this improved rating is testament to the ongoing investments in quality and service made by its owners, The Bannatyne Group.

Bannatyne's Spa Hotel General Manager Justin Wermers and Operations Manager Geoff Green with the Four Star visit England Rating.

Since acquiring the hotel in 2007, The Bannatyne Group has introduced a £2 million extension to create a new bar and additional bedrooms and suites, increasing its capacity by over 40 percent.

Now offering 41 luxury en-suite rooms and suites, the hotel on Battle Road has become popular with UK and international guests visiting Hastings and the Sussex coast. It is also one of the leading wedding venues in the area and regularly hosts business events and meetings.

The multi-million pound contemporary hotel, which features a stylish fine dining restaurant, is set within 38 acres of beautiful gardens. The grounds also boast a golf course, a health and wellbeing spa and a state-of-the-art health club with a 20-metre swimming pool, fitness studios and a large gymnasium hosting a wide range of the latest exercise equipment.

Nigel Armstrong, Managing Director of The Bannatyne Group, said: “The Bannatyne Spa Hotel in Hastings is one of our flagship developments. It is very satisfying to see our investment in the hotel rewarded by this prestigious English Tourist Board rating.

“Hastings is a wonderful location and I hope the four-star rating will help attract new guests to the town to experience what Bannatyne’s, and the beautiful Sussex coast, has to offer.”

Geoff Green, Operations Manager for the Bannatyne Hotel Group, said: “Visit England’s ratings are hugely respected by leisure and business guests as well as across the hospitality industry. We are very proud to receive the four-star rating, which is a marvellous endorsement of the exceptional work of my team and The Bannatyne Group’s overall commitment to making the hotel, spa and health club a success.”

Research by Trustwave, a Visa Qualified Forensics Investigator (QFI), found that 38% of all card compromise incident investigations in 2009 occurred in the hospitality industry – highlighting the need for hotels to protect their payment systems.

Hotels can have more complex payment systems than other retail businesses, making it harder for them to achieve PCI DSS compliance. Compared with some retailers who may have only one point-of-sale, customer card data is stored and retrieved at multiple pay terminals within hotels, such as the reservation desk, restaurant, bar, or for room service, internet access and online bookings.

Visa Europe and Trustwave, in consultation with leading hotels, has developed a series of recommendations to help hoteliers and franchises lower the risk of security breaches:

· Change vendor-supplied defaults for passwords or other security information for Hotel Management Systems (HMS) and Point of Sale (POS) payment systems. The HMS is the central and core component in which cardholder data is stored, processed and transmitted to perform authorisation and settlement across other payment terminals in the network
· NULL sessions (unauthenticated connections to a Windows computer) should be disabled. This is the number one method for hackers to gain information on passwords, groups, services and users
· Install and maintain a firewall to protect data. HMS and POS payment systems should not be directly accessible via the Internet; inbound traffic should be blocked and outbound services should be filtered
· Assign a unique ID to each person with computer access and implement a dual-factor authentication method for remote system access via the Internet. This will mitigate unauthorised access into HMS and POS payment systems
· Track and monitor all access to network resources and cardholder data to track and monitor anomalies and suspicious attack activity

Stanley Skoglund, Senior Vice President Payment System Risk at Visa Europe said, “Cardholder data held by hotels is a potentially lucrative hub of information for fraudsters who view the hospitality sector as an easy target. By understanding the nature of security threats and the preventive measures that can be taken, hotels can reduce the risk of compromise. Hotels make up a large proportion of data compromises and Visa Europe is keen to work alongside the industry on initiatives like this white paper, to help increase awareness, to help strengthen defences, and reinforce consumer trust.”

Visa is introducing a range of guidelines for retailers including advice on emerging technologies such as data encryption and tokenisation, which help secure card data when it is either being moved or stored and make it simpler to achieve PCI DSS compliance.

For more information for Visa’s PCI DSS compliance guidelines and Visa’s Hospitality Breaches on the Rise whitepaper click here and look under Vulnerability Guidance

IS Energy Vision forms a part of the UK’s most cost effective and comprehensive Over The Top TV (OTTTV) media system that was launched last month and can measure all utilities including fresh and grey water, gas and electricity. Using the system can result in initial savings of up to 15% in energy usage per resident or guest.

“One of the biggest green challenges for both apartment owners and hotel guests is visualising the energy that they’re using and being able to see this in an easily understandable way,” said Teresa Robbins, Director at isrighthere. “By displaying this type of information clearly on the TV screen, guests and residents will be able to make a concrete effort to reduce the amount of energy they use.”

For apartment owners, saving energy has its obvious advantages, but for hotel guests and residents, the ability to compare energy usage across the building average will help encourage individuals to be more conscientious and switch off lights and plugs when they’re not needed. Hotel management will reap the benefits as they will be able to monitor and manage their traditionally large energy bills.

In a recently completed green-build project using IS Energy Vision, savings of 57% in carbon emitted (CO2) have been shown compared to an equivalent standard new build home.

IS Energy Vision displays the energy usage information through the TV screen along with other services through the centralised cloud based architecture of isrighthere’s IS Media solution. This removes the need for hotel and estate owners to purchase and install expensive and energy hungry TV head end equipment on site, making it vastly cheaper and more flexible than alternative solutions. This visibility, together with reduced energy consumption, makes it a viable option for many hotel and managed estate owners.

IS Energy Vision is available now and is already being used by a number of the UK’s leading hotels and property developers.

Helping residents and hotel guests to reduce their CO2 footprint

For further information click here

In my younger days I was a main player in the building of our country’s nuclear deterrent (Trident) and I was reasonably well known throughout the hallowed halls of the MOD. I would like to think this fame was due to my intellect, debating skills and wit but in reality and being a keen fan of the Sex Pistols it was probably more likely to be my 18 inch green Mohican hair style intermingled in a sea of grey suits. One day whilst on walkabout the conservative Minister of Defence at the time put his hand on my shoulder and said, You know what son. “If you are not a communist at 20 you have got no heart, and if your still a communist at 30 you’ve got no brain” and you know what? He was right on both counts.

The moral of this little story is that if you did not have an EU scoured foreign satellite system for the 2009-2010 season then you had no heart and if you still have none for the 2010-2011 season then you have no brain, and here’s why.

Life is full of opportunity and regret and when the high courts in London referred the FAPL Vs Foreign Satellite dealer’s and users to Europe then this opened up a window of real opportunity for those of us with a heart.

That window of opportunity was to run an EU system such as German or Italian alongside British Sky as both these systems show the all important 3.00pm kick off. They compliment BSyB and if run in conjunction would give wall to wall sport and you would enjoy an enforced amnesty for a limited period of time. This window existed because it would in my opinion be impossible to prosecute anyone using a European System until after the court case which was at the time expected to take place sometime between October 2009 and October 2010.

The commonly held belief then (and it still stands today) is that the European Court will conclude that due to poorly written EU law a “loophole” had been created that allowed the use of EU sourced foreign cards in UK pubs, but that loophole is now firmly closed and the practice must stop with immediate effect.
This may of course be complete rubbish and the Europeans found the practice to be illegal from the off in which case all bets are off and the perpetrators of the heinous crime are going to hell in a hand cart and that bridge needs to be crossed if this happens.

This degree of uncertainty is the reason why the use of foreign systems in the UK is not as prevalent as it could be and it’s certainly not a route that should be taken by the risk adverse or those of a nervous disposition. It was at best complimentary to Sky and at worst an illegal activity.

My personal involvement in foreign satellite commenced in public on the 24th June 2008 which is the date that The honourable Mr Justice Kitchen referred the issue to Europe. From that point on it became a commercial decision and not a legal one as to whether to go down the EU foreign route or not. I wrote to every multiple operator and pubco and indeed everyone I knew and told them so. I also told them that it was a window of opportunity and time dependent and they needed to act fast and gain first mover advantage if they were to benefit from the opportunity.

I also told anyone who would listen as far back as June 2008 NOT to sign up for an extended subscription package or buy any EU systems AFTER October 2009. This was as far as I was concerned the cut off date for the window of opportunity as a decision could be announced any time shortly thereafter, and that decision would always prevent the continued use of foreign systems commercially.

October 2009 was the agreement I had with others in the industry and it was commonly regarded as the safe bet. The reason for this is that none of us have a crystal ball and as stated it is the common belief that you will not be able to use foreign satellite after the hearing as at best it will be deemed to be illegal from that point on. At worst it could always have been illegal and prosecutions could start retrospectively so get the hell out while you can and if sport is good for you then sign up to Sky.

The risk to those users who continue to screen foreign satellite is that it’s due in court any time now and if you have signed up for a year or even two or worse still have paid up front then the card dealer in all probability will be sunning himself on some far away beach with his ill gotten gains. If you are on subscription then my advice would be to stop the mandate now and tell them to come and talk it out. Sign up to Sky and let the MPS go after the low hanging fruit who still openly flaunt the law, you got away with it so get out whilst the goings good and your integrity intact.

I exited the business as promised in October 2009 as I wanted to play fair but many others did not as the greed and easy money took control of their senses. It’s true the case has not yet been heard but that is more luck than judgement and anyone currently using or worse still depending on EU scoured systems has a very short shelf life and need to rapidly reconsider their position.

For those using foreign satellite systems scoured from outside the EU, that’s another story altogether. Without wishing to offend you deserve to be horsewhipped but as that’s no longer allowed then the prospect of sharing a prison cell with the gay chapter of the hells angels is defiantly on the cards for you my boy. Your children will put in the care of a catholic priest and your partner will be hanging around street corners providing “favours” for gentlemen and here’s why.

The entire legal defence meandering its way through the ECJ is based on the freedom of movement of goods within the EU. A past associate of mine argued that Albania is pretty close to the EU so it must be OK for him to sell them. I explained that he was pretty close to having breasts but it did not make him a woman! It just made him fat, stupid, deceitful and greedy.

Anyone selling commercially or using commercially NON –EU systems is without question breaking the law and sooner or later you will get caught. If this is you then throw it out now and call your supplier and demand your money back. This is not a case of me turning from poacher to gamekeeper it’s a case of simple common sense. Albania and for those of you who are geographically challenged is NOT in the EU neither is North Africa and they never have been. You are not protected from prosecution and any sharp suited fast talking salesman telling you different is simply having your pants down and preparing you for your inevitable visit to the aforementioned gay bikers love shack. if you are daft enough to take it then there are plenty of shady dealers out there willing to give it and I have it on good authority that it apparently makes your eyes water.

There is also another category of user out there even more stupid than then those geographically challenged felons awaiting a good rogering from their new biker friends and that is those who have purchased streaming devices or cloned cards and these people are committing a very serious criminal offence.

Cloning and streaming is theft yet I have heard of national pubcos promoting the latter which is stupid beyond belief. As the old adage goes “if something sounds too good to be true it probably is” and again it’s a case of greed from both the supplier and user who both pay less and make more. Both are thieves and both have no defence. WHEN caught you have no place to hide. You cannot act dumb and stupid because that is already a given and you will go to jail for a very long time.

During my time promoting the use of EU scoured satellite I always explained that SKY offer an incredible service and it’s not a matter of what it costs as that’s irrelevant and the simple question is does it offer my business value for money? . If for example Sky contributes double its cost to your margin or if your business is predominantly sports orientated then why on earth are you putting two fingers up at the golden goose? KEEP SKY and during the window of opportunity which is now well and truly closed you should have complimented it with an EU system.

I have lost count of the number of people who used to phone me and say my system (costing £2,500 PA) has gone down and they have lost £10,000 today. Well I am sorry that you are such an ignoramus that you want to jeopardise what is obviously a very good business for the sake of a few quid. Why on earth did you take out sky and what planet did you say you are from again?

As a final note and even if you are for example the cleanest of the clean Sky Italia supplier or user. There is no such thing as a legal commercial sky Italia card in the UK (or indeed any other non UK country of origin). Every single one of them out there is registered to a domestic address in Italy using a false name and a dubiously acquired national insurance number. That card is then shipped to the UK for onward sale to be used commercially, possibly by you?

The reason you sometimes experience viewing difficulty is that on average there are 7 links in the chain between the clandestine manor in which this domestic card was obtained and it reaching your pub. Whilst some or these links may be “Honest John” trying to make a living others could be fairly sinister organised crime. Money passes from you the user all along this chain and if some organisation does not pass it down to the next level then you and get turned off. That’s the top and bottom of it. “You pay your money and you take your chance” and hopefully you stay out of jail.

Preparations for the second annual Nottingham Food and Drink Festival taking place between 23 and 26 September are underway with the organisers hoping to attract 25,000 visitors.

We Are Nottingham, which is the city’s Business Improvement District (BID) representing all of the city centre’s licensed premises, put on the successful inaugural event last year that saw tens of thousands of visitors flock to the city centre to take advantage of the entertainment. This year the city is aiming to entice a third more people to the festival.

Again, this year the festival is being organised and funded by local bar and restaurant owners. Different venues across the city are preparing a wide variety of food-related activities, and a line-up of celebrity chefs from Italy, India and the Caribbean have been booked.

Sylvia Manser, chief executive of We Are Nottingham, is excited about the wide range of activities and talents to be displayed this year:

“We are a young festival, but I believe that as the event is entirely organised by the local restaurants and bars, then we stay close to our core purpose of putting on entertainment which everyone will enjoy – and showcasing some great food and drink. We are hoping to attract thousands more visitors this year as we become an established event on the nation’s culinary calendar.”

The festival will have live cook-offs, chef demonstrations, cookery masterclasses, and a host of tasting areas courtesy of local restaurants, bars and eateries, as well as a special food and drink market featuring local suppliers in Nottingham’s central hub, Old Market Square. Venues around the city will also be playing host to a number of events around the city centre.

Gino D’Acampo

Gino D’Acampo, the legendary Italian chef will be opening the Celebrity Chef’s Theatre on the Thursday, whilst TV personality and Ready Steady Cook presenter Ainsley Harriott will be closing the festival on Sunday.

Caribbean soul food chef Momma Cherri and Michelin-starred chef and Great British Menu representatives Atul Kochhar will also be performing during the festival.

Other highlights include a Ready Steady Cook style challenge, where members of the armed forces will be partnered with chefs from venues in the city to take part in a series of cook-offs in aid of the Help for Heroes charity. Local sports stars will also be competing at similar events during the four day festival, with a third of the money raised from ticket sales for each of the challenges going to a charity of the winner’s choice.

For further information visit www.wearenottingham.co.uk/foodanddrink.

Kitchen staff encouraged to strut their stuff on camera with their special talent to be in with a chance of winning a £1000 cash prize!

Do you work in a restaurant or takeaway kitchen and have talents that go beyond cooking and washing up? If so, you could win one of three £1000 cash prizes by entering www.kitchenstoptalent.com! Perhaps in your spare time you’re proud of your smooth dance moves or enjoy a spot of juggling.  Or maybe you do great impressions of famous celebrities or entertain your colleagues with your singing. Whatever your talent, P&G Professional has the contest for all wannabe stars – Hederol’s “Kitchen’s Top Talent” campaign.

The competition offers three members of the hospitality industry the chance to win £1000 each by submitting video clips of them performing their top talent. Videos can be captured by mobile phone, camcorder or digital camera and uploaded straight to the Kitchen’s Top Talent website (www.kitchenstoptalent.com).

Restaurants have until 23 July to enter their clips, after which the website will be open forpublic voting. The winners will be chosen by members of the public who will be invited to vote for their most memorable video clip – meaning funny clips will have just as much chance as serious competitors to win!

Hederol will provide participating restaurants with business promotional toolkits to allow them to drum up support and create publicity in their community. The overall winner will also have their very own Hederol Road Show, an exciting event which takes place at the establishment where they work to showcase their talent in their local community.

Nick Beresford, Managing Director, P&G Professional said: “Our campaign is about realising the true potential of our kitchen staff. Chef’s aside, back of house staff have long been the unsung heroes of the restaurant industry. Kitchen’s Top Talent is about recognising these vital members of the industry by giving kitchen staff a moment in the spotlight.”

The campaign will be supported by P&G Professional’s Hederol, a long-lasting efficient washing-up solution that is made for the trade. With its ability to cut through grease easily and effectively, Hederol is the ideal solution for busy restaurant, café and QSR operators, with one 5L bottle washing up to 7,000 dishes.

For further information on P&G Professional, please visit www.pgprof.com.

Following successful rollouts of contactless by Barclays and Barclaycard in London across establishments such as EAT. and Subway, Little Chef’s adoption will see the technology implemented in all of its outlets. It is the first UK restaurant group to fully embrace contactless.

Little Chef is positive that contactless will improve the overall experience for its guests by making the payment process as efficient as possible. The contactless payments system is live now and will be promoted to customers with a full range of Point of Sale material in all restaurants. The restaurant chain has opted for Barclaycard’s own technology and had new machines installed to support this where required.

Tracey Mulligan, Interim Managing Director, Little Chef said: “We’re constantly working on improving our offer within Little Chef. As well as food and service, technology plays a big part in improving the customer experience and making our offer relevant to today’s busy traveller. We believe that contactless is an important part of the future of payments and are committed to embracing it in its early stages.”

Stuart Neal, Head of UK Payment Acceptance, Barclaycard, commented: “The rollout at Little Chef is a significant development in the progress of contactless. The technology fits just as well in a restaurant as it does in a coffee shop or retailer, and the nature of Little Chef’s business means that its customers are looking for a quick and convenient pit stop. It is also encouraging to see contactless being established outside of central London, meaning that our eight million contactless cardholders across the UK can make full use of the technology.”

Barclays and Barclaycard are the leading providers of contactless debit and credit cards and terminals in the UK. Since September 2007, they have issued over 25,000 contactless terminals, enabling retailers to manage transactions quicker and more easily.

Contactless allows customers to make purchases of £15 or less, without the need to enter a PIN or enter their card into a payment terminal. Once the card has been held over the contactless terminal, the transaction uses a secure network to automatically add the purchase to the customer’s credit card bill or debit it from their current account.

Portraying a mix of Indian tradition and its enriching culture, the Desi collection stays true to All India Art’s promise to deliver a true piece of Indian life. The Desi range starts at only £28 and goes up to £300, providing art buyers and consumers with quality art prints and paintings that can become a collector’s item, increasing in value over time.

New pieces introduced to the Desi collection consist of the exquisite Peacock Feathers, A Starry Night and Glimpse of a Palace paintings. Other new pieces to feature in the Desi collection include the Ghoomar Dance and Holi in Gujarat paintings.

In addition to the Desi range, All India Arts also offers other collections to be treasured. Offering paintings and artwork to suit every taste and individual, other ranges include Historical, Faith and Modern pieces.

Ram Agarwall Founder of All India Arts commented: “We are delighted to unveil the new Desi paintings to our now extensive collection of art work available online. The new Desi range provides a variety of eclectic and colourful art prints, which are both beautiful to look at and high in quality.”

The new pieces added to the Desi range, are particularly suitable for restaurateurs, who wish to provide the most pleasurable dining experience for their customers. Aside from the food itself, we believe a vital element of dining is the ability to enjoy the fittings and environment of a restaurant, which ultimately customers will return to.

All India Arts prints and paintings can be purchased for a number of occasions, either to update a room, home or office, or as a gift in order to celebrate a Birthday, Christening, Anniversary or Wedding. An online destination which is incredibly simple to use, All India Arts.com provides visitors with the chance to purchase art whenever they wish, 365 days of the year and 24 hours a day.

To view the full collection of Indian artwork, visit www.allindiaarts.com

Albert Roux OBE

This year’s Centre Stage also has an exhilarating line-up, featuring some of the finest chefs who will be sharing their talent and skills during the three-day event. Throughout the intense and thrilling workshop sessions, the audiences will be able to learn from the masters and leave with exciting ideas and new dishes to transform their menus.

Included in the line-up who will participate on this arena are Chris and Jeff Galvin, Galvin Restaurants; Mauro Colagreco, mirazur; Claude Bosi, Hibiscus; Massimo Bottura, Osteria Francescana; Jad Youssef, Yalla Yalla; Jun Tanaka, Pearl Restaurant; Hamish Brown, Roka; Anna Hansen, The Modern Pantry; Vivek Singh, The Cinnamon Club; Sandiago Guerrero, Iberica Food & Culture; Fatih Guven, SAF London; Ashley Palmer-Watts, Dinner by Heston Blumenthall, Mike Robinson, The Pot Kiln (and co-owner of The Harwood Arms); Sven Elverfeld, Aqua and Paul Merrett.

Features manager for The Restaurant Show 2010, Clair Bowman, adds: “We are honoured to have Albert Roux open this year’s Restaurant Show. He is incredibly well-respected in the industry and it’s a coup to have him involved.

“We’re also really excited about our line-up on the Centre Stage and are confident that our visitors will be treated to many inspirational demonstrations from some of the world’s leading chefs. It’s going to be hard to come for just one day with all the opportunities and entertainment we have lined up for our visitors.”

The show, which is now in its 22nd year and is set to be bigger and better than ever before, runs from 11th – 13th October 2010. To find out more about The Restaurant Show 2010 or register for tickets, log on to www.therestaurantshow.co.uk.