Daily news update: our selection of food and chef news from the worlds press

Brian Clivaz and Laurence Isaacson buy L'Escargot in £2m project

Restaurateurs Brian Clivaz and Laurence Isaacson have bought L'Escargot restaurant in London's Soho.  The move, which saw the pair acquire the site from Marco Pierre White's White Star Line for an undisclosed sum, is part of a £2m project to revitalise the restaurant's reputation as a London institution.

Read more from Caterer & Hotelkeeper

 

Fake-food scandal revealed as tests show third of products mislabelled

Consumers are being sold food including mozzarella that is less than half real cheese, ham on pizzas that is either poultry or "meat emulsion", and frozen prawns that are 50% water, according to tests by a public laboratory.  The checks on hundreds of food samples, which were taken in West Yorkshire, revealed that more than a third were not what they claimed to be, or were mislabelled in some way.

Read more from The Guardian

 

Uncorked: No 10's wine list revealed

An unusual insight into how the British government entertains its high-end guests has been revealed by the release of the tasting notes for the £3.2m official wine cellar used to lubricate the wheels of international diplomacy at state banquets and Whitehall receptions.

Read more from The Independent

 

McDonald's Opens First Restaurant In Vietnam

US fast-food giant McDonald's has opened its first restaurant in communist Vietnam nearly 40 years after the end of the war which ended in defeat for America.  The arrival of one of the most enduring symbols of US capitalism in Ho Chi Minh City - formerly known as Saigon from where American troops dramatically withdrew in 1975 - is the result of a business partnership with the son-in-law of Vietnam's powerful Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Read more from Sky News