Restaurant takeover 

A team of Unilever employees took part in a restaurant takeover to raise money for a great cause. 

The team-building day saw a kitchen takeover at Brigade Restaurant in London Bridge, which runs the Beyond Food programme. 

Through Brigade, Beyond Food helps adults who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, back into sustainable employment. 

The event saw 35 Unilever employees cook and work together with the Brigade apprentice team to create a lunch served to 85 guests. 

Charlie Beevor, Global VP Household Cleaning Brands at Unilever, said: “Days like this not only reinforce how our brands can help to create social value, but also what we can achieve as a team.”

Head baker proves he’s world class

The head of baking at The School of Artisan Food has joined an elite group of inspirational bakers at the forefront of the craft profession after receiving a top international award. 

Wayne Caddy has been awarded the prestigious Elite de la Boulangerie Internationale award and becomes one of only a handful of people across the world to join the Elite Club of Artisanal Bakery. 

Wayne, who was instrumental in developing the Advanced Diploma in Artisan Baking, was the only UK baker to be presented with the award in Paris earlier this year. www.schoolof artisanfood.org. 

There’s no place like home 

Almost three quarters of people in the UK (73%) are choosing to indulge in UK tourist destinations this year, according to the latest consumer survey from hospitality business insurer NFU Mutual. 

London tops the list of UK tourist hot spots that they plan to visit, followed by the Lake District, Edinburgh and Cornwall. 

Outside of London, the North of England region can expect the highest number of holidaymakers (33%) at destinations including the Lake District, York, Manchester, Liverpool and the Yorkshire Dales, beating off stiff competition from the South Coast (30%) led by Cornwall and Devon. 

People in Northern Ireland topped the list of respondents planning to get away in the UK (82%), closely followed by 79% of Scottish respondents. 

Restaurant workers are UK’s most tipped profession

Since 2009, tipping has not been allowed to make up national minimum wage pay, but some 165,000 UK businesses still enjoy British tipping culture. 

Research by OnBuy.com into the UK’s tipping habits has revealed that 88% of people always tip waiting staff. 

• 24% would feel ashamed if they didn’t leave a tip 

• 21% of Brits would still tip at a restaurant even if the service was poor 

When asked why Brits tip, the majority of Brits, or 61%, answered that they do so because “that is just how things are done”. 

Leeds office workers munch a staggering 480,000 bags of crisps a day 

Leeds has won the dubious title of “King of the crunch” in a survey revealing the crisp-eating habits of office workers around the UK. 

Office workers in the city enjoyed munching their way through a staggering 125million bags of crisps last year, meaning each worker crunches through an average of six bags a week at work. 

That’s the finding of the LeedsOffices.co.uk which stumbled upon the surprising figure while researching lunch eating habits of office workers. 

The top five crisp-eating cities for office workers were: 

1. Leeds – 313 bags a year 

2. Birmingham – 261 bags a year 

3. Liverpool – 197 bags a year 

4. Nottingham – 185 bags a year 

5. Glasgow – 143 bags a year