Chips and Chatter

On todays show, Rebecca from Fish Chips and Fast Food Magazine comes on our (not so) weekly news show. We will be trying to make these show more regular in the future. We do have a Facebook Page (likes are great) And our show is over on iTunes and here is the link ‘Chips and Chatter Show Notes On todays show we talk about:- Facebook Page Fish Chips and Fast Food iTunes Show Chips and Chatter and Reviews Kevin McWhinney’s New Show Who’s Telling Porkies LAX Culinary training program - The New Food Standard for Airports Heidi Klums new Burger ad for CarlJr’s… ( Boys Only Link on Youtube ) Healthy trends… Balsamic and Chips! Secret Menu’s ( Could get in trouble for this) And Finally.... Dont forget to leave your comments below:- Mark

On todays show we interview Kevin Mcwhinney from Mcwhinneys Sausages. Kevin opens up and tells us the secret ingredient in his product right at the start of the show. You can listen to it or watch the video below. For Audio only version you can listen by using the player below. Show Notes Introduction to Keven Mcwhinney What Kevin Says You put the right meat in and you get the right meat out. Kevins company is based in Northern Ireland and he has been in the chair running the company for 20 years. McWhinneys sausages supply restaurants, fish and chip shops, hotels, cafés etc. We talk about MRM and MSM ( mechanically recovered meat later renamed to Mechanically Separated Meat ) and (DSM) De-Sinewed Meat Cheap alternatives to the 'real thing' Whats going on in the food labelling industry? Being 'honest' its time the industry where more honest about what goes into the product. How does the consumer know exactly what is in a meat product they are going to buy? Quality Quality Quality How did the industry get into this mess in the first place? Money is harder to come by and many are making less money than they were 5 years ago. Are they buying from the cheapest source possible? Where do you buy your product from? Do you know exactly where its coming from. 1.5 Ib of sausages for £0.88 Pence. "I cannot see what is in this product at this price." Caterers could easily buy a burger or sausage with horse meat in it and all they need to do by law is say it's "sausage" or "burger". Until it all gets a little more honest the public don't really know whats in the product they are buying and eating. Is their a Health Issue? To say their is no health risk " they must be talking from the other end of their body, everybody, government's etc, just want it all to go away" Policing the issue How much would it cost to police meat products how we could charge for this. Kevin has been fighting with the FSA for over a decade. Official complaint is already in place with Brussels. Awaiting reply. The BBC cam to our Factory for over 2.5 hours. Here is the link to the BBC Page Legal loophole allows banned mechanical meat in UK sausages Colouring issue with sausage Im not scientific, but it doesn't take a scientific mind to know that pork is white! Getting confidence back into the market. Trust.. Quality you can trust. I want to buy my meat now from someone who can tell me where they have sourced their meat. Pork not Porkies Window Sticker link (contact via the form and they will send you a window sticker ) You will never see Kevin McWhinney needs a 'New and Improved' product, Ask yourself the question, after 120 years if we haven't got the recipe right by now its time to get out of the game. So what can the food industry learn from the last 6 months? The food industry needs to start sourcing meat responsibly. Label the meat accurately. charge the right price. stop sourcing goods from all over the world pre minced. buy meat when you can actually see what that meat is. Kevin McWhinney can be contacted through his website at http://mcwhinneys.com After the show Kevin made an offer that anybody could come and visit his factory over in Northern Ireland and see for themselves the practices and procedures.

Today i was fortunate enough to interview Nigel Hodgson from KFE's School of Frying Excellence. Nigel is one of three instructors who run the 2 day course in the lovely market town of Market Deeping in Lincolnshire. Audio Only    

Audio only Show Notes Fast food news and this week is a double episode. Rebecca and I talk about the imaginatively titles The Cheese's of Nazereth. In this show we discuss the fast food news over the last couple of weeks including Starbucks in the news, a fat blocking soda from Japan (PepsiCo) and we cover some fun with the 10 commandments of fast food. Also apologies for information in an earlier episode ( now removed ) where we talked about the National Fish and Chip Awards as there was some confusion about who were nominated for 2013. I inferred that Seniors were winners but in fact were the recipients of the Independent Fish and Chip Shop of the year 2012 award. ( thanks to Richardson's Fish Bar for the right info. )    

Today we are releasing a new weekly fast food show format, where both myself and Rebecca Sayers from Fish Chips and Fast Food Magazine discuss a roundup of weekly fast food news. Show Notes On Todays Show: 00:30 World Record of largest portion of fish and chips ever cooked 01:30 Robot Run Fast Food Franchise 03:47 KFC invest $600,000 in training scheme and enjoy 24 months of growth ( consecutive ) 05:14 McDonalds introduce the McPuff Pizza and McAloo Tikki Burger 07:25 McDonalds Food Fight Pie Vs Pasty 08:40 Fish and Chips Awards 25th Anniversary 09:29 Mood Lighting 10:30 Fish oils and Links to a Healthy Heart 12:10 The Worst Fish and Chips You Have Ever Had 13:10 A Crime Punishable By Death ( Soggy Chips ) 13:35 10 Things You Never Knew About The Humble Chip

Show Notes National Fish & Chip Awards 2013 are almost upon us. The event is being hosted at The Lancaster London Hotel in London on the 24th Jan 2013 an I for one am really looking forward to the event. I spoke to Rebecca Sayers from Fish Chips and Fast Food Magazine about what the awards are for, who is behind the awards, how to nominate yourself for an award and ultimately what the benefits are for all concerned. *update Rory Bremner has been announced as the host for the event.  

Ducting Doctors Show Notes Today we have on the show Simon Chugg from Martin Edwards / Frank Ford and their Ducting Doctors service. SImon gives us a background on extraction, duct cleaning, regulations concerning insurance etc. Enjoy the show and don't forget to subscribe, like and +1 the show. Mark I made the accompanying notes to give you an idea of the discussion above. If you want to listen to the show while your on the go then subscribe to the show on iTunes and add the show to your phone, iPod etc. Here is the link [Chips & Chatter] Show Notes - [ ] Simon Chugg - [ ] Martin Edwards Frank Ford - [ ] What Martin Edwards does - [ ] One Stop Shop - [ ] Manufacture and Install Chip Shop Ranges - [ ] Professional Duct Cleaning- Why it isn't being done properly - [ ] Scraping and certification - [ ] Simon describes the process of duct cleaning - [ ] Regulations Why Insurance companies don't tell you? - [ ] People don't read the small print - [ ] Fire's - [ ] Why Scraping isn't good enough - [ ] Everything from Vinegar Bottles to Posh Tills - [ ] What is the extraction system - [ ] Purpose to remove products of combustion from the burning system - [ ] Galvanised Round Ducting Construction - [ ] Removes steam and fumes - [ ] Carbon Monoxide by product ( dangerous Gas ) - [ ] Temperatures - [ ] Steam and odours are grease laden - [ ] Particles coat extraction system - [ ] Reduce air flow - [ ] Compromise efficiency of frying equipment - [ ] The fat deposits get closer to the grease deposits which increases risk of fire - [ ] How often your ducting requires cleaning - [ ] Twice a year - [ ] at least once a year - [ ] Insurance requirements - [ ] Steam Fumes and Smoke in your Shop? - [ ] How Difficult is it to clean your Ducting? - [ ] Certification - [ ] Are You Compliant - [ ] Insurance Purposes - [ ] The Benefits of Having Servicing and Duct Cleaning Done at the same time - [ ] Fully Qualified engineer should adjust the airflow accordingly - [ ] Servicing is done on an annual basis anyway - [ ] Makes sense to do the duct cleaning - [ ] Web Site www.me-ff.com - [ ] Alcohol related stories - [ ] The Ant Story! - [ ] Half a Million Ants - [ ] How long it takes to perform a duct clean and service your range.

Today we were fortunate enough to have 'The Undercover Boss' Andrew Withers on our show Chips and Chatter. Andrew took his father ( Arthur Withers ) recipe for Southern Fried Chicken and launched an international Franchise. That operation now has 400+ international franchise restaurants and operates in over 70 countries worldwide. Now Andrew has turned his attention to the UK. With over 200 Southern Fried Chicken license holders its Andrews mission to bring those outlets up to the same standards and into his extremely successful franchise model. Do you Want to Double Your Sales, Or Not? This is the question he puts to the license holders here in the UK. Andrew's clearly got it right with UK operators switching to the new franchise agreement showing double the sales volume. He's also getting tough with license holders who are not conforming to the original license agreement. If you would like to watch Andrew's Undercover Boss show I include the link at the end of the post. I am also including a pretty comprehensive set of show notes below based on the content of the show. SFC Show Notes - [ ] The Condition of the brand SFC in the UK - [ ] Background of the Recipe and Arthur Withers - [ ] The Undercover Boss Follow Up - [ ] Emotional Involvement - [ ] 27 Hours of footage for a 1 hour show - [ ] 10 days of recording - [ ] No script - [ ] Setup of the situations - [ ] Reactions of the camera crew - [ ] International Success With 400+ restaurants - [ ] 60 Restaurants in Russia - [ ] Successfully introduced the Franchise - [ ] Guidelines - [ ] Standards - [ ] Manuals - [ ] Contracts - [ ] Systems - [ ] Operation Manuals - [ ] Changing from a license to a franchise agreement - [ ] The difference between a license agreement and a franchise agreement - [ ] When your brand gets big - [ ] The dangers of not franchising - [ ] To Protect the brand - [ ] Brand awareness - [ ] The Steps you need to take to protect your brand - [ ] Contract - [ ] Good training system - [ ] Bakup up with a good contract - [ ] What made you decide to go abroad - [ ] Reactive - [ ] Can you open in the Middle East - [ ] Demand drove other markets - [ ] Africa and Asia - [ ] Now its Where do we want to be? - [ ] Why the Undercover Boss didn't put across - [ ] UK was not a franchise - [ ] It was a license model - [ ] Manuals in Systems when we went abroad. - [ ] We had more control abroad than we did in the UK - [ ] When we got back the dilemma was to how do we do convert the license operations - [ ] Into the same successful model we had implemented abroad - [ ] When we converted stores in the UK they doubled sales - [ ] So now its a simple question - [ ] Do you want to double sales or not? - [ ] The Pain of writing up operations manuals - [ ] Employed ex-Macdonalds - [ ] Developed over time - [ ] As you see problems You write systems - [ ] One Manual turned into Nine - [ ] Everythig grew and now we are turing the manuals into video training. - [ ] We must make it easier for people to do the right thing - [ ] Manuals can be daunting - [ ] No-one reads the manuals well not everything anyway. - [ ] Barry Dickman how important branding is.. - [ ] Major brands taking over the high street - [ ] Branding - [ ] Economy of scale - [ ] Butchers/ Diy stores are in the past - [ ] 10 to 1 against to failing as an independent. - [ ] What to look for when your looking for a franchise - [ ] Look for business success - [ ] Pitfalls and negatives - [ ] Change of lifestyle - [ ] accepting changes - [ ] five years for a nestegg - [ ] Its down to the individual - [ ] Working off the back of a brand - [ ] Putting in the effort - [ ] 9 to 5 mentality.. Dont bother - [ ] You only get put what you put in. - [ ] What are the most important areas after taking on a franchise - [ ] The Success of the brand - [ ] Can i see an opportunity - [ ] Is their room for growth - [ ] What are your skillsets - [ ] Your not going to join a business and understand business

Barry Dickman from BD Signs based in Nottingham was kind enough to give up some time to come on to our show 'Chips and Chatter'. I met Barry at a trade event in Coventry and was immediately impressed with the quality of his companies stand displaying some pretty amazing Signs his company has commissioned for the fish and chip shop niche. During our interview Barry talks about how he got started from promoting Tequila and organising party nights to becoming a premier ( if not the premier ) provider of Menu Systems, clothing, vinyl graphics, point of sale, and images to help brand your business. Later in the show Barry reveals a brand new Digital Menu System which sounds like something pretty remarkable coming out in the near future and I also quiz Barry on how small independent shops should take advantage of technology to help promote their business along with the big players in the market. Barry was recently on the channel four show Come Dine With Me, so if you want to Barry and his 'Greek Meze' then head on over to Channel Four's On Demand Service. Link

Today I had the pleasure of speaking to Mike Goodbourn from Grease Management Ltd. He shares some great information, essential listening if you have EVER had a grease management issue in your restaurant or take away establishment. Mike also shares the best solution for our readers and listeners.