The week in pictures

Christmas began early for the UK drinks trade, who gathered in Spitalfields in London on Tuesday for the annual Pernod Ricard media Christmas lunch. Now an annual tradition, the event is held in a different location each year, this year at Hanbury Hall, which was decked out with Christmas cracks, fairy lifts and nutcrackers.

The event was also a first opportunity for Laurent Pillet, the new managing director of Pernod Ricard UK, to introduce himself to the trade having taken over the position from Denis O’Flynn just two month previous. Pillet has previously headed up the company’s operations in South America and Africa.

Guests were treated to a four-course dinner comprising of platters of smoked salmon, sage-buttered Norfolk Turkey and egg nog creams with macadamia nut brittle, ahead of a surprise appearance from……

…Dynamo! The TV magician with a knack for party tricks, which are definitely better than your dad’s on christmas day.

In New York, Asia’s Tiger Beer hosted an exclusive Tiger STREATS dinner, what it describes as the “world’s first” street food meets fine dining experience. The concept pairs two chefs with vastly different backgrounds to create a collaborative meal that encourages guests to form “unexpected connections” over an ice cold Tiger Beer.

Chef Chan Hon Meng, owner of the Michelin-starred food stall Hong Kong Soya Sauce Chicken Rice and Noodle in Singapore, and chef Christopher Kostow, chef of the three-Michelin-starred The Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa Valley, created a three-course meal paired to Tiger beer. Kostow went for an innovative whelk lasagna with agretti, while Chan served up his signature dish of soya sauce chicken and rice.

May Chow, the chef at Little Bao in Hong Kong and Bangkok, was crowned Asia’s Best Female Chef as part of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants annual awards. Canada-born Chow, who grew up in Hong Kong and the US and after graduating with a degree in Hotel Management from Boston, returned to Hong Kong and worked at Alvin Leung’s Bo Innovation and izakaya-style eatery, Yardbird.

Little Bao started as a pop-up, shining a light on traditional Chinese comfort food – the steamed ‘bao’ bun – with American influences and sharing plates. It set up shop in Hong Kong’s Soho district in 2013 and the following its rapid success, Chow opened a second Little Bao in Bangkok’s Thong Lor.

This week saw two big appointments in the UK wine trade. Pierre Mansour was named head of buying at The Wine Society in place of Tim Sykes, who will step down from the role next year. Mansour, who is currently buying manager at The Wine Society, will take up the position on 20 March next year.

While over at Berry Bros and Rudd Abi Hirshfeld, the former head of wine at Direct Wines, was named buying director and will join the BBR team in January. Hirshfeld joined Direct Wines in February 2008 where she was initially responsible for the international consumer wine as development manager, before being promoted to head of wine UK in 2009. Prior to joining the online wine specialist, she spent two years as a wine buyer at Sainsbury’s.

The tanks are empty but not for long as Duncan Alexander, founder and head brewer at 71 Brewing in Dundee, prepares to run his first brew. This week Duncan welcomed the delivery of £350,000 worth of specialist kit from SK Group in Slovenia, which, when fully operational, will produce a yield of 2,400 litres per brew.

Designed and commissioned by BevTech, the brewery layout is an ingenious mash-up of hi-tech brewing and winemaking equipment.  Planning permission was secured in March to convert the 7,200 sq ft site, the last remaining building in the Blackness Foundry complex (at 71 Blackness Road) from which 71 Brewing takes its name.

In the latest in the series of dogs balancing wine-related items on their heads we bring you these two adorable golden retrievers.

We got well and truly into the festive spirit at Duck & Waffle this week where we were lucky enough to try some of the cocktails on Rich Woods’ 12 Drinks of Christmas menu, which is presented to guests in an advent calendar. Among the highlights were the Panettone Flip, the Milky Bar Snowball and the Three Wise Men, a twist on an Old Fashioned featuring salted maple that comes with flecks of edible 24-carat gold.

Continuing the decadence, we headed to steamed bun specialist Bao in Fitzrovia to road test its new winter cocktails created by drinks guru Ryan Chetiyawardana, aka Mr Lyan. We kicked off the night with the Pink Force Commander, a blend of Metaxa 7 Star, galangal, lemon and red fruit bitters, and moved on to the Confusion Confucius, a twist on a sour featuring gin, peppered chestnut, apricot, sweet potato and lime, which was enjoyed with classic dishes like the black cod bao and the freakily good fried chicken with an egg yolk and hot sauce.