KEY POINTS:
Jamie Walker has stirred and shaken cocktails for the rich and famous - Elton John, Madonna, Tom Ford, Claudia Schiffer - and was mixologist at the wedding of Mr and Mrs Beckham. He's worked in many of London's top bars - Circus, Opium and Alphabet to name a few. These days he's the global ambassador for Bombay Sapphire and travels the world demonstrating the art of a good cocktail. He's in Auckland as a guest judge at the New Zealander Bartender of the Year, and is doing a session for at-home mixologists.
Be in to win
We've got 10 double places to give away to a training session, valued at $500 per person. The 90-minute course starts Monday July 23, 7.30pm. To enter, write your name and address on the back of a postcard or envelope and send to: Jamie Walker Mixology Competition, Viva, New Zealand Herald, PO Box 3290, Auckland.
Entries close July 11, winners announced July 18.
Bag ladies
Do you want a bag with that? That will be the question Pak'n'Save, New World and Four Square checkout operators will be asking as part of a campaign to cut the use of plastic bags.
It aims to reduce plastic bag use by at least 20 per cent by mid-2009.
Research shows that more than half of New Zealanders take more bags than they need when doing their supermarket shopping.
"As a New Zealand owned and operated business, it's important to us to help reduce waste to contribute to protecting the environment that we all enjoy," says Melissa Hodd, executive manager, Foodstuffs New Zealand.
In the year to June 2006 Foodstuffs reduced its use of plastic bags by 16 million bags nationally over 2005 and introduced lighter-weight bags in New World supermarkets, resulting in 452 tonnes of plastic being saved overall. Lightweight plastic bags are being introduced in Pak'n'Save stores nationally.
"Our message to our staff and our customers is that everyone counts. If we're going to make a difference, we have to focus on the impact that every single person can make by taking even one less plastic bag every time they shop," she says. So when they ask about the bag, you can whip out your own and reply, "No thanks. Brought my own."
DeVito does limoncello
First there was Paul Newman and his salad dressings. Then Paul Holmes and his olive oil. Now, actor Danny DeVito is doing his own limoncello, after a drunken appearance on US TV talkshow The View in which he admitted to having consumed seven limoncellos the night before with pal George Clooney.
With The View video getting monstrous hits on YouTube, DeVito began receiving boxes of lemons and limoncello.
"I figured with all that publicity, I would start my own line. What the hell? It was karma. My role will be to visit my lemons in Italy. Anybody can squeeze my lemons. They're really big lemons."
DeVito's Premium Limoncello, an after-dinner liqueur produced on Italy's Sorrento peninsula, hits stores late next month. A 750ml black bottle, designed by DeVito, will go for about $US25 ($33).
Stars for food show
This year's Food Show looks set to be a goodie. Tetsuya Wakuda, the Japanese-born, Sydney-based chef whose eponymous establishment is regularly on the world's best restaurant list, is going to be making a guest appearance.
He heads the list of celebrity chefs including Bill Granger, Charmaine Solomon, Julie Le Clerc, Annabel Langbein, Ray McVinnie, Ruth Pretty, Annabelle White and Julie Biuso. The Food Show takes place August 2-5. For more information go to www.foodshow.co.nz
Won it
The Watties Soup winners are: Diane Maher, Onehunga; Angela Frazer, Remuera; Jill Henton, Devonport; Carole Dennison, Papatoetoe.
The Digby Law's Soup Cookbook winners are: Hazel Davis, Pukekohe; Joan Orpin, Papatoetoe; A. Halls, Epsom; Jane Wilson, Pakuranga; Peter O'Sullivan, Cambridge; Sally Hill, Rothesay Bay; Maree Green, Kumeu; Jan Wisnesky, Henderson; Pamela Aylward, Clarks Beach; J. Knight, Papakura.
