Good month bad month

Good month for

Chef Michel Roux: He was named Beer Drinker of the Year by the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group for his beer list at Le Gavroche.

Food-and-drink matching: Gaymer's cider and Cockburn's port are both running new food- matching initiatives.

Michael Bedford: The chef patron of Trouble House in Tetbury, Glos, won the Pub Restaurant Chef category in the Craft Guild of Chefs Awards.

Sausages: To celebrate the 10th anniversary of British Sausage Week, the British Pig Executive (BPEX) is challenging caterers to create Britain's best birthday banger.

Merchant Inns: The pub company has opened its sixth site - the Talbot in Ripley, Surrey.

Chiswick: Gordon Ramsay is looking to open his third pub in the area.

Pie-makers: Pub chefs Paul Walker of Five Bells Inn, Clyst Hydon, Devon; Neville Brown, Talbot Arms, Benville, Dorset; Ashley Bignell, Wills O' Nats Inn, Meltham, West Yorkshire; Carl Smith, Guinea Grill, Mayfair, London; and Martin Rudley, Ring O' Bells, Thornton, West Yorkshire, all made it through to the final of the EBLEX steak-pie competition.

Bad month for

Food prices: Pubs have been warned to expect food-price inflation in the wake of the recent severe floods.

Energy: Almost three out of four small businesses believe there is nothing they can do to save energy, according to a MORI poll.

Anthony Worrall Thompson: The chef could be in hot water for failing to display no-smoking signs at his two Oxfordshire pubs. The TV chef described being forced to display the mandatory signs as "architectural pollution".

JDW's Welsh pubs: The pub company has removed five meat dishes from its Welsh menus after trading standards officers questioned the provenance of the pork, beef and lamb used.

Food hygiene: Spirit Group was hit with its 17th fine for food hygiene breaches since 2002. The managed operator has vowed that remedial action is already under way to rectify its food hygiene track record.