It's been a good week for ...

eating leftovers

Brits can be a stuffy bunch, particularly when it comes to being stuffed. But that might be about to change now that top chefs are backing a campaign to encourage diners to take leftovers home in a doggy bag.

The Too Good To Waste campaign, which is organised by the Sustainable Restaurant Association, aims to cut the estimated 200,000 tonnes of food wasted every year.

The campaign is being led by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who said: “Food waste in restaurants is a massive problem and doggy bags are an excellent way of cutting waste. There’s no need to be shy.”

A survey suggests that although nine out of 10 diners thought that restaurants needed to do more to cut waste, one-third had never thought to ask for a doggy bag and another quarter were too embarrassed to ask.

I can’t help thinking that it’s a bit rich for our Hughie and his culinary chums to be blaming the great British eating public for all that waste. Surely they need to take some responsibility over portion control, rather than send their customers home with some cold ratatouille and a half-eaten steak and put out their less bulging bins with a clear conscience.

Last night’s dinner is never quite so appealing come breakfast time and it’s ultimately heading only one way ... in the bin – albeit not Hugh’s.

Hmmm. I think this campaign’s beginning to smell a bit off.

It’s been a bad week for ... eating curry

Sadly, doggy bags were not an option for contestants taking part in a charity curry night.

Two people were taken to hospital following the “world’s hottest chilli” competition at an Edinburgh Indian restaurant. Emergency services were called to the Kismot restaurant in St Leonards Street after some competitors became “very unwell”.

This is hardly surprising, since the competition involves people eating the “Kismot Killer” curry.

Curie Kim, 21, an American student at Edinburgh University (you’d never have guessed the students were back in town), came second in the contest.

Kim, who is no doubt now known to friends as Curry Kim, said: “It was very painful and felt like I was being chainsawed in the stomach with hot sauce on the chainsaw.”

That’ll be why she was vindaloo all night.