By Anhar Khanbhai Up to 120 cafes, restaurants and takeaway food venues in South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory will have their books checked by the Fair Work Ombudsman over the next four months, as part of a new education and compliance campaign. Fair Work inspectors will audit 50 employers in Adelaide’s Gouger and Rundle Streets and at North Adelaide, a further 50 in the Perth CBD and Perth’s southern suburbs and an additional 20 businesses located in food courts throughout Darwin. Inspectors will check that workers are being paid their full entitlements, including minimum pay rates and penalty rates. The audits also aim to ensure that employers ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai LG has launched a digital interactive campaign on Facebook called My Eco Home to allow Facebook users worldwide to create and share their own personalized, virtual dream homes. The campaign seeks to interact with customers in innovative ways and will also introduce users to five core proprietary LG technologies and their eco-benefits; Linear Compressor, Inverter Direct Drive, Kompressor floor appliance technology, Lightwave and Plasmaster. “We tried to come up with a fun and interesting yet meaningful way to interact with consumers,” Chang-hee Han, Vice President and Head of Marketing Strategy at LG’s Home Appliance Company said. “The main purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness of ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai After months of public voting and baristas battling it out in cafes across the country, coffee lovers have chosen Australia’s favourite Barista in the Equal My Coffee My Barista competition. The My Coffee My Barista competition was run in conjunction with sweetner brand Equal where public had a say in who makes the best coffee. “It doesn’t matter whether yours is a simple long black or a double Macchiato, the art of making a good coffee lies with the barista,” the competition premise stated. Paula Leavy from Brewhaha Cafe in North Sydney, NSW was voted Australia’s favorite barista and has won a 7 day south Asia coffee ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai Channel 9’s home renovation show The Block has hit our screens for another blockbuster season, and this season, E&S Trading have jumped on board by being the official kitchen sponsors for the TV show for the second year in a row. This year’s series has already produced massive upsets and thrown the contestants the biggest, toughest renovations in the show’s history. Contestants are currently battling to restore one of four rundown terrace houses in South Melbourne that were built in the late 1800s during the Victorian gold rush era within the 10 week time limit. With budgets increased to $125,000 in cash and vouchers, each team is ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai Struggling retailer Best Buy has announced that it is joining forces with Cooking.com to launch a microsite for customers to be able to purchase cookware and kitchenware in addition to Best Buy’s regular assortment of small and large appliances. The Best Buy Kitchen Shop will be operated by Cooking.com and add more than 3,000 products for the kitchen to Best Buy shoppers online. “We are always looking for ways to enhance our customers’ online shopping experience, and this partnership delivers more ways to shop when and where they want,” Liz Haesler, vice president of Home Business Group Best Buy said. “Through our expanded offering with Cooking.com our ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai Haier aims to achieve a 150% increase in sales for 2012, following the recent acquisition of Sanyo’s home appliance business in Malaysia. Haier’s purchase of Sanyo worth US$100 million would pave the way for a dual-brand strategy that would position it in the high-end and mid-range home appliance market in Malaysia and parts of Southeast Asia. Haier Group vice president Du Jingguo said the company also aimed to be the top three home appliances brand in Malaysia in five years. “To achieve that, Haier will spend US$750 million in Asia, in the span of five years, for its advertising and promotion,” Jingguo told reporters. “This dual-brand strategy ..Read More…

By Zeba Fatima Hitachi have launched a king-size eco friendly refrigerator that can save 35% of power consumption in the UAE. Currently, the Ultra Big2 is the most energy efficient refrigerator available and its features include reducing energy consumption, a large compartment for vegetables that controls moisture, a sophisticated inverter compressor, an advanced cooling system (10% more cooling power is available), advanced eco-thermo sensor, and large storage is available. The new refrigerator is empowered with advanced features like big moisture-guard vegetable compartment, intelligent inverter compressor, advanced minus–zero cooling, eco-thermo sensor amongst others. “Eros Group is committed towards bringing the latest and finest of products to its consumers in UAE. We ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai The latest addition to Fisher & Paykel’s gas cooktop range is being compared to a Ferrari. According to F&P, the newly launched Gas on Glass cooktop shares many attributes of the Italian car – “both feature sleek lines and loads of grunt” and are on display at the esteemed Sydney Seafood School. The Gas on Glass cooktop also has high quality, easy to clean, eco-friendly ceramic glass. “Our guests have enjoyed cooking on the Gas on Glass cooktops – most of them prefer cooking with gas,” Manager of Sydney Seafood School, Roberta Muir said. The Gas on Glass cooktop is equipped with powerful burners, which is perfect ..Read More…

By Zeba Fatima “Around The World In 80 Plates” is a cooking competition that meets travel show. Its basic premise is to drop chefs in various cities around the globe, put them through challenges to acquaint themselves with local culture and cuisine and challenge them to recreate those tastes for the palates of locals who will judge them. In London, setting of the series premiere, two teams of chefs from across the U.S. race around town to down an assortment of traditional pub grub and chug more than a couple beers. From that brief introduction, the two teams take over pub kitchens, competing to see who can best recreate favorites ..Read More…

By Anhar Khanbhai Kitchen ventilation is something very necessary in any Australian home, especially as apartment sizes shrink. Gaggenau has created some unique solutions for keeping cook spaces aired out while still maintaining a contemporary and refined look. Firstly is Gaggenau’s VL430/431 built-in countertop downdraft which is made from stainless steel. The system has flaps that close when not in use, giving counters a sleek, neat look. The VL430/431 is also a very convenient and easy to clean as it features a dishwasher-safe grease filter and a straightforward electronic control panel. For those who want more flexibility, Gaggenau’s VL 051 Vario cooktop extractor has an extendable arm that can be ..Read More…