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Oat cuisine: celebrating the oatcake sellers of Staffordshire – in pictures

29 June 2024 at 12:00

It wasn’t until David Fletcher left his native Stoke-on-Trent that he realised Staffordshire oatcakes are not widely known outside of the area. Unlike the biscuit-like Scottish oatcakes, the version he grew up with is a savoury pancake served with fillings such as bacon and cheese. β€œEvery shop has its own secret recipe,” he says. β€œThe variations must be very slight, but you still get quite fierce opinions about which are the best oatcakes.” Now based in the New Forest, the photographer has spent the past two years documenting oatcake shops. β€œIf this was a French food it would probably have some kind of protected status of origin, but we don’t do that much in England. For me it represents a cultural and culinary heritage.”

See more at davidfletcherphoto.com and Instagram

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Β© Photograph: David Fletcher

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Β© Photograph: David Fletcher

The diabolical rise of β€˜dine and dash’: β€˜It feels like a betrayal’

27 June 2024 at 00:00

One in 20 people have walked out of a restaurant without paying for their meal – and apparently it is becoming more common in Britain, leaving owners shaken and out of pocket. What is going on?

You know the drill: you scrape the remaining crumbs of your dessert from the plate, finish off the last of the bottle of wine, settle the bill and leave the restaurant, full and content. While it’s certainly possible to forget to pay, for a small number of diners, this β€œmistake” is deliberate: they never intended to pay at all.

This summer, a couple from Port Talbot in south Wales were jailed for carrying out a series of so-called β€œdine and dash” offences: racking up sizeable restaurant bills before doing a runner. Ann McDonagh was sentenced to 12 months in prison, while her husband, Bernard McDonagh, was given eight months. A judge at Swansea crown court deemed the pair to have β€œcynically and brazenly” defrauded restaurants by paying with a β€œdud” card, leaving ostensibly to get cash, then failing to return. But what are the consequences for restaurants – and is β€œdine and dash” on the rise?

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Β© Illustration: Mark Long/The Guardian

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Β© Illustration: Mark Long/The Guardian

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