The Banqueting House is one of the first restaurant chains to offer a shark fin-free menu.

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The first part - Banqueting House - was built in 1622 and still stands on Whitehall.

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Its business name would change to Banqueting and Conference Suites at the Kettering Ritz, owner Kris Malde said.

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And he likes to celebrate winning trophies, according to Pallister, by "rapping on the stage and doing a bit of singing and dancing and entertaining the whole banqueting hall".

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But the parent company of the Banqueting House, LH Group, says that the elderly Chinese still prefer to have shark's fin as part of the food offering on special occasions.

BBC: Hong Kong shark fin trade declines

In one generation, he often muses, his family has vaulted from the man standing at the back of the banqueting hall serving drinks to the one at the front, giving the speech from the podium.

ECONOMIST: Lexington