Andy Lynes

I'll be making telepathic contact with the Fat Guy in order to synchronise cocktail drinking. Just to confirm : The Player Club http://www.thplyr.com/ Soho 6.00pm onwards , this evening Wednesday 22 January, first London pouring of the Flaming Orange Gully. Dale De Groff will not be there.

The Clerkenwell thing is members only/press do and they dont want us there. However, Dale will be training someone up at the Player to mix the Flaming Orange Gullys so the event will go ahead as planned. I'm sorry about the confusion and if anyone turns up that hasn't read this, but reads it subsequently, I'm sorry. It's not my fault, but I am nevertheless sorry. I will try and be at the bar for around 6.00pm to welcome you all. For those who have yet to experience the particular pleasure of making my acquaintance, I'll be the fat beared bloke looking like he'd rather be in a quiet corner of a pub somewhere with pint of larger and a John Franklin Barden omnibus to read. If that doesn't help you to identify me (and who knows how many fat beardy bastards go to the Player in the early evening), I'll also be the one beating the living crap out of Thom for mentioning the Clerkenwell do and fucking everything up at the last minute

I am very sorry to say that Dale DeGroff will now be unable to be at The Player Club tomorrow due to unforseen circumstances. The club have offered to mix us the drinks, so it there will still be an opportunity to try a Flaming Orange Gully. Are people still interested?

Well, the award is for French restaurant isn't it and I think that selection is a good representation of that catagory across the styles and price points. It would be pointless to have awards if you always defaulted to the Michelin definition of best eveytime. L'escargot has a star and the reported talents of Jeff Galvin, Chris Galvin's brother.

Click here for a full list of the nominations. Note that Racine appears no less than 5 times.

As promised I tried out the various ideas I liked from this thread and here is the very approximate recipe I came up with : 750g diced pork shoulder sealed in sunflower oil and set aside, 1 large onion roughly chopped and 4 large cloves of garlic minced and sweated off until soft, add cumin, cayenne, fennel seeds, paprika, fresh chile, smoked chile (I'd have to check the varieties) and fry for a minute or so, add 500g of minced beef and colour, deglaze with 1 pint beef stock, return the pork to the pan, add tin of tomatoes, blacked eyed and kidney beans, a teaspoon or so of cocoa powder and some dried oregano, bring to the boil, simmer for 2 hours. Served with a cucumber, red onion, chile and lime salsa. It was terrific, but it needed a bit of a kick at the end with some tabasco and sweet chile sauce. Thanks for al the great recipes and suggestions.

Mayfair stalwart The Greenhouse is on the market. More details at Caterer-Online.

I believe Koffmann got a great deal when he moved. My understanding from the coverage at the time was that he kept the proceeds from the sale of RHR and then had no set up costs whatsoever at The Berekely. I would guess that under those circumstance he was happy to move under the terms of the initial lease and was happy to take the risk of it not being renewed. After all, he was a 3 star chef with a full restaurant, impeccable reputation and the thought of losing a star and not remaining at the hotel for as long as he liked was probably the furtherst thing from his mind. All guess work though, you'd have to ask the man himself, and when he opens up again this autumn, perhaps we'll get the chance!

Thats great, thanks for the suggestions.

The PR guy just said that nothing had been decided at this point, which I take to mean that the contract is being negotiated. I'm sure Gordon and Marcus want the best possible deal for themselves and The Savoy will try and get them at the best price. They already have very stong contacts with the Savoy Group as they are already run both Claridges and The Connaught, and Marcus is supposeadly taking over the River Room at the Savoy itself so my guess is that it will happen and the PR man is hedging his bets.

Oh yuk!! (makes gagging sound akin to cat with a nasty fur ball problem).

It was just stew, nothing Irish about it.

The cream comes courtesy of Belfast chef Paul Rankin as far as I'm aware and is therefore not traditional.

I usually use whipping cream in all my cooking unless jersey cream is called for or I think double would be more appropriate.

It is in essence a version of the classical blanquette, where the meat is usually sealed but not browned. It is meant to have a lighter flavour than something like a navarin for example where the meat is browned.

Adam, thanks, I hadn't seen that. I think the flavour of the poached shoulder of lamb goes very well indeed with the light cream enriched broth. Roast chump or lamb or braised shanks also go very well with haricot breans in a garlic and rosemary cream (recipe : Henry Harris). Gavin - any instances in particular which have led you to your opinion?

Great, hope to see you there.

I'm sorry Adam, you've lost me there. Before I defend my position on this, is there another thread I should look at first?

I've flicked through the Lutece cookbook, but as it was just a bunch of recipes with no narrative and no pictures (as far as I remember, this was a while ago) I didn't go for it. I don't know who do-able the recipes are either I'm afraid.

When I make Irish stew it's with diced shoulder or lamb and I never brown the meat. Traditionaly it goes straight into plain water with carrots, onions and leeks but I have taken to using chicken stock as it can be quite lacking in flavour otherwise. It cooks for 90 minutes - 2 hours and then is finished with cream and parsley.

Can anyone recommend somewhere in Cambridge that opens on a Monday night (I'm booked in at the Midsummer House for the previous Thursday (salmon with white chocolate and caviar here I come), and its not open on Mondays anyway).

Sorry Cabrales, re-reading my last post I see I wasn't clear. Jean Georges will definately return to what was Vong, it's being refurbished for that purpose. The question is whether Petrus will occupy the old LTC space once Jean George is settled into it's new home, or if it will be another operator other than the Gordon Ramsay Group that move into it.

I spoke to the Berkeley's PR department this morning. Jean George has moved into the old La Tante Claire space whilst Vong is refurbished. This should take a couple of months. Jean George will then vacate LTC which David Collins will then renovate. At this point in time , nothing has been 100% decided about who will run the newly refurbished room, although both the Savoy Group and Gordon Ramsay Restaurants are keen that it does become Petrus.

All is explained here. Well, not quite all as JBR was interviewed in caterer only a few months ago saying he was handing the reigns on to his trusted sous chef whilst he was away filming and that business was picking up and all would be well. Just goes to show you never can tell, to quote Chuck Berry.

That is correct according to this Caterer news article that also covers Jean George. However, when you click on the image for Jean George on the Berekley website, it comes up with a picture of the current La Tante Claire, which is confusing.