Andy Lynes

Some unattributed gossip/speculation from the catering world. Not all of this coincides with my own experience BTW: An ex-employee of Gary Rhodes saw him twice in the 3 years he was employeed front of house at City Rhodes It would not amaze some people if Jason Atherton returned from Dubai to take over at Royal Hospital Road when Mark (?) current head chef there, goes off to open the Connaught. Gordon Ramsay has not cooked in a professional kitchen for 3 years. I do not stand by any of this, it's just some things I have been told,

Steve - I can't help but second that emotion.

Lesley welcome on behalf of the UK board and users in your new role as community co-ord. Hope you have as much fun as I have (actually, considering recent events over on the UK board, I hope you have a lot more ;) ).

Thom - just to save your blushes, I have had a long standing link to the site from my own, and I posted a link to my links page earlier in this thread, so hopefuly a few people will have already had a look.

My good friend Bruce Poole has just switched suppliers to La Fromagerie at no little cost to his resaurants. I was in The Glasshouse this evening (full review to follow once I have sobered up)and had the cheese course which was nothing short of wonderful. I would politely suggest that friend's french boyfriend doesn't know as much as he would like others to think he does about this subject.

Sounds like a very good excuse for an official (dis)organised eGullet summer piss up. Let us know when you are coming.

Does this place have any connection to the restaurant in Delhi?

No! He left after 4 months or so and has joined a contract catering company as sort of chef without portfolio. He's there to make things better as far as I can work out.

I would second Steve Plotnicki's recommendation of the Sofitel Bellecour as a place to stay. The rooms are very comfortable, the Toir Domes restaurant is great for breakfast with wonderful views, but not for dinner I would say with all those wonderful restaurants around and about, I mean Bocuse and Chapel are not that far are they? I stayed there when I took part in a cookery competition and the great and the good of Paris and Lyon decended on the Saturday night for a rather magnificent champagne reception and buffet dinner. I spotted one guy that I was convinced was a French film star and was asking all and sundary who he was and no one knew. Yet I knew his face so well. A few months later I was flicking through my archive of tear sheets from various cooking magazines and I saw the same face staring out at me from a full page portrait. It was Jean Paul Lacombe from Leon De Lyon, perhaps the most famous chef actually in the city and no one could identify him!

I would have a real problem not eating meat, but I often wonder if I would be able to kill and butcher my owm animals if I had to. I have never hunted or fished, and perhaps I should put my self through it to see what I really think. It's so easy to pick up pre-packaged meat from the super market and not have to think about where it came from. I was pretty taken aback at having to chop the head and feet off of a chicken I got in Spain on our last holiday there (although it did taste very good after I had done the dasterdly deed). I don't like to eat meat more than a couple of times a week however, especially red meat. Not I'm afraid from any health issues, I just don't want that heavy feeling you get after eating it. So, yes, you are only getting half the story with vegetarianism and the flavours of properly hung meat and game and prime fish and shellfish are really what makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning.

The French are "best" at food in the same way the Americans are "best" at....... (hold on, give me a minute, I'll think of something).

I would have extreme reservations sending anyone for a romantic meal to Lindsay House. Grubby with bad tempered service would sum it up for me!

What happened, I thought we were talking about gorgeous women?

Wilfrid - after the Moroccan experiement at Bistro Bruno, he then went to work for Oliver Peyton, cooking Italian food at Isola. This lasted about a year, and he has now gone to Australia I believe, but what he is cooking there I don't know. Couldn't be French surely. Tony - just go to the post you want to quote from and click the quote icon, then edit the text down to want you want to include in your own posting. It's not a good idea to just copy the whole original post in, unless it's very short of course. I know from reading interviews with the head chefs left behind after Marco and Nicos "handing back" of their stars, that they were not so impressed by the honesty of the move. I think they would have much preferred to have had the chance to prove their own worth. As it turned out, each has regained a star, albeit that The Oak Room is now to close, and I'm sure the chefs would have argued that they could have retained 2 stars if they had been allowed to get on with it. Robert Reid of the Oak Room has come out particularly poorly from all this : http://www.caterer.com/archive/articledetail.asp?lSiteSectionID=77&lSectionID=31&articleID=40857

I went to L'Odeon whilst Loubet was there for dinner and just for drinks on a number of occasions. The food was excellent and I liked the room although my wife was not so struck. My bet is that Marco will snap it up as I read that he wants to buy up all the restaurants and bars surrounding his Stork club which I believe is around that area (Air street off Regents Street). If a place is bad its bad. No one want's to be overcharged to eat poorly prepared French country food, or any type of food for that matter. Every "name" chef seems to want to do a Ducasse these days and have masses of Michelin starred places all over the globe. Obviously not everyone is Ducasse with quite the pull that his name/brand has or his head for business.

Either they've moved onto another of his operations, they got better jobs or they weren't good enough. ramsay does have a reputation for sacking people (see waiter that got the bullet opening night of Gordon Ramsay filmed for Boiling Point).

As I said - no tokens, just a list of restaurants that are participating.

Now, see, this is much more interesting. Are we done with the philosophy now? I once sat at the next table to Salman Rushdie at The Ivy whilst the Fatwa was still on. I glanced up at the door nervously more than once that night I can tell you.

Scott - i deleted the huge amount of blank space on your last posting in case you wondering about that edit. The FT menu was 3 choices at each course, very carefully constructed according to BP in order that they dont lose any money on the deal. There was a cauliflower soup with mackeral fritters and mustard crean from the carte, a foie gras parfait with pork rillette and Poilane bread or Imam Biyaldi (which is what I had), for mains it was a lamb shank, cod with cockles, mash and carrots with parsley buerre blanc (my choice) or saute chicken breast with risotto Milanese. Dessets were a fabulous apple crumble with cinnimon ice cream, a sorbet, cheese or on eother thing that I can't remember. It was a great meal but slightly simpler than the usual lunch menu, which was also available and is £23.50.

L'Odeon has also closed. Not looking great is it? (Edited by Andy Lynes at 9:04 pm on Jan. 31, 2002)

So, I spoke to Mr Poole yesterday and quizzed him on his reasons for joing in the promotion. He said that he wanted his other places The Glasshouse and La Trompette to do it because of their locations (neighbourhood restaurants with not a great deal of business lunch trade). His chef at Kew said he didn't want to do it again this year because of stingy punters last year not wanting to spend a penny more than the advertised 10 or 15 quid, demanding more choice than on the set menu and refusing to pay service etc etc. Bruce said that he would not ask them to do something he was not prepared to do so has joined in. He has only had a few lunchtime bookings for this week, but bookings have picked up for next. There was another table for 1 yesterday and he was eating on the FT promotion and has apparently lined up 17 places to visit under the promotion. He had eaten at El Bulli 7 times, having once had lunch and dinner on the same day! I wish I had had the opportunity to tell him about eGullet but I didn't know all this until too late.

Who'd have thought an American would hold such views? (Blue face looking sardonic, with a hint of wistful reflection and a sudden flash of bemusement that quickly fades to a smile of knowing contentment).

I have been following the postings on this thread very closely and to my utter dismay and astonishment have disappeared up my own arse. Please be patient whilst I argue my way out this predicament. I thank you.

That was incredibly short lived! I'm annoyed actually because that was very near the top of my lunch list. Oxo restaurant continues despite a great deal of negative press so perhaps Neat just didn't hit all the right notes with the product for that particular space. Too high falutin' with prices to match for such a relatively awkward place to get to.

For preference it would be in the key of life and turned up REALLY FUCKIN LOUD MAAAAN!!!