Andy Lynes

No, but I am pig sick of lazy generalisations about the food in this country.

My mother was boiling things in plastic bags before most of today's moelcular gastronomists were even born - Uncle Ben's rice, the heads of passing Americans...

...and we're all deeply impressed by mom's apple pie over here of course. Run me through the entire canon of American home cooking not derived from your British ancestors would you, I've got 30 seconds to spare.

The story is in no way designed to drum up publicity for this. Ramsay's just not like that.

We have just purchased a slow cooker here in the UK and my wife prepared a brisket of beef with onions, mushrooms, potatoes and carrots - boiled beef and carrots as the old music hall song goes! She didn't sear the meat or sweat off the veg, the only liquid was water and seasonings were limited to a bay leaf or two, salt and pepper. The result was very good indeed. The "liquor", once reduced, was very flavourful, the veg beautifully cooked and not mushy as often happens in the oven cooked equivilent (I usually have to cook a second batch of veg seperately and throw out what was cooked with the meat). The only problem was that the meat had dried out slightly, but that was down to over cooking which we put down to inexperience with the kit. I'll be interested to try cooking chicken, pork and lamb as the idea that everything tastes the same from a slow cooker is a very intriguing one.

Sir Clement posts his first review and is less than a-maze-d by the service at Maze.

I occassionally contribute to The Trolley section at the front of the magazine and my brief is to interview chefs outside London who are generally less well know figures. As a result It mostly turns out that they still spend all their time cooking. By definition they are not going to be cover stars now, but could be in the future.

I've spoken to Joe Warwick today who has been following this thread. He feels that it would be more appropriate for Restaurant magazine readers to write in or e mail the magazine directly and for him to then write his response on the letters page rather than post here which I think is reasonable enough. We then have the opportunity to debate his reply here. Regarding the most recent front page, he did say that there were a great many more people invited than were able to make it on the day, including a number of restaurateurs.

I always suspected that Mr Maw was a man of taste and distinction, this confirms it.

Sausage and mashed potato - a great British delicacy only improved by the addition of onion gravy.

Hopefully "Smokin Joe" will respond here himself, but I know that the guy is seriously under the cosh at the moment. I can tell you as a minor contributor to Restaurant and someone who is not authorised to speak on behalf of the publication that recently appointed editor Joe Warwick is keen to get more ingredient based content in the magazine on a regular basis (hence the recent piece on oysters among others) and that in my opinion the mag has taken a noticable upward turn since he has taken over the reigns. Sucking up to an employer? Maybe, but I've also done exactly the opposite to his face recently so its swings and roundabouts. The Ledbury cover story was a great piece of writing by Hilary Armstrong whose work I admire, and it's a bit of shame that Helena Hell spoilt the story a bit by leaving the restaurant a few weeks ago. There is usually if not always at least one page dedicated to front of house and restaurateurs are often featured in the magazine. Restaurant manager Conor says that "it is the responsibility of magazines such as Restaurant to promote all aspects of the restaurant industry from the kitchen all the way through the front of house." and I would argue that Restaurant does just that, although the ratio of back of house to front of house content could possibly be evened up a bit.

I have to admit to being rather taken aback to being the cause of a press release - it was my first time, but they were gentle so I rather enjoyed it! I've explained the criteria I used for the article a bit over on this thread but the bottom line was to use the opportunity to expose restaurants of real quality to an audience that might not have heard of some of them before. I didn't see the point in yet another list that said el Bulli was one of the best restaurants in the world; I did see the point in one that said West was among the best.

Food writers who can't even spell their favourite tipple correctly.

Listen to them, like a bunch of larger louts daring each other to order the phall after a night on the piss. "Backs to the wall lads, he's having the Singapore Noodles!"

Nicole's restaurant in Nicole Farhi, New Bond Street London has been trading for a number of years and is apparently still going great guns, for lunch at least, so there's one example of the idea working. Good luck to the Flinns.

UE - if you use this site's search facility you will find a ton of information about many of the restaurants you are considering. I went through a very similar process to you late last year trying to decide where to celebrate my 40th Birthday. In the end I plumped for Le Meurice and was very glad I did. My reasons for choosing the restaurant were that I had heard less than steller reports about some of the more established names while Yannick Alleno had been pulling in all the plaudits; my wife would have hated Gagnaire, and Le Meurice offered at least some sort of value for money compared to pretty much everywhere else at that level (Taillevent excepted). The service and room were as important to our enjoyment of the meal as the food, but all were wonderful. There were one of two minor issues with the meal and you could say "for this price I demand perfection!" but it wasn't that sort of ocassion. I was there to enjoy myself and I did - down to the last sip of my €25 glass of calvados.

I have a copy which I haven't had a proper chance to look through yet, but with a section at the back with menus and recipes from the likes of Mario Batali, there must have been some changes from the original version. Is it worth adding to your collection? Well, its certainly going to take up a wodge of shelf space, and while it doesn't go into sufficient detail of all the basics to call it a cookery bible, it covers an awful lot of ground and is very reasonably priced for what you get. I was a bit diappointed with the paper quality and consequently the pictures, but I guess it's the recipes that count and I haven't yet given them a try out.

Madhur Jaffrey chose Tojo's as her favourite restaurant in yesterdays Independent on Sunday Compact Traveller supplement (published in the UK), saying that "the food is incredible." Elsewhere in the same issue, some bloke by the name of Andy Lynes chose his 10 best restaurants in the world and included West among them.

I've never endured an old speckled peculiar in a pub. However, if there are other members who have been through what sounds like a terrible ordeal, please feel free to unburden yourselves here. We are all your friends.

I'll bear that in mind. My preference is always the pub (The Gun in Docklands was the last recipient of my post lunch/pre-dinner trade) but that isn't always a terribly clever idea I am forced to admit.

Rayner downed his in two bites apparently...

← Actually, I did have tea at The Criterion in its pre-MPW days, but it was nothing to write home about.

When I visit a city for the first time I'm always torn between doing the really famous places and finding the really exciting up and coming places. If you use this site's search facility you'll find plenty of suggestions for all your catagories. Here's a couple that lean towards up and coming: The Ledbury Notting Hill for fine dining The Gun, Docklands for gastropub Grocer on Warwick for Asian style snacking or a full meal I've never taken afternoon tea in London so can't give a personal recommendation.

Definately, but its well worth following the link. Maybe someone ought to employ Damien Hirst to review restaurants.

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