Andy Lynes

Kara Newman in search of a Russian classic. +++ Be sure to check The Daily Gullet home page daily for new articles (most every weekday), hot topics, site announcements, and more.

Chef Vaneet Bhatia has left Zaika and is setting up his own restaurant on the site of what was Richard Corrigan's English Garden.

I think this is more of an Inn serving good food rather than a "gastropub" as such, that was laziness on my part.

This year, due to the change in my working arrangements, the Lynes family will be taking a rather modest summer holiday in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. Although the place looks very pretty and has lovely beaches, it appears to be something of a gastronomic desert. Unless you can tell me different. Once we're there, its highly unlikely that we'll want to travel very far, so anywhere within about 5 miles radius of the town centre will do.

Stephen Bull's "gastropub" The Lough Pool Inn, Upper Grove Common, Sellack, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, Tel: 01989 730236. Matthew Fort's review.

Jennifer Ellison's "chunky chips" look badly overcooked to me. Her scouse accent seems to be getting more pronounced as the show goes on. Subtitles would have come in useful last night.

Is anyone still following this series? I'm still glued to it, but mostly for the kitchen action. Its beginning to feel like its going on for too long. There has been little opportunity for characters and relationships to properly emerge as in other elimination shows as all they have done is work. Consequently, the real interest is in the competition itself, which, now things have calmed down, is turning out to lack thrills. The merging of the two teams has been less than dramatic, likewise the menu special competition. The walk out of 3 competitors and the early loss of Roger Cook haven't helped matters either. I was surprised to see that Hells kitchen finishes on Sunday. By that time, will anyone care who will "stand shoulder to shoulder with Gordon Ramsay"?

Apart from BLH's recent comments about Mrs Aikens and my own unusual circumstances, the disagreements on this thread are all about the restaurant and the food, and don't appear to me to be influnced by opinions about the sort of person Tom Aikens may or may not be and his relationship with his wife. Some people say its as good as Gordon Ramsay, others describe their meal as dismal. Others just say its just average. I don't know of any other high profile "Michelin" style establishement in the UK that provokes such a divergance of views. My guess is that its partly to do with Aikens' exuberant style of cooking not pushing everyone's buttons in the same way, but may also indicate a lack of consistancy in the overall operation of the business.

Just curious - what didn't you like about Mrs. Aikens? What was your experience? Mrs Aiken was manning the reception with another member of staff. She was on the phone when I arrived. When I told the other member of staff my name, Mrs Aiken looked up from her call and shot me what I can only describe as a filthy look. Mrs Aikens did not appear in the dining room at all during the lunch service. Towards the end of the meal Tom Aikens appeared from the kitchen and looked over at my table. I assumed he was about to come over and talk to me as he knew I was going to be dining that day and that I wanted to arrange an interview for eGullet. Mrs Aiken appeared by his side shook her head, and the chef disappeared again. I have since had it confirmed that immeadiately before I arrived, Mrs Aikens had been reading this very thread and didn't like what she had seen. So perhaps my experience was a little unusual and under other circumstances I may have recieved a different type of service. However, this was my seciond visit. I had found Mrs Aikens to be lacking in warmth the first time, and the service generally to be below expected standards on both occasions. As I don't find Aikens' food to be particularly to my taste, it is highly unlikely that I will return for a third time. An interview with Tom Aikens by MobyP and Jonathan Day will appear on The Daily Gullet soon.

I was interested to read this thread as I am hoping to visit Vancouver this summer and West will be one restaurant I will certainly visit should the trip come off. From a British perspective, your bill comes to £250 which is an absolute steal for a 10 course blow out with matched wines of that quality and service. I can't wait to get there! Looking at the restaurant website, the most expensive main course would work out at £16.00 ( for lobster) and the $84 tasting menu would be £33.00, the equivilent of 3 courses in the least expensive Michelin starred restaurant in the UK.

I suppose its just me that didn't get the punning nature of the name of this restaurant and has been trying to figure out how the hell to say it ? Yau (as in owner Alan) at Cha (as in tea). Brilliant! Now what was stopping him calling it "Alan's Teashop"? Just as good as Yauatcha and everyone know would know what he's talking about.

Shame its not "The Racine Cookbook". Still, I could do with losing a few pounds.

The quick and the dead clever, don't you just love them?

Apologies to all for not getting the course in its entirety up on day one. A fine piece of work in my estimation.

Deborah Ross of the Independent being terribly clever and witty about her meal in Hell's Kitchen.

Last nights "chefs challenge" was to bone out a pigs trotter. Ramsay demonstrated how to release the skin from the bone with a knife, then to clasp the flap of skin in a cloth in one hand and pull the bone with the other to free it from the knuckle. A chef friend of mine told me that when Ramsay worked at Harvey's, he could skin a pigs trotter in 35 seconds. He was the fastest in the kitchen and used a special technique. After releasing the skin, rather than use a cloth, he would grip it between his teeth to finish the job. I wonder why he didn't show that particular trick to the celebs?

While we wait for BLH to sober up, I have heard a rumour that Laura Aiken will not continue to work at the restaurant, despite what was said in the Evening Standard. I checked this with their "people" who said that, as she part owns the place, she's not going anywhere. Although she might well take a holiday. And they have hired a restaurant manager, but that was always the plan as Laura doesn't want to work every night. Watch this space.

The show is depicting Hells Kitchen as being run like any other Gordon Ramsay restaurant. So the celebs apparently start work at 8.30am and don't finish till gone midnight. They do all the prep themselves and clean down the kitchen at night. Ramsay is making no allowances for their ineptitude and is binning any food that is not up to his standards. He is spending the hours of service shouting at them like a demented sergeant major and until the last few days, not giving them much clue about what they should actually be doing and how to do it. In addition, he is changing around the sections on a daily basis so that no one has a chance to settle into a routine. On the plus side, they only serve 72 covers a day and there are 8 celebs, 2 head chefs, a pot wash, a couple of commis chefs milling around plus Gordon so the work load is not enormous. But I'm not at all surprised there have been walk outs. Its probably the most demanding of all the "reality" shows.

Gulls eggs are £4.00 a pop at the moment, a fried hens egg isn't going to be much less I wouldn't have thought. Inn The Park are doing them on toast for something like £3.50.

I have to agree. The customer is always right as long as he is not pulling your plonker. I hate all that "power ordering" I'll-just-have-the-egg-white-omlette-and-a-glass-of-water" bullshit. Reeves said to Deayton they if he was at The Ivy he would have got what he asked for it. Well, as Ramsay might have put it "Do you know what big boy? You can fuck off to The Ivy and don't come back."

Welcome to eGullet Jimbob. I really must try this place soon, just hope I haven't missed its heyday already.

We'd have to find someone to be a willing maitre'd for you to abuse too. I can imagine it though 'Lynes - thats f****ng c**p. You're not on Masterchef now' Yes chef!

So that'll be your table, with the rest of the restaurant looking on in horror no doubt.

Well, I did try to get a table when I first heard about this series but no luck, although I didn't put a great deal of effort into it I have to admit.

Look forward to your report wherever it turns up. One thing that is increasingly puzzling to me is how unlike a real kitchen this one appears to be. Of course its "unreal" in that it was created for television and is about 5 times the size of a kitchen serving 72 covers a night, and its staff are all celebs. But it nevertheless has a real job to do. In my experience, no one ever stands around doing nothing during service, yet there were quite a few shots last night of the celebs doing just that. Once orders start coming in, the pace is furious and pots, pans and oven doors are banged about with abandon. If a kitchen is "in the weeds" as this one permanently is, then there is a blizzard of activity. I could see none of that. Just Gordon shouting and the row of tickets at the pass getting longer and longer. With 10 celebrity "chefs" plus Mark Sargeant, Angela Hartnett and a few others milling about, they are not exactly understaffed, but they would still all need to be fully employed to have any chance of getting the food out in a timely manner. Leaving aside James' virtual nervous breakdown and Ramsay's constant barked profanities, its the most laid back kitchen I've ever seen. None of the professionals appear capable of organising the activities of the celebs in order to make the kitchen work as it should. I wonder when Ramsay will cotton on to the fact that shouting "fuck" at an untrained celeb doesn't have the same effect as shouting it at one of his highly trained chefs?