Andy Lynes

The secret to a good tatin is to peel the apples 24 hours in advance so that some of the liquid in the fruit evaporates. This then reduces the dilution of the caramel by the fruit and produces a superior result. Your question no doubt will be "how do I prevent oxidization", to which the answer is "you don't, the fruit will be caramelised so it doesn't matter". And in case you think I've gone insane, this method comes to you courtesy of Michelin starred chef at Petrus restaurant in London, Marcus Wareing.

It's in Michel Roux's "Sauces" book. Its a uncooked sauce of oil, vinegar, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, tabasco, shallots and herbs (chervil, chives, tarragon). I think Roux created it himself, although all he says is that he has loved it since cooking for the Rothchild's. I came across it first on Stephen Terry's menu at Coast (only read it, didn't actually eat there to my great regret), when he served it with pea and polenta pont neuf and cod if I remember correctly.

Well, I suppose I live in "London by the sea" so there could be some truth in that.

Think of a Harrison composed Beatles song that Clapton plays on.

Graham Norton Butter

Tarka - When you look up London on the Michelin web site - it also lists Waterside Inn in Bray-on-Thames - which I suspect is a suburb of London. Robyn Its actually a small and very pretty village in Berkshire whose residents would probably string you up with very expensive rope if you described it as "a suburb of London".

Its entirely down to how much we drink on the night and what we decide we want. A better way might be to set a limit and speak to the sommelier about getting wines to match the food for the money we are willing to spend. At Chez Bruce and The Fat Duck, we managed to get a discount on the cost of the menus which helped, that may happen here but I'm not counting on it. Rough guide - a la catre with wine and service £100.00 tasting menu with wine and service £150.

Shouldn't that read : David Blaine: Enough liquid gloucose to last 44 days (Allegedly)

Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) Milk Ice Cream (for crow) Big eyed beans from venus Wine like turpentine Trout Kandy Korn Tropical Hot dogs Peaches

I'll also need to know if any one has genuine food allergies as opposed to simply likes and dislikes.

Before I liaise with Philip Howard, what are people's thoughts on the budget for this event. As you will realise The Square is not cheap, dinner is £55.00 and tasting menu is £75.00. They have an excellent wine list with lots of choice at the lower end so we could make some savings there if people want. A 15% service charge is suggested for the private room as they don't charge for its hire.

Thanks Moby, I'll e mail the chef and see what we can arrange in terms of a "special menu" although of course all menus are special at The Square! (they could use that for the strapline of their next run of TV adverts couldn't they).

Thursday then Friday.

A Saturday night is no good for me I'm afraid, the Thursday would be much better.

Thats odd because the crab dish is usually a lasagne, not tortellini. We should definately have the crab lasagne if we can.

I've no idea, but your back on. So thats 12.

I believe the restaurant has 60 covers and is open 7 days a week, lunhc and dinner. That gives them 840 covers a week if they were full every service. I doubt this is the case for every lunch, so they must be relaying tables in the evenings. However, I have been 3 times in the evening, and have never been given a time limit. They are open quite long hours, from 6.00pm -10.30pm and I would guess that they could relay 2 or even 3 times in that period if they wanted to. I'll have to speak to Henry about this, I'm quite intrigued as to how they manage!

Well, the private room caters for up to 16, but the picture on the website of the table set for 15 looks quite cramped. I think we ought to put a lid on it at 14. But have a look and see what you think. We need to decide lunch or dinner, a la carte or tasting menu and what sort of budget we want to set. I will then do my best to liaise with the restaurant and Phil Howard to see if we can get something a bit special, but although I have met the chef on several occasions, I do not have a strong connection with the Square so we will have to see how it goes.

Could consider either Racine (cheap) or Bibendum (expensive). OXO Tower gets terrible reviews, could consider Rhodes Twenty Four on the 24th Floor of the Nat West Tower for probably better food and views. Chef Andrew Turner has left 1837 which has now become more of a standard brasserie. He is now at The Bentley

I have had a very good salt beef bagel in the Nosherie, 12-13 Greville Street, London EC1N 8SB, tel: 020 7242 1591. Reasonable prices, quite comfortable and quite good service if I remember correctly.

We've discussed this a couple of times on the boards on the past : here and here.

Too late for La Tante Claire I'm afraid, but if the rumour turns out to be true, Pierre Koffman may be cooking at the Bleding Heart in the city of London by the time you arrive. It might be worth your while to have another look at recent reports of Pied a Terre. Although it too early to suggest it as a replacement for The Ivy, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King's Wolseley Cafe and Restaurant next to the Ritz on Picadilly may well be worth a look. As former owners of The Ivy and Le Caprice, they have been hoovering up a lot of London's talent for this venture, including Chris Galvin as exec chef and Claire Clarke as pastry chef amongst others. They have even poached the Ivy's door man for a reported £70k salary.

Great, thats seven already.

Racine won best front of house at the Harpers awards recently and they mentioned at the ceremony that the restaurant does 1000 covers a week. I think its safe to say they are doing alright!

Oh, stop it! You make your lunch sound utterly exquisite (except maybe the dessert, which still sounds good). I may have to revisit during the hours of daylight in order to compare and contrast my experience at dinner. How did you find the service, did it match the food do you think?