Andy Lynes

That site has a number of reviews of Jessicas, ranging from the ecstatic to the appalled. If you are interested in a "serious" meal however, I would say it is your only real option.

Yes, go to Jessica's in Edgebaston. Chef there is ex-sous from Hibiscus, menu is £29.00 for three courses and is a lovely dining room. Service is excellent. I'll check contact details for you later.

Yes you can, and I've eaten it at Le Champignon Sauvage and described the sensation in this article. However, I don't know exactly how the effect was achieved, only that the candy was incorporated in the brulee layer.

I'm not common-or-garden anything. The rest is up for debate.

Agreed, but I have recently wondered if subconciously I have in some way dismissed the work of women cookery writers and therefore missed out on a great deal. My conclusion is that is in fact the case as I have aspired to be a chef for a number of years, have never realised that ambition,and have instead worked out that aspiration by hoovering up the works of any chef I can lay my hands on and attempting to reproduce restaurant food at home. I believe I am not alone in this BTW.

I think the outcome has been the best possible for everyone involved. An error on the part of the restaurant was made on the night in question, that has been established without question. It would appear that Sandra and her husband's reaction to a potentialy volatile situation was exemplary, both on the evening itself and subsequently. By informing Petrus restaurant of the events of the evening as they saw it, without complaint, but in the spirit of good customer relations, they have handed management the opportunity to grab victory from the claws of defeat, which they so admirably did. In addition, by raising the issue on eGullet, Sandra provided, in my opinion, a genuine public service. She was not complaining, and indeed gave the restaurant a glowing review, but questioned the conduct of one member of staff. She made it plain that she was unwilling to do so on the night as it was a special occasion and did not want to cast a pall over the evening. A big motivation behind my involvement with eGullet is that it brings the restauratuer and the customer closer together. I would hold up this thread as an excellent example of that ambition being realised.

They have had a few good reviews in recent years, not least Jay Rayners rave, which appear or are linked to from the restaurant's website. Most reviews however tend to be of newly opened places, so established restaurants like LCS can get overlooked unless something dramatic like another Michelin star happens to them. The restaurants rating went up from a 7 to an 8 in the Good Food Guide this year so that may put them in the minds of food journalists, as might our article.

By posting only that which you would be happy to discuss in any other public place, or actually say to a person face to face. There has been no indiscretion here.

Well recovered sir! Hope you enjoy the meal.

Starters from £6.00, mains from £12.00 & desserts from £6.00. Sounds reasonable.

Looks like a US only club, I am UK based.

Thanks for all those suggestions, I'm going to be a poorer man very soon I can see that.

The original post was by way of a confession I suppose. I was pointing out the narrowness of my own collection. The fact is that when I walk into a book shop, not only do I always head staight front the cokery section, but also head straight for the latest chef/restaurant title which tend to be by male writers. Its not that there aren't many great female cookery writers, it is simply that I have not investigated enough. That will now change. (My record collection is on a very similar state I have to say, look under M and you'll find Metallica but no Joni Mitchell.)

Quote from linked article : "Gordon Ramsay, Marcus Wareing, Angela Hartnett, Shane Osborn, Richard Corrigan, Atul Kochhar, Ian Pengelley and Michael Caines will all be serving the Ten Star Tapas menu in their restaurants throughout the UK next year. "

Paul Bell and myself are in no way slighted by the fact that our posts failed to prompt you into action.

Review of Ebury is here but you will have to register for the 30 day free trial to read it.

I'm hoping to get back later this week so will also report back.

This article sheds a little light on the matter.

I've been bombarded with Italian menus recently and so didn't really read this one too closely. But you are right, it does sound rather nice. No prices though. I'll check to see if the PR bumph later to see if it gives any indication of average spend per head.

Scott, please don't beat around the bush, eGullet members are busy people and don't have time to read between the lines of wishy-washy statements.

Not sure. The other team members that I am aware of are James Robson Opreations Director, Giorgio Romani Restaurant Manager and Eric mcDonald General Manager. Whether any of them actually own the place I don't know. I'm not familiar with any of those names.

When I run a finger across the spines of my cookbook collection, what I see are mainly the names of male chefs. There is of course the odd Elizabeth David or Jane Grigson, but they are easy to lose sight of amongst the rows of Roux, Ramsay, White and Keller. There is nothing wrong with books of restaurant food of course, I read and cook from many of them quite regularly. But they do tend to represent a fairly narrow view of what cooking can be, based as they are on industry standard methods and approaches adopted by chefs worldwide. In short, my collection has lost touch with its feminine side. I was delighted therefore to recently get my hands on 3 books by highly respected female writers that leave ego and the need to impress at the kitchen door. In their place are a scholarly approach to writing with a nurturing style of cooking that covers methods, ingredients and geographical areas previously under-represented on my shelves. A Cooks Guide To Grains Jenni Muir is a Cordon Bleu graduate and freelance writer whom I know best from her work with Shaun Hill and John Campbell (male chef alert). In "A Cooks Guide to Grains" she looks at the history, provenance and culinary uses of a wide variety of grains, and also considers the ethical and nutritional issues associated with their propagation. The book includes 100 recipes using rice, cornmeal, buckwheat flour, millet and quinoa to name but a few. The text is beautifully composed and the recipes are lively and exciting, quite at odds with the worthy image grains can suffer from in the minds of cooks. The breakfast section is particularly appealing with Egyptian Porridge featuring farrro, apricots, almonds and pomegranate, or Sticky Black Rice with coconut and tofu, but there are great ideas throughout such as quinoa, cashew and grape salad, pumpkin and sage pudding and a number of breads, cakes and desserts. Stunning photography by Jason Lowe completes an appealing package which I found genuinely enlightening, thought provoking and which has expanded my culinary horizons. Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible Madhur Jaffrey is a busy woman. Whilst not acting in 20 odd movies, Jaffrey appears to spend her every waking moment writing. Author of at least 15 previous books, she has now produced what may well come to be considered the definitive text on curry. With a title like "Ultimate Curry Bible" it certainly seems that she intends the book to be her final word on the subject (if she gets the urge to write more, Jaffrey will be forced to pen a prequel : "Ultimate Curry Bible:The Early years" anyone?). Within it's 353 pages Jaffrey travels to India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, South Africa, Kenya, UK and beyond to collect what appears to be every curry recipe known to man. I wouldn't be surprised to learn if she stopped off in Germany along the way, just in case the rumour of an ancient Germanic tribe of curry lovers turned out to be true. The book is divided into chapters by ingredient (e.g. Poultry and Eggs or Dals, Beans and Split Peas) which include highly informative introductions and short essays such as "The Vindaloo Curry" and "In Search of Perfect Kebabs", as well as the recipes. These in turn often have introductions, which explain their derivation and how the dish is traditionally eaten. Although recipes can often be long, this is due to the number of spices required for many of the dishes. Once you have stocked your store cupboard, the book is very approachable. Open it at random and you are likely to come across something delicious sounding such as Chicken and Bamboo Shoots in Red Curry from Thailand, The Best Aubergines Ever from Afghanistan or Curry Mee from Malaysia. The book also includes extensive sections on breads, rice and side dishes. Photography by William Lingwood is clear and appealing and supplemented by archive paintings and drawings which depict traditional farming scenes. The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes For the Passionate Cook I have to admit to a rather fetishistic relationship with books, especially cookbooks. I like the feel, weight and smell of them, especially when they are new. A well designed book is a luxury and a delight. The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen's square shape and burgundy toned cover is somehow reassuring and invites handling. The HTF Requiem typeface on the page's matt surface is calming to the eye and condusive to lazy sessions, wine glass in hand, choosing which recipe to tackle next. Of course, it always helps if the book is actually worth reading, and Paula Wolfert's latest instalment of what she called on her recent eGullet Q&A her "life continuum" is certainly that. Similar to Jaffrey's book, The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen is divided mainly by ingredient, although does include "appetisers" "salads" "soups" and "desserts" alongside seafood, meat and vegetable sections. Wolfert's book is no less ambitious in its scope, covering the entire Mediterranean region taking in North Africa, Spain, Greece, Turkey, France and Italy. The recipes have been gathered on what must have been highly pleasurable field trips and can therefore lay claim to authenticity. Although chef's recipes do appear in the book, Wolfet's main source is the women of the region and thereby documents the traditional cooking of the area. Many of the recipes require marination of meat, or soaking of grains and pulses and so is not a work to be consulted for last minute ideas for tonights meal. But a little planning and forethought will open up a whole world of flavour and texture to the organised cook. Green beans, usually done in a matter of moments, here will take up to 7 hours to cook, but seasoned with garlic and Turkish red pepper flakes, will "melt in your mouth". The book is full of delicious sounding tagines, stews and baked dishes of which "Slow Baked lamb with Fennel, Pecorino and Potatos" caught my attention in particular. The dessert section is equally as strong with a rather English sounding Rhubarb Custard Tart and the apparently tricky Caneles de Bordeaux being highlights. So although a desirable artefact and one that would certainly enhance your coffee table, it is a book to be cooked from, which is more than might be said for some of those male chef books.

This is a rum old site, based around a promotional campaign by Sherry.org. Eight UK chefs with 10 Michelin stars between them (although only 6 of them are starred) have knocked up tapas recipes to be drunk with sherry. The site contains the recipes and a list of 12 restaurants, but it is not clear (to me at least) whether the restaurants, which are not those of the featured chefs, will be serving the recipes, or if the chefs will serve the food at their own restaurants. All very confusing. See if you can work it all out by clicking here.

Salt menu Whiskey Bar Cocktail List Whiskey Bar Dining Room

When Salt opens at the end of October this year, it will combine a lounge style Whiskey and Champagne Bar and a 50 seat modern Italian restaurant. Jonny Lomas (previously at The Time Lounge NYC) will oversee the bar with its 200 whiskies and bourbons whilst Alan Marchetti, formerly head chef of Al Duca, cooks for the upstairs dining room. The interior has been designed by Steve Seary Architects and mixes wengi and warm black walnut hardwoods and dark natural slate cladding. The wood and leather furniture will be offset by the frosted glass lit bar with an illuminated display case housing the whiskies and bourbons. Salt Whiskey Bar and Dining Room Seymour Street London W2 020 7402 1155 Info courtesy of Sauce Communications