Paul de Gruchy

Robyn, Yes - I live outside the UK but when I go to London I eat here. The food is always interesting and intelligent and frequently utterly memorable. It is never misconceived or perfunctory. The room is a lovely space and I have never had problems with the service. I've only been to Gordon Ramsay's RHR operation once and felt that TA was a better experience, though others will disagree. I recommended this restaurant to my inlaws and they too love it. Go without hesitation.

The brownies seem to have migrated to the bread and wine site down the road. The website is great fun though - they update the menus twice daily so you can see exactly what will be on offer (though they tend to supplement it with specials). If you have the marrowbone starter portion sizes will be the least of your worries.

let's hope he doesn't do a thirty five part series on channel 4 on being a toff living among boaties. that would be irredeemable.

Went to Aikens again last week and the food was good but not a patch on the meal I'd previously written up. There were flashes of inspiration but nothing matched the amuse and the p4s. Still, it was an enjoyable meal and I did find myself smiling the "everything is all right in the world" smile as the coffee came, which is the test of a good restaurant. Just no individual dishes to match the brilliance that I've had before. So maybe next time I'm in London I'll try somewhere else.

Guernsey is seriously grim. I'm not saying Jersey is great but twice I've been to Guernsey with my wife and both times we've ended up having a dispute over the sex of the taxi-driver. Very League of Gentlemen. I've never had a good meal there either, though the wife has (maybe my absence had something to do with it).

very generous in-laws in the stockbroking belt while I bummed around at law school. we are allowed to leave Jersey you know (as long as we promise to come back with womenfolk to keep the blood thin)

Moby - I'm a Jersey boy. Which is great for milk and cream and fish and seafood and potatoes and tomatoes, which, let's face it, isn't bad. But it is depressing that we have a beautiful Victorian covered market with four butchers in it, and when I asked for shoulder of pork for barbecue they each replied "sorry, the stuff we sell comes in boxes and we don't get shoulders". Nor do they get organic and if you asked them to hang the meat I think they'd suggest you go hang yourself. There are some okay restaurants here and one very good one, so if anyone is ever coming over and needs to know, shout.

Pork is a mystery to me. The best dish I have ever eaten anywhere was a fillet of pork (at the long defunct Partners restaurant in Dorking - well, the chef/proprietor moved on at least). The fillet was cooked pink and was juicy and sweet and full flavoured and a complete revelation. Since then I have on numerous occasions ordered pork in restaurants, both good and bad, and it always comes out white and dry and smelling a bit fishy. Jane Grigson says that pre-salting is the key to cooking pork, to help lose its "grossness" and as ever, she's on the money. But it feels awful to have tasted how good pork can be and then to never even get an inkling of it again. I could try myself but getting decent pork is virtually impossible where I live and mail order won't deliver. The joys of island life... One day I shall buy and fatten up some piglets just to make sure I didn't hallucinate the whole pork episode.

I had a quite average meal at Corrigan's Lindsey House just after 9/11. I was by myself, and thought I'd drop in, and there was only one other table for two there at lunch. At least I had a bottle of wine. The cooking was a bit flat - frankly, it felt like here was a cook that probably really knew what he was doing with clear, strong flavours but on that day he either wasn't cooking or couldn't be bothered. From what I can remember - okay, photographic memory for food - tomato and mozz. amuse bouche - fine but in October in London? - game soup - good, perhaps too earthy but pretty fine - smoked haddock with some lovely potatoes in a copper pan - very nice, best smoked haddock I've ever had (not surprisingly, as smoked haddock is something I think I love but it is never quite as good as it should be), and a wonderful pear tatin. Actually, thinking about it, it was a damn fine meal. One of those better in the memory than at the time ones but he clearly knows what he's doing, so I'd give him a go. Lindsay House is a very nice place to eat - proper old house in Soho, around corner from A. Little. Go by yourself and read his cookery books on the shelf - I did.

I've got a four oven aga and love it. It was in the house when we moved in and I'd never cooked on one before. It's taken me about a year to fully work it out but now I could never cook on anything else. Having constant heat in the ovens adds an extra dimension to food: it's easier to roast than it is to fry, preferable to casserole rather than boil etc. You can always freshen bread, roast veggies etc. The ovens also never need cleaning. For these reasons its probably better in a cooler climate. It's been great reading the threads on the Fat Duck on egullet because an Aga is perfect for slow roasting: I'll put a leg of lamb in the slow oven before I go to work and 12 hours later it is perfect. Also, its great for searing pieces of meat and then finishing them in the oven, as a restaurant would. Last Christmas, I cooked a turkey for 12 in 3 hours, but I could have had a different, though just as good effect by using a different oven for 16 hours. Oh god, they are fantastic. Unbelievably so.

I get the feeling I'm losing this one! I suppose the crux is that I had a meal at RHR that I found deeply unimpressive and one at the Savoy that also didn't live up to my expectations. From everything that people say, I suspect that I was unlucky. At RHR, it was a couple of months after the accident with the head chef and perhaps the kitchen was having an off day (it was also Monday lunchtime, so GR was unlikely to be there). But my feeling was that the meal was very flat - perfunctory was the thought that both my wife and I had. As I say, it was probably bad luck, but at over £100 a head, it takes some persuading to go back to check and a 3 star kitchen shouldn't have off-days. My loss, no doubt. I agree that it is a bit rich to criticise perfect squares of carrots in light of the carrot castle that Aikens dished up and that I ate with pleasure. Overall, I suppose the above just goes to show what a difficult business running a restaurant is. Different customers can come in and have completely different experiences. I'm not sure whether my RHR experience was partly the result of an expectation that I would get a handful of courses that would stay in the memory for ever. Instead I got a competent, but unremarkable meal. But I don't think I'm wrong about Ramsay's desire to succeed. He has chosen food as his career and is committed to it, but I'm sure he was equally committed to football before and he is/will be equally committed to building up his business empire now. I feel his real commitment is to giving 100% to whatever project he is engaged in and it just happens to have been food for the past few years (though I sense that is now changing). And that is no criticism - I wish I could show that sort of commitment to anything!

I meant style over substance. The overwhelming feeling that what has driven this whole exercise is a desire to be successful rather than any innate love of music/food. Funnily enough, I sense this particularly with Ramsay. Fantastically driven, sure, but I don't get the sense with him or Wareing that they have to be chefs, that they couldn't countenance anything else, that they live and breathe cooking. I do get this feeling from Aikens, Blumenthal, the Rouxs, Gagnaire etc. I think Ramsay has such force of character he could be successful at anything he turned his mind to (within reason) and that Wareing has gained much by association. Ramsay would be great as the CEO of a large company. In fact, that is fast what he is becoming! The catering college comment? Well, my heart sinks at perfect squares of carrot and intricate little courgette batons. Does it actually add anything to a plate other than cost? Isn't it a bit childish? My overall impression (based on on a prestige menu at RHR and the carte at the Savoy) was pretty average. Three months on I can only remember one dish, the tatin at the Savoy, which was great, possibly because it was so intense and sticky and sweet. The rest of the time, the cooking was so restrained that I found nothing memorable. And that's not a great return when you consider the cost and expense of such meals. Certainly not enough to make me consider returning. Maybe not Sigue Sigue Sputnik. Maybe more Andrea del Sarto. Faultless but a touch perfunctory. But enough people that I respect swear by Ramsay and Wareing, which leaves me wondering whether I'm missing something.

I haven't eaten at Petrus and given that I live in Jersey, don't get over to London that often and was very disappointed by my weekend of Ramsey/Wareing food (Savoy then RHR) I'm not sure I ever will. The feeling that I got from the Savoy was (with the exception of a perfect tarte tatin) that the food was slightly soulless, that here was someone who might be technically flawless but lacked the imagination and intensity and basic interest in food to take it to the next level. However, am I the only one that is a bit concerned about dishes involving perfect squares of carrot topped with deep fried parsley? Isn't it a bit, well, catering college? And the pouring of sauces from little jugs. I find the whole experience deeply naff (though the service at RHR hit just the right note and very few places do). I note that in last week's Times Ramsay was giving instructions on making vegetables look like hedgehogs in order to get children to eat them. Jamie Oliver yes but a three star chef? And do I need to read Wareing suggestions on buying supermarket pate as a starter for lunch? I just don't "get" Wareing and Ramsay (admittedly on the strength of one meal at each only). Which puzzles me. Am I missing something? Or is it all (as I suspect) a self-fulfilling marketing prophecy? Sigue Sigue Sputnik with sauce.

The service was pretty good but the place was quiet and as we booked for 1.30, I think we were the last table in. When we ate earlier in the year it was busier but I had no complaints about the service. My wife notices these things better than me and she felt service had a slightly edgy feel. It certainly isn't as surprisingly (and I mean that as a compliment) informal and friendly as RHR. In fact, she commented that she thought everyone was probably terrified of Aikens and his wife, which I thought was a bit harsh but I let her talk as I was more concerned with filching from her plate under the guise of being attentive.

I recently had the set lunch at Aikens and it was unbelievably good, better even than the carte I had in May. The starter of Potato Soup was almost a riposte to the lack of starch andy noted in his earlier post. A thick, foaming potato cream floating upon fudgy braised potato in a pool of the darkest, most intense duck stock served with a side order of velvety mash, translucent tuiles that revealed themselves as the most perfect potato crisps and some slightly superfluous beignets of duck confit. Black truffles everywhere. Utter bliss. Everyone knows Aikens can do intense flavours, but this was intensely potatoey, and I didn't think anyone could do that. The main of pot-au-feu of lamb came with two dark, dense cutlets, clearly braised long and slow, a few roundels of rare fillet, a boudin of sweetbreads, four slices of lamb's tongue and a couple of cabbage skinned faggoty items. It was a plate of food that demanded concentration, each aspect of the lamb flavour reflecting and ampilfying the overall effect, textural counterpoints working together perfectly, taste and aftertaste and now, the memories of flavour remain. Plus the amuse bouche, dessert (blueberry pannacotta with blueberry madelaines), coffee and petits fours (grands neufs would be closer the mark, though the extra five madelaines overegged a good thing slightly) and you wonder how this guy can do it for £24.50. When I went on a Friday recently the place was half empty. But this was a rare occasion when I felt that the set lunch was as time consuming to cook, and as rewarding to eat, as the options on the carte. Also, I ordered a modest Alsatian Pinot Blanc, which they turned out to have run out of and the sommelier suggested in its place a cheaper alternative, which always cheers me up and makes me feel less like a skinflint. Go there. Give this guy your support.

to go back to an earlier comment, my understanding is that Marmite originally developed in the Midlands (UK) and that the yeast component was some sort of by-product of brewing. So the analogy between the flavour of Marmite and that of beer is not wholly fanciful.

I've had lunches at Le Gavroche, RHR and Tom Aikens this year - the set at Le Gav, the tasting at RHR and the carte at Aikens and I thought Aikens was far and away the best. I was very disappointed at RHR. There was little wrong with the food but equally, not one of the dishes was memorable. Having eaten at the Savoy a couple of days before and shared a similar experience, I don't know whether I just don't "get" Ramsay's cooking, but it struck me as unambitious and actually slightly dated: the hotel food of the next decade. My wife didn't finish her frozen chocolate dessert, stating that she'd have preferred a Vienetta and actually, she wasn't wrong, but it was the first time I've ever seen that. Le Gavroche was great value - the free half bottle of wine you get is usually excellent and if there are a pair of you it is perfect to mix white and red. The cooking is conservative and classical but pretty faultless. Aikens was great. I don't know whether it's because he's desperately trying to win plaudits whereas the others are able to rest a little on their laurels but I can think about that meal four months on and the flavours come back clear in my memory. His food is probably not as flawless as RHR or Le Gavroche, but it is much more memorable and interesting and overall a more intense experience. I wasn't actually that impressed by the desserts at any of these places, which makes me wonder whether crude desserts - say a squidgy chocolate brownie with ice cream and sauce - are better than more sophisticated fare. But that's another issue. And the madelaines at Aikens are great.

I'm off to Cardiff in a couple of weeks and aren't sure that we've got to the bottom of finding a decent place to eat there. Anyone tried Cassoulet - I seem to remember Meades writing a positive review a while back (in as much as he got around to mentioning the food).

I get the feeling a lot of the posts here are from the US. Here in the UK, Atkins is big news but there's a similar diet put forward by a guy called Clarke, who is an insulin expert. His approach is much more scientific and makes more sense to me than Atkins. For a start, he's keen on fruit. Also, he says that wine is no problem. I think Atkin's objections to alcohol are largely puritan as the carb level isn't high. Anyway, I found that on all these diets keeping regular was a problem and my family has a history of colon cancer so I wanted to have a high fibre diet and no matter how much salad or cabbage you eat, it doesn't have the same effect as a bowl of high-fibre cereal or a plate of beans. I then read Montignac's "Eat Yourself Slimmer", which also made sense to me. He said that the basic problems were bad carbs and combining carbs and fat. So now, I eat a very high fibe cereal with skimmed milk for breakfast. Then for lunch (or four hours later) I have cheese or meats or smoked fish (not that popular in the office but who cares) with some tomatoes or high fibre crispbread, a few olives, a handful of nuts. Then for supper, whatever I want as long as it doesn't have potatoes, rice, pasta etc. Tonight I had a large plate of salad with pine nuts and home made duck confit - last night shoulder of lamb with ratatouille. I'll have a half bottle of red wine most nights and as I'm no longer trying to lose weight I'll have a couple of squares of chocolate to satisfy the sweet craving. But the real trick from Montignac is to look at food as being a series of choices: you can have a slice of white bread or a bottle of red wine. You can cheat but just be sensible about it. I've lost about 10 lbs over the last 3 months eating like this and my weight is now stable at my ideal level. I feel good and the best thing you can say is that you don't eat processed food, which must be healthy. I agree with the poster earlier on this thread that doubted any diet that banned fruit but encouraged supplements.