BertieWooster

I assume they're a couple from the constant flirtation?

Surely they retire having taken the trophy home after winning three years in a row?

Do you know how bloody hard it is to look nonchalant while tensing like that? It's a killer I tell you, a killer. ← At least you weren't pulling that 'I'm suffering from severe constipation' face most middle-aged men use whan shifting weights... (criticises he while drinking his afternoon protein shake...ach-hemm)

Loved that picture of Jay 'going through his normal routine in the gym'. ie staring into the mid-distance whilst pushing his biceps out. SO I'm not unfit or decrepit, just 'accepting decay with equanimity.' Cool. (though Becker did build on Jung';s work to suggest those glorying too much in their own decay were subject to depressive psychosis).

We're back there for two nights in May, in the lovely room five (the one with the pool table). Last visit included a starter featuring dill vodka, scrambled egg and potted shrimps. It was the best thing I've eaten/drunk this century. Raving about it for days I was...Wasn't so sure about the cheesy fish. Mrs W wanted to nick the egg holders, but I didn't let her. She whipped me at pool instead.

She's recovering now. Didn't actually work out that expensive. Honest.

about a year ago. Great food, still looks and smells like an EPH though. Inn at Whitewell anyone?

Ah, but that was before the name was known. I just think the production crew wanted to see if Mr Fort could carry off the tension...'and the first winner issssssssssssssss....'[shot of bored chefs taken earlier in the day] 'issssssssssssssss..........' [more shots of bored chefs picking their noses...] The answer being that as a gameshow host he's no Henry Kelly. Mind, Henry Kelly isn't much of a restaurant reviewers.

When we wed at Northcote we begged them to take down those awful pictures in the dining room, but they wouldn't. So we just covered them up and got on with it. And, yes, I think the Edwardian vibe is very them. It certainly suits a jazz band or two. Been eating at the White BUll for years, was a bit surprised by the Bib. Eat there because Ribchester is lovely (specially the ROman museum) and its the best honest pub place around town...great fish and chips, proper pub food. Not massively worth going out of one's way for, but good honest beer and stuff.

Enjoyed the northern episode (though I'm stll a little baffled why they used our place just to do the final judging announcement), but initial reaction was 'they've managed to make an interminable programme even longer' with this pre-selection round. Though, now Mr Wignall is down south, it would have been something of a tragedy if he'd got through (and Dev Arms cooking was hardly modern(ist)). People get iplayer to work? Wow...

As RDB predicted, the move north is confirmed.

Thank you for that. Yes, the Arbutus comparison is one that has been mentioned by many visitors. And has been in our thoughts since the beginning. Spring menu has sprung. About half the dishes have changed. Wild sea bass instead of the John Dory. New cocktails too including a rather lovely red vesper. Advert over.

ONe can't unilaterally ignore Godwin. If you really think that the majority of the public would be in favour of Foie Gras production, I would suggest you have little idea of publc opinion. The public are persuaded (those that care about it)--doesn't mean it can or would be banned. Not enough people (on either side) care.

Damn, why didn't Kaltenbrunner (inter alia...) think of that argument at Nuremberg? When the law defends the indefensible, one must step outside it. <godwin invoked>

Simple answer is that there's not really an answer. As with much dialect and folklore, there's unlikely ever to have been a simple linear process--explanation/event leads directly to new text. The search for such linear origins has dogged folklore research for decades, leading to the simplistic 'everything is based on memories of pagan ritual/hidden history/race memory' explanations that see 'Ring o'roses' attributed to the Great Plague, 'Twelve Days of Christmas' to the persecution of heretics under Elizabeth 1, and shrove tuesday football games to whatever pagan invention happens to be the flavour of the month. So there's two possibilities, both of which might be true, or neither or somewhere in between. One is the one you'll see quoted often, that 'growler' refers to dog, which refers to dogmeat, which refers to the 'unsavoury' meat thats likely to have gone into many of the pies. And the other thats far far more likely, that 'growler' refers to the sound the stomach makes either when hungry or when very full, suggesting the pie was a satisfying (and cheap) meal. And was originally a name for anything big and bulky that satisfied hunger and later became just attached to the pie. Mind, I've heard Deedars call chip butties growlers, so...

You're eating just after T'Modern re-opens post a visit from Her Maj. Hope the smell of fresh paint isn't too off-putting.

Is it frightening? Not sure we're the only people that can see it/understand it, in which case its already being deconstructed. Not sure its even that unusual. Take something like The OC, famous for using 'hip' indie music throughout. Both the bands and the programme benefit from a shared feeling of hipdom, but whats actually going on is a pretty blatant sales process. The move from 'oh, we;re making a cookery programme and need to mention we need Oil' to 'oh we're making a cookery programme and need to mention some oil--can you ring round the big four and see what they'll offer us in terms of advertising to mention their particular product' is only a small (and fairly sensible) step. In programme terms it benefits both sides. Not sure, as long as its as obvious as we're all saying, that it actually matters that much. We became the society of the spectacle decades ago, after all. And not sure who the 'they' you refer to are?

amazing given there's yearly champagne shortage warnings issued ← Yup, weird how easy it is to get stories in the tabloids... But is this 'corruption' on Jamie's part or even on Sainsbury's? If they weren't selling it before he mentioned it, he can hardly be blamed, and its not traditional product placement. A lot of the ingredients in the Delia programme were either only stocked in a small number of stores or weren't stocked at all till a month or so before the programme publicity started (hence even more reason for the '200% increase' figures---of course there is, they hardly bothered stocking it before). This isn't product placement as its traditionally understood. Rather its the Sainscos becoming aware of an impending demand and reacting to it. I'm not saying there aren't hefty conversations about what's available and what might become available, but its not a simple one-way process as was, say, Coke paying for a can to appear in every episode of Neighbours back in the late 90s.

While I'm sure its true that there's a 'Delia effect' for the mentioned ingredients, the figures quoted in the press by way of the major supermarkets are pretty well all made up by press officers. None of the big four would actually release the sort of detailed sales information that could be used by their competitors... Likewise the standard 'champagne sales at Sainscos were up by 200% in the week before Christmas...'

'Food theatrician'? Indeed, and that's where he's heading more and more. If it hadn't been for the huge cost, he would have been putting on an event called 'Food Opera' at the last Manchester INternational Festival--100 people at a time, to be entertained by the plays on the senses his food 'experiences' can provide. Beyond the fact that its using something which one digests, the relationship to 'cookery' is being stretched more and more. Which is not to say it isn't amazing in its own way. Its like listening to Diamanda Galas, astonishing six-octave range, but I think I'd still prefer to listen to Cedolins play Tosca. Intellectual poetry's all very well, but not deep down satisfying.

Didn't it appear in a Kitchen Nightmares?

Given that it hasn't been mentioned in a load of posts or so, thus falling outside Lynes' law, can I note the place in the title of the thread might be worth trying if you're up that end of town (blah blah biases noted)

Uhhr, not in its CBD it doesn't. Same with Sheffield and MAnchester; their starred establishments are out of town.

More on 'why oh why can't Manchester sustain a Michelin star?' over at Crain's

And you can all moan about the appalling metro-centrism and snobbery of the Hardens review I mean, the man might be right, but the review reeks of 'this sort of thing wouldn't go down very well in London, what are those awful northerners thinking about, how dare people enjoy such food...'. Actually, it might have been written by Brian Sewell. Think we'll snip the "its good enough to become a true 'destination'" as the part of the review to quote...