alexw

Crispy skin on fish is done by us in the restaurant by placing the fish skin side down into a hot non-stick (or proved) pan with a little oil. season the flesh only and just prior to cooking. shake the pan once to ensure that the fish hasn't caught slightly, not really an issue in a non-stick, then leave for a minute. for thin fillets such as bream or tail end pieces of salmon just keep it on a moderate flame until you see it mostly cooked. RESIST THE URGE TO TURN IT YET! for thicker pieces place the whole pan in a 180C oven (plastic handled domestic pans just place the pan area under a salamander for a few minutes. when ready to serve the fish quickly turn over and finish with a knob of soft butter and a squeeze of lemon, allow to turn to a noisette and spoon the mix over a few times to achive a shine. remove from the pan and serve immediately. do not cook the flesh as when this dries out and goes brown it is a caramelisation of protien and apart from not tasting great is quite indigestible. hope this helps Alex.

My humble apologies to Viz, I wasn't trying to put them down in any way, just referring to the pointless language used to disguise the lack of talent on written display. this was more like busy kitchen speak than an allegedly intelligent broadsheet article. Alex

it would appear from this he just felt the need to print some foul language, maybe he just just start writing a column for VIZ magazine instead, somewhere near "rogger mellie the man on the telly".

With the quality of beef being reared on our own shores, this foreign stuff is immoral at that price, fine when you are in it's locality enjoy it to the full, but to get such a (allegedly) fine beef, (never eaten it myself yet). a) why mince the damn thing, and b) why bow down to the whim of one of your guests. my answers would be to (opinion only of course) a) if he were to use prime cuts then his cost margin would suffer as a consequence. most restaurants nowadays run to a 25-27% food cost and woe-betide anyone in his kitchen who accidentaly cut a 210gram steak instead of a 200gram one, this would crap out his profit probably for the rest of the day, (maybe he would only ever cut it himself.) He is making a burger as the cuts used can be tailored to be economical, also no-one in their right mind would use fillet for a burger as you would have to mince back fat or some other inferior fat into it just to make it palletable. b)the answer here is simple - free publicity I personally think it is immoral to spend that amount of money on a burger, however these people are our guests and they provide our market, and as they say. "You pays your money and takes your choice". enough rant for today, and Rainer if people are paying £55 for your burger send a couple my way so I can boost my revenue. Alex.

no clue how many skoville it was but my one and only foray into true pain was lat year, when one of my chefs and I were racing to blag a harrisa paste for service, one we used to place sparingly into cous-cous and serve with a melon & cucumber yogurt. to go with our chicken dish. we raced it and as we roasted our spices we were none the wiser, nor were we any more clued up when we blended the spices together and the cloud that ploomed from the processor managed to clear our kitchen. (we were "dans la merde" at the time). we promptly finished the paste with the tomato reduction and give a final taste for seasoning when we realised the recipe called for 50grams birds eye chillies and not the 500grams we had actually put in. Tears in my eyes I could only see one salvation the milk fridge at the far end of the kitchen which we dashed for throwing commis chefs and waiters out of the way in our wake. safe to say we don't rush the spicey recipes anymore. ouch.

At work, I am a narrow minded prep fiend, then I have to be we knock out aroud 5000 meals a month, at home I generally get to stage 3 of a recipe get bored and wing it into something totally different than got me going in the first place, thankfully to date hardly any of these dishes made it straight to the bin and me straight to the nearest take-away, but the odd one (hmmmm), of course. I have to admit I am generally inspired by one part of a dish, the roast chicken dish which is my avatar, was inspired by Michel Bras' bread jus from his book essential cuisine. Alex.

scrub em, and simmer them in their skins. when soft peel as you would potatoes for sautee and add to a plain risotto base, finish with a little truffle oil, parmy and butter. top with the best roasted chicken breast you can find. quality and simple

I could let you work for a day if you like, lots of chopping and no pot washing, probably a little spinach picking too, but then you can't have the smooth without a little rough. If you are interested in a day in a 5* hotel kitchen the PM me with your phone number and I'll give you a ring. Alex.

Welcome back, it was an accidental trip via google that first got me into e-gullet in the first place, I look forward to reading the upcoming articles and also when my new menu is bedded down am I actually get some sleep between shifts, I will post a recipe or three on the recipe gullet. Very well done to all involved. Alex.

Astounding, whilst I am not one to belittle anyone this is one of the saddest gimmicks I have ever seen, if this is the best in Derbyshire then is there no-where else to eat in derbyshire? you have to show pity here................

Just seen in restaurant magazine Heston is looking for a Sous to help Ashley and pastry chefs, knowing them quite well and having done a few days there, whilst not in London, Heston does spend a lot of time in the kitchen and was on hand for a barrage of questions, general chat when I was there (some time ago now). Can't reccomend it enough really. Alex.

now this paragraph seems to sumup Margate quite well, indeed perhaps the whole of thanet where we have more than our fair share of small cafes

As far as I am aware, Heston Blumenthal consults Herve a fair amount and they are both part of a government funded group looking into developments in food. This is only a rumour though as I have not spoken to HB about this myself. He hasn't published much for the layman as far as I am aware but I am sure he will have published many scientific journals that don't exactly line your average bookstore shelves.

One of the discoveries he notes is the making of ice cream with liquid nitrogen, which is documented by Mrs Marshall over 100 years ago, he has used her quotation about freezing things with "liquid air" in the guardian earlier this year. Heston also uses her original recipe for both ice cream and edible cone for one of his courses, just to put over the point that the Americans didn't come up with the cone first. And quite lovely it is too. Alex.

should be in around a week or so, maybe less. Any guesses.

I have always used digital thermometers for all kitchen work, nowadays most are accurate to aroud 180-190 degrees C, which with the excaption of blackjack is as high as you want to go, I generally calibrate mine in boiling water to check its accuracy and as they are pretty cheap more then 5 degrees F then it gets binned. As for infra red ones we use these at work for receiving goods and ensuring the delivery vans are as cold as they say they are, but don't think I would use one in the kitchen as its the core of something I am interested in and not the surface.

Fantastically written first post, this year for me has been the year of foam and jelly, next year am contmplating a year of historical classicism as it is quite easy to be jaded with what can be achieved and forget the roots from which everything culinary stems. however my relevant bit to this thread is: whilst preparing for olympia a few years ago, I spent a little time finding a black pepper to mill over my confit of quince to go with a duck dish. I came across a bag of Madagascar peppercorns which had a more subtle warmth, so used these. can't have been all bad, got a merit for my first competition. Sadly this year went a bit overboard on what I thought would be clever and got bugger all! Alex.

And happy holidays to you. Firstly I have to ask are you a maitre d', one feels the need to tread carefully here. My answer is they are very important. Over the years economic measures have ensured that only neccesary staff are employed within restaurants, so each single member of staff recruited is vital in their own way. Two good ones spring to mind, Didier from the Fat Duck who is a perfect host, knowlegable and friendly, who when dining as a table of two if you vacate the table for a WC break will approach, tidy your setting and partake in polite thoughtful converstion with the remaining, generally bored party until your return, I find this trait invaluable at the FD, as I have a habit of getting nearly to the end of the meal and then popping to the kitchen to see Ashley and catch up on old times (which can take a while), my wife and Didier are now quite good friends because of this. The other, and I apologise for forgetting his name, is the Maitre D' of the Savoy grill, who ran a seamless service during a packed luch not long after Marcus Wearing took over. just Faultless. Rough ones I don't know any, only invisible ones in other restaurants not worthy of mention, good or bad. Alex.

Whilst I appreciate that many including Heston find it uncomfortable to use the term "Molecular Gastronomy", essentially it is Gastronomy, the eating of fine food, and molecular, not some high convoluted lab work but a study of food beyond the visible boundary of tastes, example: if you make a plain butter sauce with no vinegar or lemon juice then the flavour will dominate whatever else is on the fork or spoon, add some of the above and all of a sudden other flavours can come through. Now as chefs we all know this but what is happening nowadays is that more questions are being asked and, thankfully, the answer that "it just works when you do that" is no longer acceptable in the modern kitchen. Consequently we strive to find the true answer, the fat in the beurre blanc coats the microscopic pores on the tongue, masking it from the other flavours, the acid merely cuts through the fat and opens up our pores to the flavours so we may enjoy the meal. Sometimes the fat can work for itself, chocolate being a prime example, the chocolate just melts at body temperature and all the flavour molecules coat the tongue to provide a much prized sensation. Real chocolate that is not mars bars and the like. Alex

Brilliat Saviran identified three tiers of gastronomy which, according to him, relied on your income at the time. the dishes he proposes for each tire nowadays border on the gluttenous. Truffled turkey anyone? As Foodman said some of the best Gastronomy came out of my mothers oven, however tomorrows Ideal may come from you chef, and another from the pie and chips from the pub down the road. Anyones Ideal gastronomy is, in my opinion, purely subjective. And can be changed at a moments notice dependant on mood and feeling, not to mention ones appetite. And now I begin to understand the nature of the question Chef Adria, this is a question that can not be answered, all that can be achieved is an insight to each members thoughts and love for food in general. I personally cannot wait to dine at El bulli, but due to work and family commitments it will, sadly, not be next year. and truly hope that on the day, as I am sure that it will, yours will be my ideal gastronomy. However this evening I look forward to my Mothers recipe of Boston Baked beans and some simple crusty bread. Gracias, for such an interesting beginning to what I am sure will be an amazing Q&A Alex Wood

There are many artisan companys appearing it would appear almost weekly, however a personal favourite would have to be Sally Clarkes, their consistency is second to none and offer a good variety, we have used them now for over 3 years and have not had one single issue with their product or service, which is quite amazing for a London restaurant. Alex.

Moby, the mara de bois has been on for ages, they sue them when available to variate from the bacon and egg ice cream. I had that last time I was there some 6 months ago, however where they are getting wild strawberries from at this time of year I have no Idea, Time to drop them a line I think. Alex.

From what I can gather first star is the benchmark, 2nd star doesn't seem to make a huge amount of difference ( I could however be extremely wrong here), but quoting a long forgotten article from many moons ago, (which I have forgotten where its from), he said that with the third star came a whole new breed of clientelle, ones who all of a sudden knew exactly what they wanted from their food, and how it should come. This mould is of course being pushed by the FD, and also if you note that the FD had a 2 knife and fork rating, (which is how they grade their comfort and surroundings), I had 2 knife and forks when I used to work at Marchesis in Broadstairs, in kent and we served better than average restaurant fayre. I don't beleive the stars have much to do with the restaurants surroundings, It is mainly for the quality of what you get to consume. Everything from the shopping to the visual execution of each dish, this would include the service staff and quality of china etc.

Last year at a chefs conference in sheffield we had the closing dinner which consisted of a peach sorbet intermediate course, Willie pike made these by blowing sugar and indenting it to look exactly like a peach. eh showed how he made them during a demo earlier in the day. Then filling it with the peach sorbet and a schnapps granita. looked and tasted great but a bit blooming laborious for 330 guests, christ knows how long he and his team took to make them.

they haven't updated the website simply because they have far too much going on at the moment, I mentioned it to Heston in January and he had already written the update for the site the previous August, but the designers hadn't done it yet. I then Mentioned it again to Ashley a few weeks ago and the site is on the to do list, which is getting longer day by day. I will see if I can find out when it may be up and running again, but don't hold your breath with the Hinds and the Molecular Gastro student thing happening in the new Lab set up, it may be some while yet. Alex