tripe

I'm running away from this one as all three chefs that you mention I enjoy eating their food. I think we shouldn't always have to assesss someopnes ability in detail.

I suspect not. But if he did and gave a fraction of what he gave me to someone else then we would all benefit

I never really thought of working in France . When I started my apprenticeship with Simon Hopkinson there seemd no need to go elsewhere as his quest for perfection was all consuming. Teaming this up with being introduced to the works of Richard Olney by SH I felt that I was learning about all of France and not just the one region one would be working in. Holidays anda substantial amount of eating introduced meb to the ingredients that I could not get in the UK and good traing made me understand how one achieved the finished dish. My visit to Chez Panisse was thje briefest but revelatory. Access to local farms, markets and other small producers was such an important part of Chez Panisse and Alice Waters set this very much as one of the most important principles tyhat we should be reminded of, long before it made it to the East Coast let alone English cities

many yes, as it is an easy period to access. I have seen little evidenc of other eras

Yes often, when you have a good brigade to work who bring a wealth of experience with them it would be foolish not to absorb some of their knowledge. As to what I learnt from them I can't currently remember

possibly veryt true but it wouldn't be fare to assess their ability when I have not eaten thefruits of their chemistry

it was educational

Yes I do eat tripe and in healthy quantities. It needs to be imported from France as most English tripe can only be bought overcooked and bleached A particular favourite is tablier de sapeur aka firemans apron. It is a sheet of braised tripe that is egg and breadcrumbed and then fried and served with Bearnaise sauce and mustard. Madrid style with chorizo, tomato etc is also very good. In dim sum restaurants the little platres of tripe with black beans and chilli are very good indeed, also chickens feet are very good this way at Racine when it is on the menu I can sell 5 to 10 portions a day

Fay Maschler; Every restaurant is subjected to an honest and intensive assessment that brings the place to life and informs you exactly what your experience is likely to be. Her enjoyment of the craft of cooking and the skill involved along with her pleasure of eating make her reviews stand out. Johnathan Meades; He brings the whole world into his pieces of prose using often incomprehensible words to many, unless armed with a Thesaurus. But along with insightful and accurate writing he shows what a joy the English language is. The main critic for the majority of broadsheets have these jobs because they are good writers who understand restaurants.

A restaurant is a business and while it exists it has to make money. Sadly the costs of running a restaurant in the city mean that you have to maximise the resources available to you, namely tables. We do turn some tables, probably about 25% and this usually comes about when you have a late booking and someone else is prepared to comer early and not hang about!

There can be only one Heston

Most of the names you mentioned apart from Matthew didn't actually stay at Bibendum that long. It was a special time, but as for being a prima donna, there wasn't time as I was too busy enforcing Simons iron will. As for a special time it was the three years before with Simon at Hilaire that were the most precious. We did know we were doing something special but we enjoyed it for the moment rather than preening.

Yes we have been very lucky. But I also think that the food I am cooking is what people find very accessible and comfortable. They have missed. Wher I am lucky is that people want to eat what I am happiest cooking

It certainly helps with relations front and back of house, normally to the good. It makes a chef more tolerant as you then know what the poor soul dealing with the recalcitrant diner is going through, or the woman who can't cope with the whole fish smiling at her. It doesn't always work with senior floor staff as it is easier to spot their mistakes and thje perceived criticism however well intentioned is invariably poorly received. From an executive pioint of view it is invaluable as you understand all aspects of the business better.

He is without a doubt the greatest cook this country has raised. He has the best understanding of food and its preparation. He has an instinct that enables him to breing ingtredients together for the greates of effect and more importantly he knows better than anyone when to stop.

oeufs en meurette at Bibendum, that intense red wine sauce softening the elegant crouton nestling below the poached egg. Humour, a feuillete of reshly clubbed baby seal tends to keep the non meat eaters happy

Yes, it has changed. There are more very good restaurants now than there have ever been .Critics are reviewing restaurants of every price and style and now a cheap meal can be as special as the most expensive. What do I get nosytalgic about, first experiences, most of them in the early 80's. Poons Chines for the best deepfried squid I had ever tried, smothered with garlic and chilli. My first Thai meal. And a pissaladiere at Lou Pescadou in South Ken after a busy evening service, washed down with a chilled EstandonmRouge

I try to, during serbvice there is often not the time to find out exactly who is having what. Though saying that if a friend or VIP etc comes for dinner then thjey might just get that special table, mind you if thjey are late they might not.

This may have been the case. Rationing during and after the war destroyed most of our heritage. Like any natural disaster we recover. Now our ingredients and skills match anywhere else. If it was all so poor why did Careme, Escoffier and Soyer to name a gfew up sticks from home and move to England?

I know that when you boil an egg it goes hard. I don't need to know why. As with every approach to cooking there are masters and their disciples and then there is the idiot attemting to emulatein the background. The masters will cook an exemplary meal as will their disciples eventually. The idiot will imitate without passion or skill and that is where the travesty starts.

The biggest snails stuffed into shells alonmg with the most intense of garlic butters. They came on a black iron dish that meant they still spluttered 10 vminutes later. 2 fat slices of terrine of foie gras served on the smallest of side plates. No rich elegant toasted brioche rather a pile of toasted baguette. so appropriate. Yes we had the roast chicken, back in 1987, the time of my meal it was 190 francs and was the cheapes thing on the menu. It doesn't come in twoo services and I don't beleive it ever has. The prime fowl was roasted and quartered and served in the oval enamel roasting dish it had first entered the oven in. The gravy (jus is too poncy for this dish) had a positive layern of butter and chicken fat floating on the surface. Greenery was a large bunch of watercress plonked alongside as it left the kitchen, as we worked through the chicken it slowly wilted and cooked in the gravy. Pudding was a bowl of raspberries served with an obscene amounbt of crem fraiche straight from a large crock. With a bottle of house Fleurie tyhe bill back then was over £100. I would have paid double

I have never considered myself as a cook with a reputation fdor fusion, a style that very, very few have mastered and certainly not me! Eclectic perhaps yes, at The Fifth Floor with such a great food shop adjacent to me it was impossible not to plunder, but I felt that each ingredient should have its integrity respected and to do that you can't serve up a mish mash of cuisines. It was very easy to go back to traditional French cooking as it has been the food I have always been happiest with wheether it is in my iown kitchen or seated in a restaurant, and the more bourgeois the better.

After 8, years I found myself in the position where it seemed that those who counted didn't share my vision. For them it was just another revenue point and as a reult controls were coming in that took out some of the joy. Where I did go wrong was to go for the first offer that seemed the most flattering! It was still a fantastic 8 years as I always did exactly what I wanted to, but it is never quite the same as when you do it for yourself, as I have now discovered.

Sushi Hiro at Ealing common, the chefs sushi rice is better than any I have had anywhere in London and the fish is as good as it gets. Richard Corrigan can cook me lunch any time. L'ami Louis in Paris. Simon Hopkinson made me go for lunch so that I would understand thjat good ingredients should be given the simplest of treatments and I have yet to visit a restaurant that demonstrates this principle better.

Scott one of the main principles of restauration is to make sure that everything that you buy ends up on the plate rather than being discarded into the bin. It might mean a little repetition on the menu but that isn't the end of the world. It is a conscoius effort to keep the prices down .Knightsbridge is inhabited with some very wealthy people who would think nothing of spending £100 on dinner at a starred joint but they also want toeat out regularly in the locale and spend less than half that. The rpicing structure has so far paid as we are full every night. Bizarrely these same customers are asking me now to put on fillet steaks and turbot knowing that it will have a much higher price.