Steve Martin

I have been offline for a while. So, to clarify what I have written. 'Head and shoulders above' is an expression that means 'better in every way'. The knives were filthy simply because they have you keep the same knife throughout the meal. The fat was part of the lamb and was too undercooked to be eaten. We enjoy very rare meat, but not undercooked lamb and certainly not raw, or undercooked slabs of fat. I have given up writing restaurant reviews since Bras. I don't have much interest in reading reviews here either, because of the discrepancy between what people find to be outstanding cooking. I only make my comments now because the Restaurant Magazine panel seemed to think he is much improved. I feel he is getting the easy ride that Bocuse has had for too long. I have gotten tired of reading about 'wow factor' and 'getting it'. A good chef maximises the flavour of the food while producing textures that keep the palate interested. Bras did not do this. I could have written many very favourable restaurant reviews from France since then, but why should anyone believe them. El Bulli is a good example. We went to Bras instead of trying for cancellations at El Bulli, because I read that Adria was off form. One set of 'experts' refused to go back because they had been made to eat prawn shit, it seems to me. Later on there was a positive review and, more recently, a negative one. Who should I believe? Who should you believe? Not me, because I detect very little in common with most of the people here, though I am glad to chat with you. I hope you have all looked at my sigline website. My wife and I found the DVD portrayal of the chefs tallied with our impressions of their cuisine. One trying to make art instead of dinner and one making dinner from art. Bras said it all when he explained he wanted the appearance of his food to give an impression of the Aubrac landscape. The diner was supposed to have his communion with Bras while looking at the plate. Gagnaire sees himself as an artist using a palate of tastes. He says he has a 'dictionary of tastes' in his head. He likes nothing better than to assemble foods that do not at first appear to go together. He doesn't give a toss for the 'authenticity' and 'relevance' so widely touted here and I applaud him. I expect Rolly's cuisine to be similar to Gregory Coutanceau at La Rochelle. A sort of twinning of terroirs; his own and an oriental one. Both chefs consider the history of the spice trade into their areas of France allows them to use such foreign ingredients and still be 'authentic' Oriental spices in the hands of a French chef is a magical combination that has been too long in coming. Unlike the oriental cuisines, they don't shove the entire spice repertoire into every dish. I expect Rolly to have even more discipline in this regard.

I ordered saddle of lamb but the supplier was out of it and substituted leg of pork. (He actually wrote leg of port). This is organic pork from Laverstoke Park, the brainchild of Jodi Schekter, the ex formula one driver! Fabulously tasty. It was a full 2 kilo boned roast that I had no intention of over-cooking. I am prepared to risk a bit of blood with pork of this provenance. Indeed, I think food poisoning is the only way to go, preferably with my boots on. Roasted on a trivet over onion, carrots and garlic. A little Marsala poured in when things were well under way. A chicken stock was infused with fresh sage and finished with grain mustard and a beurre manie. Not much pork jus, but that was added. Savoy cabbage stir fried with cumin in pork drippings.

Excellent DVD. Gagnaire was head and shoulders above the other two. He had no recipes to offer because when he 'perfects' a dish, he flings it out. He seems to be embarked on a voyage of constant creation and improvisation. He looked as ragged and worn-out as when I met him. As for Mickey Brass, who's name I keep spelling Bra, he seemed a rather complacent kaiser who was full of it. He has created a wonderful restaurant but we didn't like his food. He seemed to have forgotten we had to eat the food as well as look at it. Only a small amuse of tarte of ceps had any real impact and flavour. The rest gave an impression of rawness, including a truffled creme of raw turnip that tasted like a packet of crisps. I had written, in my stillborn review - we had eaten the sheep's fodder and now we had the sheep, in a similar state of rawness. This was lamb utterly undercooked, with a great slab of raw white fat attached. A clever thin slice of aubergine that was entirely tastless. We had eaten so much raw vegetable that we felt bloated. I had visions of Brass plunging one of his filthy Laguiole knives into my guts to relieve the wind. The famous biscuit coulant was a disaster filled with hot strawberry pulp. Heating strawberries just doesn't work, no matter who you are. On a recent web article, he lists the variations he has tried over the years. Strawberry is conspicuously absent from his list. Breakfast was chaos with guests stood around waiting for used tables to be cleared. Roellinger seemed the most normal and I look forward to dining there.

The DVD has just arrived. I will watch it tonight. I have dined at Gagnaire and Bra with Rolly to come this year. I notice Bra was mentioned in the Restaurant Mag survey as the most improved: we found it needed some improvement. I am still fearful that I will never have a better meal than I had at Gagnaire. My experience there went beyond elation into a slight depression that I had peaked too early Sounds like bollocks, I know, but it is coming true. Let's see what Rolly can do.

Uh, I must ask an idiotic question: What differentiates high calcium water from other water? How does the mineral impact the taste of, in this case, asparagus?? Your dinner photos always leave me drooling on keyboard, Steve! The latest findings indicate that the calcium content of the water affects how green the vegetables will remain. The salting of the water seems to have no benefit where colour is concerned. I have not seen any research on how taste is affected by salting. I like to think salt inhibits any dissolving of flavour compounds (sugars etc.) into the water, but apparently calcium makes the difference in colour. Dinner tonight was the other half of my excellent sirloin steak cut. Grilled and rested again, but sliced and served with plenty of Maldon salt. New potatoes boiled and bashed. Red spring onions and garlic where sweated in good Greek olive oil and mixed into the spuds with rocket and a little mint. Fine green beans boiled in salted, high calcium water

Smoked haddock poached in milk with bay and peppercorns. Asparagus boiled in salted, but high calcium, water. New potatoes boiled and buttered, with some leaves of rocket Cotswold Legbar blue egg poached

As I have mentioned before, I am now using a mail order supplier that supplies some of London's best restaurants. Their steak is Aberdeen Angus and I have specified it very well aged. They tend to slice it too thin, so I told them not to slice it for me. You can see I cut it acroos the other way, after grilling. This allows a good charring on the grill pan without cooking the inside. Served with chips fried in lard and spinach, mushrooms and garlic fried out in butter. Finished with some stinking Epoisses. There really should be a warning on the packet.

Scotch can be used in recipes as a substitute for Calvados. Anyone else think Calvados is the most overpriced drink in the world?

I have been out of sorts with my photography lately, and not just foodwise. Perhaps I will get back into it when the summer weather lifts my spirits, but not yet in bloody Britain. Tonight two nice thick portions of fresh cod were pot roasted on a bed of puy lentils with aromatics of leek, onion and carrot. Some mushrooms, serranno ham trimmings and a trace of tomato. All moistened with vermouth. When all this is well under way on the hob, the cod pieces are placed on and slightly buried. Skin on to hold the flaky cod together. Covered and placed in a hot oven for 15 minutes. This method requires thick tranches of cod so they can take some flavour before they overcook. Good English strawberries and good English cream for afters. English strawberries and, incidently, asparagus do seem to be the best, in their short season. This, of course, could appear to be the case with fresh LOCAL produce everywhere. They do have a nice acidity though. Hot roasted squab joints and breast on a green salad with apple last night.

The muscular, mollusc foot is wonderfully firm and meaty. But I guess you have found that out by now.

Well done zilla. They only need enough heat/steaming to open them. Quite a bit of butchery after that to remove the nasty bits but not throw away the frill, which is good. Probably best to let them cool a bit and gently rewarm after cleaning. Cutting all into strips and presenting on the opened shells would be good.

No photos but I poached turbot fillets in red wine tonight. Earlier in the day I prepared three large octopus tentacles. One put in the freezer because Rick Stein says that tenderizes it. One was 'scared' by dunking in boiling salted for three twenty second dips and is now marinading in lemon juice and chopped chili. The third was poached in a lemon court bouillon for 90 minutes. Some of this one was sliced and served with the turbot. Small new charlotte potatoes boiled and buttered. Fine green beans 'vichyed' in butter, sugar and water. Some chopped red onion and garlic sweated in plenty of butter then boiled in red wine with thyme and bay. Fillets of turbot poached in this red liquor until just done. Rested in a warm oven while the sauce was strained and reduced down a bit further. The octopus just warmed through in the sauce. Last night we had razor clams (razor shells) for the first time. These were opened in a pan with butter, spring onion, vermouth and lemon. The butter had just become noisette with the onion before the liquid was added. The opened clams are then carved up to remove the 'stomachs' and brown intestines. They can be assembled back on the shell for presentation, but I didn't. They are good sliced up and served as a ragout. Nice meaty flesh that would accompany any white fish. We had them with grilled asparagus and boiled new potatoes.

I did say I like to think it is the case All the research seems to be centred on colour alone and salting is now found to be no help with that. I find it hard to completely discount the preference of chefs down the ages; there must be some benefit in salting. maybe. Osmosis shouldn't be very significant at these low concentrations and, I think, would only draw pure water out of the veg. I think that the water having salt in it will make the dissolving of other solids less likely. Alastair Little is pretty definite that cooking in well salted water has nutrional benefits (better than steaming as well), but I can't find any research on the matter.

Broccoli and cauliflower are two vegetables that require careful salting because they do retain a lot of salt in the florets. Green beans do not and I too have read that very, very little salt will remain on their surface. The science suggests that salting does nothing for colour anyway and Heston Blumenthal's experiments did show that salt has no effect. Water low in calcium is the secret for preserving the green colour. I still like to think that putting plenty of salt in the water will inhibit the dissolving of flavour components from the food. I think 50 g/kg of salt will give 0.5 deg Celsius increase in boiling point. Nothing to speak of.

I've noticed this most public domain dessert can become quite a dog's breakfast of ingredients. I make it with Italian savoiardi biscuits soaked in strong, sweetened espresso, strengthened with Kahlua. Layered with mascarpone cheese lightly beaten with egg yolk. Set up in the fridge then dusted with 100% cocoa powder.

Some say 'as salty as the Mediterranean'. At 40 grams per litre of fresh water, this seems excessive to me. Those using this strength for green vegetables are generally refreshing in fresh water afterwards. Another recommendation is 10 grams per litre. This is enough water for 100 grams of pasta, by the way. It is possible to dissolve 562 grams of salt in a litre of fresh water. Slightly more when hot. ie. A saturated solution is 360 grams per kilo.

The equivalent in the UK is the Bamix. Highly recommended by Gordon Ramsey, though I am not very impressed with it so far. Frothing cold skimmed milk is all very well, but these things can't seem to foam anything hot. The Braun is a better blender, but they do not supply a foaming disc. Check out www.nisbets.co.uk for all cooking needs I got mine here http://www.bamixuk.com/

Available in the UK from my favourite wine merchant. There are some details here Absinthe I haven't tried it though.

Nerissa, I should explain I used the word 'construct' as a reference to 'deconstructed' food. That is, I prepared similar ingedients to a proper cassoulet in an a la minute manner. The real thing takes quite a while and requires certain steps and ingredients, but it is truly wonderful. Black pudding is the British boudin noir or blood sausage. A sausage made from the blood and fat from the abattoir floor. Not for the faint-hearted, but enjoyed throughout Europe. A proper cassoulet would have a more conventional sausage eg. Toulouse sausage. A larger white bean is used and cooked until very soft and creamy. It is cooked uncovered in the oven and the crust is stirred in a few times. Plenty of pepper and plenty of fat are its hallmarks. The ginger was purely my own idea. It lightens things up, in the manner of citrus. It is an absolute natural partner to duck, by the way. Nice idea with the Red Snapper. I cook this fish on the bone because the skin shrinks too much if seared. I have a very nice coarse curry powder, with plenty of turmeric, from France which should go very well with this idea. Did you sweat your shallots first?

Last one. The joints from the Christmas goose had been confit in goose fat and left to mature in the fridge for 6 weeks. The goose, submerged in fat, will keep for several months without a fridge. Confit means preserved. The fat was melted off and the legs put under an overhead grill (salamander) for a few minutes. I constructed a cassoulet of smoked bacon, black pudding, ginger and garlic, well fried in goose fat and added to cannellini beans. Served with boiled green beans, well glazed with olive oil.

Thanks Awbrig, I was wondering if anyone was looking. Did you miss my question about whether you have tried salmon confit. ie. poached in oil or fat? No more than 80 degreesC, for as little as 4 mins. Superb quality swordfish, sliced a little thin so the grill pan was not used. Broccoli blanched and stir fried with garlic. Potatoes mashed with a sauté of baby leek whites and lashings of butter. Swordfish rubbed with olive oil and seared in an iron pan. Flat leaf parsley just wilted. I cooked this after two days travelling from Brazil and arriving home at 8pm. It was good to get back into my kitchen :-)

A paella of monk fish and black pudding with cherry tomatoes and green beans. The monk was marinated in fresh bird's eye chile and light olive oil for two days. This was very hot so the fish was wiped before adding to the paella. Some shallot, ginger and garlic sauté in light oil in a shallow casserole. Bomba (Valencia) rice added and well coated in the oil. Sherry, saffron, parsley and water added and cooked on for a few minutes, paella style. I added slices of black pudding and then departed from the correct method and turned it into a pilaff, meaning I stirred, covered and, after adding the monk, finished in the oven. Blanched green beans and tomatoes were added near the end.

I'll do a few more. More hake, but this time in a style from Richard Coutanceau in La Rochelle. New potatoes, carrots and garlic cloves roasted in olive oil, fresh rosemary and a little goose fat. A very light chicken stock is reduced and thickened slightly with arrowroot. I added a small amount of lemon juice and served with boiled green beans. The fish was just pan seared as usual.

This is a take on La Mouclade. A dish from La Rochelle, on the Atlantic coast of France. The area is famous for its mussels (moules) and a lot of the asian spice trade used to come through the port. We had a sublime two star version there. It should be quite yellow and I have seen saffron in some recipes. It seem to me that one should make sure there is enough tumeric in the curry blend to take care of the colour. It is a prime example of French cuisine adopting foreign ingredients at a surprisingly early stage.

They are very good with coconut milk, along with the oriental flavours you mentioned. A classic terre et mer is moules, mushrooms and artichoke, with some cream and butter in the liquor. Anything with saffron. Try a jerusalem artichoke velouté with saffon and dill, or with coconut, coriander and lemon grass. They are nice in jus de tomate. Take them off the shell and let them firm up in the fridge while you filter and reduce the liquor. Then warm through in some olive oil. If eating from the shell, the first shell makes handy tweezers for the rest.