Gary Marshall

trade's been good last i heard , the offer has worked in getting punters through the door, many of my leeds based colleagues go regularly and love it. i need to get back myself soon. very consistent restaurant, always delivers.

http://www.no3yorkplace.co.uk/bizfood.htm £40 for 3 courses for two, and a bottle of wine! available lunch and early dinner too.

yep, especially when dunked in the soy sauce thingy too.

me too, i went to the star, v good. haven't eaten at the piazza for a while but often pop in for a drink, seems busy enough.

yes , the difference between one and two stars is nearly always tablecloths ← Gary - although it was a tongue in cheek comment from me, it may be a more serious point than you give credit for. The psychology of dining is complex, and even "highly trained" Michelin inspectors will find it hard to overcome first impressions. OK Michelin is "all about what is on the plate" but the set up of the meal which includes the staff, room, and supporting paraphanalia does make a difference. IMO it will never disguise bad food, but can lift good food. ← if there's ever a chef that's in michelin's good books it's nathan, from the black pig onwards iirc he's got a star everytime within his first year of trading. he was even rated rising two last year at fowey, but not this, so i'm sure they know exactly what they are looking for from him. Good luck to him, i've not has his food since his black pig days but it looked excellent on GBM, he's got a new venture in padstow soon also launching at the st enodoc hotel too.

yes , the difference between one and two stars is nearly always tablecloths

i keep various issues for the recipes and do look forward to it, sometimes it's worth the wait othertimes a bit of a let down. I'm no fan of the hand wringing 'fish is running out' sort of articles but then i'm not exactly their target market.

which is exactly what happened with the beer orders back in the early 90's that forced all the breweries to sell their pubs which meant that the likes of punch and enterprise could exist in the first place.

so he didn't win then?! (not that i'm bothered, i'm interested in the cooking not what the judges think)

i've let these build up on the sky +, so am way behind, as you say bas without any real sign of marco's talent they aren't that interesting from a foodie perspective, think it took me about 5 minutes to scan through an episode last night looking in vain for something of interest. Maybe it works as reality tv for the minor celeb obsessed, i don't know? GBM offers for me a more interesting diversion, and can be reduced with judicious fast forwarding into a 15 minute watchable programme. The ability to turn off the voice over would be welcomed though.

round one to nathan i thought last night, great looking dish combining technique and comfort food from the looks of it.

yes, perhaps not the best advertisement for the happy co-existence of two top establishments in one hotel though!

according to their website they are quite randomly located in manchester, bacup, atherton, leeds and york.

iirc heston was talking publically (albeit pre- recession) about opening a brasserie in london, but certainly wasn't FD 2, either casual a la hinds or based on his historical stuff.

great review in the telegraph today, congratulations! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/re...Nottingham.html

i think it was the irritating voice over that came out with that to be fair. think she's come across quite well, i'm enjoying the precision of her style, sure danny's tastes just fine but it's not exactly technique driven is it!

gordon was the first to make it big on tv certainly, but his schtick is basically an amped up marco. I don't think he'd be the same if he'd spent all his years at the gavroche/le manoir etc marco broke the mould, and set a new standard of behaviour.

Ramsay created the sweary TV chef. MPW jumped on the bandwagaon. He has nothing like the energy or commitment of Ramsay, and it shows. Not that I'm watching the show now anyway, life's too short. ← Is marco that sweary? without marco there'd be no gordon, i think the bandwagon jumper here is gordon. Marco's tv persona has been pretty constant, there was a series about him opening the mirabelle on C4 years ago, the same character then. Ramsay went from RP chelsea boy to foul mouth in a couple of series.

i think you've answered your own questions! the 'massive margins' aren't massive at the net level, if you make 10% of your turnover in a pub you've done well, that's a lot of hours for the money. so for ramsay to make an acceptable return he's got to go down that commercial catering route, not that i'm defending it, but it's as tim says if you want chef individuality then you pay for it, maze, murano etc are not cheap restaurants in their own right and can afford to be individual, a ramsay pub has a different raison d'etre, it reminds me of the muppet at little chef wanting heston magic but heston rightly retorts come to the fat duck and for £175 a head you can have it.

i hear where you're coming from hearno but think you'd be shocked at how much stuff is pre-bought in and sold at pretty decent prices, and more irritatingly how punters don't seem to care. it all boils down to price at the end of the day (and this was the case before the recession) i was particularly annoyed to see a brakes brothers van parked outside the pub down the road from mine every morning when we slaved away doing everything from scratch. yet this was a 1 rosette pub, GFG etc listed and most punters can't tell the difference. it's not right but unfortunately it is life, amd it's not a road we travelled down. another mate of mine also had a pub that he got out of, and when i asked him if he'd do it again he said possibly - but i'd just get everything from brakes and forget about hiring decent chefs. Cuts wastage and staff costs, and despite all this hoo ha about 300% mark-ups most places are on extremely tight margins it's very hard to make a lot of money out them and brakes et al are pushing on an open door in many instances.

I think the spring onion bread is best as an accompanyment to the poached lamb, you need something to dunk in the hot pot.

I don't see any franchise restaurants in Padstow, but I digress. ← I think the bigger threat to the smaller operators is the clothes shops that can pay the rents that small restaurants can't. Seafood looks very swish now post renovation, i didn't realise there were rooms there too, and the fish & chips were up to usual standard. Actually i saw 'jacks' and thought you'd opened your own place but i understand not.

Easter trip to Padstow saw 2 trips to Margot's good friday and saturday night. I am pleased to report that, as expected, all is well and as expected plus the place has a lick of paint, a new floor and how could i forget, Adrian's new 'bar' menu has changed slightly now as there is a set menu plus a tasting menu drawn from the set menu, all at good prices £20 something for 3 courses and £35 i think for taster, 6 courses i think. Friday night saw us both have scallop & bacon with lime to start, a good bowl full of seared scallops with some excellent strips smoky bacon with a little soy-y- -savory-pan juices in the bottom. very good. to follow i took the grey mullet with chive butter sauce (as predicted by adrian- i don't like to disappoint in my predictability) a big fillet, cooked well with a light butter sauce, sarah had a margot's classic of confit duck leg which she also enjoyed, think that was with a sage cream sauce and spring onion mash. for dessert i had the sticky toffee pudding which was both light and moist and sarah had the cornish cheeses which were also pretty damn good. Wine list is eclectic and chosen by local merchant slacker of Bin Two and his list is one of the better reads you will encounter on your foodie travels. It is a good value list with limited mark ups and from it we had a petaluma chardonnay which was, as billed, a big buttery oaky monster wine. Night two saw us back again, this time fortified by cooked breakfast, a long walk along the beach, lunch at no6, & drinks & nibbles at bin two. Naturally by 8.30 we were starving, especially so by the time we got to the restaurant late after we got yakking to other punters in bintwo (it happens, no-one ever has just one drink/bottle there). So dinner number two, we had mushroom, chorizo and spinach risotto to start with, which was just what the Dr ordered, a soupy rather than al dente risotto packed with flavour. and for mains we both had the same again, sea trout with a light cream sauce and linguine, this was excellent, the fish was spankingly fresh and cooked perfectly, the sauce, the linguine all correct, just one of those simple, soothing dishes that Margot's does so well. to finish we shared a lemon and lime cheesecake, a dessert each? what do you think we are gluttons? plus coffee and excellent home made petit fours. with this we had a bottle of camus brechon 02 savingly les beaune, not quite the best match for the fish but hey, i'd decided that's what i was having earlier in the day! Margot's is one of those places you dream about finding in an unknown town, tucked away amongst the backstreets, patronised by locals and in-the-know tourists, nicely priced concise menu , decent wine list, owned and run by a chef who cooks there, who makes everything from the bread to start to the petit fours to finish, and who runs the place with an innate sense of hospitality and generosity. long may it continue.

This was our second visit to no6, our last 2 years ago wasn't great, easter saturday night the place was full and although what we ate was good they simply couldn't cope with the numbers for such complex food. However i was told by both Adrian at Margot's & Slacker at Bin two that since the new year chef paul ainsworth had taken over the restaurant himself, and it was a simpler, more relaxed affair than we had previously experienced, and we should try it, so we booked for easter saturday lunch. what hasn't changed is that it is intrinsically a very pretty restaurant, chic-eley decorated. Front of house was very able and accomodating, i firstly popped in to move our table back half an hour as we needed a long walk along the beach to see off breakfast - this was no problem, and i later checked to see if they'd allow corkage on a nice bottle of white burgundy i'd brought in anticipation of a some good seafood to enjoy with it, again yes, not a problem, £10 corkage. the recession is throwing up some bargains for diners and i'd say that the £13 that no6 were asking for 3 courses at lunchtime looked just that, they were also available at £5 each too. Naturally being a glutton we went a la carte but the mackerel and poached egg starter, confit lamb shoulder, and moulleux du chocolate we saw delivered to the next table all looked bang on the money. but anyway back to our lunch, we both had the same starter, salmon scotch egg with curry. How could i not have this? we each got 3 half balls of perfectly crisped spherical scotch eggs with a still runny quails egg in the centre, you can see the years spent working to michelin standards aren't lost in cooking simpler food. these were sat upon a smear of basically coronation chicken sauce - which l love. A great starter perfectly executed. I forget there was also very good bread and butter too, to start with and despite thinking mustn't go mad already had cooked breakfast, just about to have lunch and dinner to come but it was too good to leave so we scoffed it all in the end. my main was a day boat caught halibut with brown shrimp butter and purple shouting broccolli. a nice dense piece of fish, tons of shrimps, a few heads of broccolli, a quenelle of purreed pomme and with my '96 levflaive burgundy, sounds not unreminiscent of 'that' scene in 'when harry met sally'. mrs m had a goats cheese, beetroot & caramelised red onion and filo dish that she seemed very happy with. they didn't disappoint with dessert either this was billed as 'espresso' creme caramel with fairground doughnuts, again how could i....etc i won't spoil the exact format of the dish as it was very nicely done, again with a couple of michelin touches, needless to say it was excellent, an intruging take on creme brulee with lovely doughnuts to dunk. mrs m's choccy moulleux and peanut butter ice cream was suitably oozy but not quite peanut buttery but a minor quibble. i had a coffee and calva to finish , the coffee the only real bum note of the meal, i was offered filter but i think what came was more an espresso watered down with hot water americano style but a minor quibble. so it would appear that the change of style is working for number 6, at our lunch there were several regulars in who all seemed very enthused with the cooking and definitely the place seems less formal and starchy than it's original incarnation. Hopefully there'll be enough savvy visitors to padstow to keep the independents like no6 and margots going for many years.

i think i'd trust my cat's palette over oliver peyton's. I think the panel could do with a revamp fort's the only one with any credibility. Peyton acts like a two year old forced to eat veg, bleurgh don't like it etc etc