Gary Marshall

I ve had it in leeds manc and york , it seems hotter in york but otherwise the same basic dish but when you go to restaurant called red chilli order a dish that the menu tells you is v hot, that the waiting staff advise you on ordering is v hot, every post on here says its v hot to then complain the dish had too much chilli in it ?! Its not called a hot pot for nothing!

great review by terry durrack inthe indie on sunday. Sure google will locate cant cut n paste at mo

That's the first, and hopefully the last time i see 'gourmets dream' and 'leeds market' in the same sentence.

Interesting jon I think red fort is his wifes business pre dating her tv career, seem to remember she had some form of shop And whilst the numbers look ok in the context of analysis we know theyre historic and nowwdays its the outlook statement we read first! Im sure there ll be bigger casualties of this recession than grh

i bet chris can though.... Pretty sure its the fy07 accts that we re talking about and if the group only made a million odd then i would suspect the 08 vintage wont make pretty reading

i think nigel haworth's whole menu is based on GBM entries now. they also tried to get shaun hill too it's a good line up in anyone's book.

i do eat them, and usually think 'that would have been great in a pan!' i don't mind sous vide and then pan, but i've had plenty of lumps of protein that are SV only and to my mind they are unpleasant to eat, and stand by the point they are for the restaurant's convenience not the diners. I think it is being dressed up as great way to cook but in reality a good chef will cook it better in a pan/plancha but they aren't all like you and there all the time! you're right tony does use it but he also cooks a lot on the plancha, and i'll moan about it there too. i'm not specifically blaming sous vide, using it as a catch all term, but low temp 39 degree cooking is just a breeding ground for bacteria surely? You'd have to be absolutley spot on with provenance, storage and hygiene and i'm not suggesting that they weren't . Interestingly in conversations i have had over the weekend is that sickness post high end modern dining is actually quite widespread - certainly not confined to the fat duck, i'm sure you're as safe as you can be at somewhere like the fat duck but in the wrong hands someone could get very seriously ill with these techniques. (i'll tell you the gory details when i get over to see you......)

and the diners who have to eat it! I understand its use from a restaurants perspective in consistency etc but i rarely eat a piece of SV meat that would not have been better served by some time in a pan. as an aside there is a growing worry about carcinogens in the plastic bags used in such cookery. from the FD reports i can't be sure if it is one service where they all fell ill or a lot of guests becoming sick over a longer period as some reported?

power cut my arse how very interesting, i've long thought that these low temperature cooking methods are an accident waiting to happen, and for me personally an extremely unpleasant incident that has happened and i'd best not go into on a public board. front page of the telegraph today

the ellington and the rest of the group look to be no-more.... from the business desk.com THE Albert Roux restaurant at Yorkshire's newest luxury hotel has been closed after its owner went into administration. The company that owns The Ellington hotel in Leeds went into administration earlier this week and administrators have now closed the 56-seater restaurant and also the 500-capacity Cuban-themed Floridita nightclub and restaurant on Lower Briggate which, like the hotel was also operated by Pantin Hotels. Business recovery firm MCR was appointed this week as administrator to a number of companies which owned the bar and luxury Leeds boutique hotel, The Ellington, which opened in September last year. A statement from MCR said David Whitehouse and Steven Muncaster had been appointed joint administrators of The Ellington on Monday. Also placed into administration is City Retreats Commercial, the operator of the Floridita Nightclub, a 500 capacity venue with a 120 cover restaurant on the corner of Briggate and The Calls. Another company City Retreats Management Ltd has also been placed into administration. MCR said this was the "vehicle for head office support and the staff employer for The Ellington itself". The administrators are currently reviewing the financial position of the hotel with a view to continuing to trade whilst marketing the business for sale as a going concern. An MCR spokesman added: "The Ellington is a high quality boutique concept which has been impacted by the credit crunch but we are confident of finding a buyer as the product is strong." A spokeswoman for Pantin Hotels said: "Pantin Hotels, as the hotel's operating company, does not have any equity in the building and is not itself in financial difficulties. Pantin Hotels is working with the administrators to try and find a buyer for the property." The Ellington is one of only six properties in Britain to be a member of The Leading Small Hotels of the World and the first in England outside London. Published rates start from £190 for a classic double bedroom.

My mate enjoyed it! you never know if it stabilises this year it might get a star....

yes, that was part of my logic, and unfortunately it cost us £235 a head to discover we were wrong i'd say there were certainly other places i'd try ahead of MW at the moment.

nowt wrong with a cliche, and it is true! (Only you would understand recommend +) not feeling very imaginative today, and by tomorrow i'll have forgotten most of it

Last night saw four of us venture east to Beverley to check out a new-ish restaurant called whites, run by 23 year old john robinson who before a bout of travelling worked at winteringham fields under Germain Schwab, I am a big fan of Germain's cooking and usually any alumni of his are worth checking out, i had heard nothing of this new venture until the newly crowned Observer Yorkshire restaurant correspondent Jay Rayner kindly brought it to mine and the public's attention with a very positive review... http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/200...ts-foodanddrink First impressions on booking were good, they made sure arrivals were spaced out to avoid undue pressure on the kitchen, which is important as John seemingly does the lot by himself from his small kitchen overlooking the restaurant, indeed the 'pass' is effectively the ledge of the service hatch, a good idea so he can see most of the restaurant from here. On arriving , we were greeted by name and headed for our table in the minimal room, i say minimal in a kind way but really it could do with a bit more art to warm up the predominantly white space. Although not a big restaurant it seems there's room for about 30 covers and the tables are nicely spaced and shod with decent glasses, both red/white and water so obviously set up by someone who knows where he should be heading on the wine front. Front of house was taken care of by a couple of young girls who had obviously been trained, rather than just left to fend for themselves again, tick box v.g. The wine list didn't reveal any immediate must drinks but as it was a birthday, a bottle of Deutz NV was a nice opener and at £39 not too gougy, the sparklers start at a sensible £20 for prosecco. and a big jug of iced water followed suit. Whilst waiting for menus we were offered the ubiquitous shot of something, this time it was parsnip based and quite textural, served with a spoon. I'm more a fan of the staight creamy veloute types of these openers but it was inoffensive enough, though probably lacking a bit of salt (a recurrent theme as the night progressed) to really sharpen the appetite. Menus showed a concise list of 6 (?) starters 4 mains (2 meat, 2 fish) and 4 desserts (incl. cheese). It was a interesting list of starters and i was unsure how they would be in reality, an oxtail ravioli caught my eye but i'd already seen a couple of mains with braised components so thought i'd try something else, friends had scallops with a lemongrass veloute, the oxtail and mrs m sliced pork belly with a sage cream. I had lightly curried cod. There was an initial disappointment with the ravioli that it wasn't fully enclosed it was just draped with a thin past a square but the bit i tried of the meat was suitably unctous, sarah's pork seemed tasty enough and my cod was decent, a nice curry kick, which i suspect came from a curry oil at some point in the proceedings. I forget there was bread too, a decent brown with a lovely fennel butter served on a nice wood platter, it lasted about 30 seconds. Mains split down the middle, there was turbot on the menu but it had been substituted for halibut so that was off my list, i'd have gone for the 9 hour braised shin and seared fillet but we already had 2 orders for that so went for the lamb version, roast rump, minted shoulder, trompette mushrooms and caper and raisin sauce. I must admit to reservations when it arrived, it didn't look particularly well plated, there didn't seem to be much shoulder and the mushrooms appeared to be carrots. A bigger problem was my friend across the table who had the same, the questions came thick and fast, 'shouldn't i be able to cut this easily?', ' it doesn't taste of anything' , 'it's too chewy'. i swapped a piece of mine but she gave a similar verdict. Credit to the waitress she sensed unhappyness when i asked for salt and pepper and with a bit of seasoning it was improved but basically it wasn't great. A series of small failings leading to an unhappy end, lack of seasoning, lack of mushrooms, undiscernable mint and as it turned out, overcooked. Unfortunately at £18.55 it was a bit too much to overlook. My friend left most of hers but i ate mine. We mentioned it to the waitress and she reported it to the kitchen who came back with a slightly odd response, 'chef says he'll take it up with the suppliers tomorrow' . We'll take it off the bill might have been more appropriate! Anyway i am pleased to say that the beef was hailed a success and from my taste the fillet was very well cooked, and rested so it was rare as hell in the middle but perfectly set, quite rare these days (no pun, etc) I think the waitress thought we were not happy by this point, given my friend tends to wear her heart on her sleeve but yes, of course we wanted dessert! i had a pineapple pannacotta with cumin seeds, there were 2 cheese boards and a dark/white choc affair. Here there were no complaints, pattisserie seems a real skill here (and indeed it operates as a pattiserie during the afternoon between services). My pannacotta was perfect, it wobbled within a millimetre of collapse but kept its shape and the cumin seeds in oil a nice counterpunch. the choc duo also got the thumbs up and the cheese was a interesting selection of 5 cheeses that the waitress (after a discreet brief from john) explained and cut a choice of 3 at the table, served with a killer spiced celery and homemade biccy's. On the wine front there's a reasonable list from pagendam pratt, we had a couple of australian chardonnay's and a very nice 04, chilean pinot noir that my friend immediately described as 'fruit gum' (and rather worryingly the white as 'tinned tuna'). Coffee followed, and the bill for £244, although we had a fair bit of wine, the food is not cheap, mains high teens , starters £7-8 , Desserts £6 (?) so it can rack up. it was getting late (for a school night) so we were heading off but john did want our thoughts on the lamb, he thought it was a quality issue (it seemed to have decent provenance from the devonshire estate) but when i asked how should it have come - it was well done, he admitted that it was probably overcooked, and that despite being busy had decided to change 2 dishes on the menu that day and had basically made a bit of a rod for his own back! It's going to be a fine art to juggle the numbers required to pay the bills, not have to employ too many people but keep the consistency, but it can be done and i'm sure he has the talent to do it, he's certainly got time on his side. Jay's review has resulted in an influx of custom and i hope it's not too soon for him, they did 20 people last night and on a tuesday night in beverley that's very good going, indeed there'll be plenty of places in leeds who'd be happy with that at the moment. Like a decent wine i'd say white's is ready for trying now, but will certainly improve with age.

I am still struggling to see Marcus Wareing getting three stars. I know he is a fine chef and has stated publically he is shooting for the highest honours, but the his food simply is not distinctive. Eat blind at any three star and you would be able to identify the restaurant from the dishes on the plate. I simply don't see that with MW@B. J ← agreed, he doesn't have his own style. it's just euro-bland michelin. keeps taking techniques and combos from more cutting edge places and melding them into his haute french and it doesn't really gel.

it was from their PR, i'd call the restaurant and hear it from the horses mouth.

tell me about it! spent a year (well mrs m did) renovating a house and the rest just disappeared, if the recession wasn't here i think i may have hatched another cunning plan by now, but mrs m is naturally quite wary of my cunning plans after the last one saw her working every hour god sent

i think i 'viamichelined' it at about 4 hours from york, and yes have told matt how inconsiderate it was to move so far away from, well most things!

Should be open tomorrow thursday at the latest apparently. Of course the announcement did spark rumours along the lines of has the fd gone bust.

i'm bound by a non-compete at the moment, and i think it would lead to divorce, but hey, let's not rule it out (coincidentally two years ago last week we sold, the wounds have just about healed)

so this is what he's doing now his pubs have gone bust can't blame novelli i'd suspect he's got no cash in the venture just the use of his time and name. did you know, once upon a time he was actually a very talented chef who cooked great food

red chilli on sunday, getting the hang of this now, as you sit down order the drinks and the beijing dumplings as they can take 15 mins to prepare (but worth it) then settle down and get stuck into the menu. this time we tried another couple of new dishes, salt and pepper baby squid to start and garlic shoots with shredded pork. After a slight diversion where they first bought out salt and pepper ribs (note this does happen quite regularly here, i do point at the menu to ensure maximum clarity but not too bad, last time they brought us a pressed pigs ear dish that had most of the table blanching in horror), they took that away and eventually the squid arrived, they were fine, reasonably fried but not exceptional in the way the dumplings and dipping sauce are. Mains were the beans and pork dish which is just superb and the aforementioned shredded pork and garlic, now this was ok but just not in the same league as the prok and beans, no hot pot as mrs m isn't a massive fan and i wanted to try the garlic pork but couldn't miss out on the green beans! 2 portions of egg rice a few beers (at a credit crunch unfriendly £3.70 a pint!) and a very direct when paying 'would you like to add a gratuity?'. I can forgive them as the food and service warrants a tip but it's hardly best practice!

They just keep on reinvesting, the business must throw off a lot of cash, you can see the piggery has c.90% occupancy & must be generating c.£300k pa. (last time i looked when things like B&B occupancy were on my mind!) obviously not all profit but a good payback on their c.£1m investment. The pub itself and other accomodation no doubt long ago paid for (and they bought that pre-gastropub boom). Good luck to them, they work very hard at it and do it better than virtually everyone, they should be an inspiration to everyone in the trade, it certainly inspired me as to what you can do.

Looks like Jay enjoyed the piazza too.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/200...-exchange-leeds got a text this morning from a mate who'd got fed up in where they were dining last night and went to the piazza for desserts , coffees etc, said it was v busy, tony snr said over 200 covers so doing very nicely for february. Word is definitely spreading locally, and this in context of a city where virtually everyone else has an offer on at the moment.

congrats to Matt and his team, a superb write up in today 's telegraph, 9/10 from jasper gerrard, rating his 'lasagne' starter as one of his best dishes of the year. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/re...-Hampshire.html