Gary Marshall

interesting episode last night, very pleased to see glynn finally get the honours though on concept and presentation i thought jason atherton might be challenging, but not much he can do against 3 10's from the judges! i was very suprised by nigel haworth's dish, it looked like a badly executed, poor pastiche of a tony flinn dessert, which i think was rolled cream cheese from memory.

i would say opening a restaurant in partnership with a restaurant recruitment expert is a stroke of genius given most establishment staff issues!

this rings a bell, featured in OFM some time ago as a rising star? eta: http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/food/s...2193191,00.html

i would expect it is made at their recently acquired butcher's shop in helmsley but i'm not sure. When we had our place our butcher made it for us to our recipe- and bloody good it was too with sweetbreads in it.

well there's certainly none of that sous vide nonsense! it's bourgeois country cooking so there's not a lot in the way of new techniques, lots of the dishes are re-interpretations of french classics but done with local english produce, signature dishes are the likes of the aforementioned seared foie and black pudding or scallops with bloody mary dressing. it is very produce based so there's a lot on their suppliers etc. To be honest i've read the text but not gone through the recipes with a fine tooth comb, though i have spotted a couple of wintery dishes that i've somehow missed that i want to try when the time is right.

Tuesday night boys beer night the other week was infiltrated by our respective wives and as such we headed into the bright lights of York to sample the delights of the newish red chilli, (although fair to say we were dragged if not quite kicking and screaming, slightly petulantly across the road from our favourite the Aagrah indian whose lamb chops i could eat well, for a very long time). I had warned them of the nature of the menu but as friends are chef/foh respectively are game on for most culinary adventures, we tried not to go down the chicken with ginger stir fry route. i have absolutley no idea about chinese food so it was unfortunate that i was left in charge of the ordering, but in the kingdom of the hungry the one who's had drunken meals in red chilli is king, so off we went..... couldn't remember any starters of merit from previous trips/reviews so we had the mixed platter of satay, spring rolls, dumplings, salt and pepper ribs and an extra prawn toast - got to have prawn toast, and i'm a fan of dumplings so we thought that was job well done. what arrived was the aforementioned platter minus the dumplings but with prawn toast and naturally the extra prawn toast we had ordered. I called the waitress over with the accepted sign, a waved napkin. She was convinced i was wrong and the platter came with prawn toast, i was pretty convinced my reading & memory skills weren't that bad, though at one point even my wife muttered 'you are sure about this aren't you?' though that was more due to the fact that our table was now surrounded by earpiece wearing staff who had come out of no-where bit like the agents in the matrix, it was slightly intimidating, though as the she got the menu out to prove her point, thus of course proving that i was right, a swift conflab with the boss concluded that the dumplings would now accompany the main course, disaster averted. the platter was nothing special to be honest, no hint that this was a better than average operation. next up was a crispy duck, well you've got to have a crispy duck haven't you? it was duck and it was crispy and there were pancakes, not much else to add. we then stepped up to dishes i could remember, poached lamb hot pot and spring onion bread, a pork dish that there was a nice picture of in the menu and a chicken dish hmmm, can't quite remember that one either, but rest assured it wasn't with ginger and spring onion. the lamb hot pot didn't disappoint, and bloody hell that onion bread is greasy isn't it? far more suited to an absolute skinfull as an aperitif, but although i wasn't going mad on the beer the ladies were on their second bottle of gavi, so it all went. the pork and chicken were fine, and the dumplings did make an appearance and were superb. all in all a pleasant night out, we could probably have ordered less, so we racked up a fairly big bill (in the context of an impromptu night out) of £130+ but the everyone seemed happy enough, it's certainly a good looking restaurant the fit-outs are certainly getting glitzier as the chain rolls out. so i'm getting there, i think i've had about 6 meals at red chilli, and now i have nailed down a starter and a main course, eventually i'll be able to make up a full banquet without relying on the old standards

finally sorted my sardinian trip and we've going to be based within walking distance of alghero, any recent thoughts? thanks gary

Indeed i followed my own advice and took advantage of a day out for lunch last wednesday and picked up the book. firstly lunch was very pleasant i had the risotto again which wasn't quite as perfect as last time but still very unctous and enjoyable, to follow i had a very seasonal sea trout , asparagus, chervil hollandaise combo whilst sarah had i think halibut with a crab crust and marinated tomato and basil salad. One point to note the menu is very fish/seafood heavy at the moment with nary a meat dish on the specials and only a couple on the menu from memory. I demurred over the usual assiette of desserts and instead had a banana 'tarte tatin' with pontefract cake ice cream (it was the ice cream that did it) tarte tatin was fine but think i would have preferred the assiette, which i've had 99% of the times i've been so quite why i deviated from the path of rightousness (sp) i have no idea. anyway the book looks great with its brown suede cover and is quite a chunky beast, a good couple of inches thick. It's an interesting read and the nearest comparison is paul heathcote's rhubard and black pudding in terms of it talks a lot about the background of the restaurant, the suppliers, seasonal menus etc, it's a good book and has some excellent quirky photography that does a good job of conveying the attractions of the star.

there used to be an est est est in the middle of formby that was the 'in' place to go, quite amusing night out, each table out vying each other buying drinks for each other.

let's not forget amid all this talk of wanting to win, the honour of cooking for the wolrds greatest etc etc, at the end of day everyone is on the show to put bums on seats.

I was thinking the same, i wonder how much is influenced by guerard's cuisine minceur, or even the late bernard losieau's cuisine de l'eau. (favourite quote-ish from bocuse on seeing a stream with loiseau - 'look bernard all that stock is going to waste!') on the one hand i think his food looks interesting but then again i can't really see me driving all the way to bath to eat diet food, and i'd have to go by myself, mrs m wasn't keen on the preaching and when he threw away elisha's tomato sauce (a mrs m favourite), that was the final straw.

problem is despite all his irritating talk of antioxidants and nutrition, he turns out very attractive looking plates, if they taste good too, elisha's in trouble. and people thought tony flinn was full of himself? at least he's not claiming to have invented a new cuisine.

interesting jump on the green wagon when according to jay's recent book GRH turned down flat the idea of a £1 per cover carbon offset charge.

interesting, time for me to say again 'i really must go back' and promptly not do so

interesting and good to hear, of your past meals were they under schwabs ownership?

first glimpse of the book.... http://www.blackpuddingandfoiegras.co.uk/ no point in troubling the postman with a heavy package when i can pop up and pick it up myself , oh and maybe a spot of lunch too?

the most shocking part of that review is the fact that he publically confesses drinking not only two chardonnay spritzers but to compound, three glasses of pinot grigio.

on the rock star as foodie tack has anyone read alex from franz ferdinand's book of foodie reminisces on tour?

replace 'helicopter' with 'local taxi driver with no f'ing idea where he was going' we did want the works and 99% of the time happy to take our chances was just that course was so far out of line with the cost of the others, obviously they didn't realise scott and i aren't quite in the millionaire league of our dining companions but were splitting the bill! (and as i mentioned before it's not a unique situation to extebarri, as soon as we turn up they just can't get the percebes, red prawns, cochechas (sp) elvers and the like out quickly enough, none of which are my favourites, so as i say it's probably spain doesn't suit my tastes at the end of the day which is fine.) lennox sorted out the menu for us, he did ask if there was anything we didn't eat, not being au fait with exactly what they served beyond the steak, elvers didn't cross my mind, though i did mention no brains. That's not me , to eat, for clarity It's not that the steak was bad, it just wasn't appreciably better than we had in an assador in bilbao, ripa. don't get me wrong i could have eaten plenty of it and they did ask if we wanted another one, and for all my whinging it was my favourite meal of the trip, after ripa (which was only for some peppers and a steak as i was later in arrival than the others who had the works) i think you could make up a great menu at extebarri from the ALC dishes, i didn't even see a menu!

To be fair they weren't given away and until they're received who knows if they'll like them or not? ← did you "ask" or order them, or did they come as part of the kitchen just sending out things? ← the kitchen sent them out as part of a tasting menu. not requested.

not any more, it's taken me two trips to spain and a bout of food poisioning to finally nail down i really don't enjoy this back to basics 'it's all about the ingredients cuisine'. if there's not a whole brigade slaving away i'm not interested, i didn't grow up eating the arse end of a bit of fish and i'm not going to start now.

To be fair they weren't given away and until they're received who knows if they'll like them or not? ← 200e is not a give away, and scott loved them. if i'f have known they were coming i'd have said no straight away. I just thought that the portion was out of line, it's happened before to us in spain with bloody red prawns from denia that made an interesting diversion but not the 1/3rd of the total bill that they ended up charging us (90e for 9 prawns in askua)

double post

i must admit they did taste quite good, but it was the little black eyes. and the crunch. beansprouts with eyes is not my idea of a good time, no matter how tasty

an impromptu, but suprisingly good steak was had here www.asadorripa.com