Gary Marshall

yes i managed 3 elvers, scott managed 3 bowls of elvers. now if they'd given us 4 bowls of the caviar and 4 spoons of elvers there would have been no complaint!

I know!! And, how is it that Extebarri makes it onto the Top 50 for the first time this year? ← Are you saying that it shouldn't be on there? I haven't been myself, so i can't say one way or the other, however, its reputation has grown dramatically over the past couple of years, so I'm not surprised that it is now on there. ← I think (s)he's saying is that it's nuts that this is the first year on the list. this place is certainly one of the finest dining destinations in europe today. ← By all accounts that I have read and heard, this is true. Etxebarri is one of a handful of restaurants at the top of my list of destination restaurants I desire to get to try along with Mugaritz, Noma and Ryugin (not on the list), however, the increased awareness of Etxebarri as a great restaurant is relatively recent with probably relatively few judges having been there themselves. If the reports I have read are true, the restaurant will no doubt continue to climb further on future lists. ← lunch at extebarri on sunday was a good experience but certainly not earth shatteringly brilliant and one i wouldn't be bothered about repeating. Full tasting menu of whatever they had in, the smoked caviar was very good (and especially with a 99 dom perignon- it's a hard life) as was a smoked potato dish. the steak was good but unfortunately not appreciably better, if at all, than the lunch we had on saturday at an assador in bilbao called Ripa. Also although we gave them free rein on the menu i was a little shocked to be charged 200e for 4 portions of Elvers, which only two of the party of 4 ate. To put it in context the steak was 50e......

as with all of these things it's about finding someone whose viewpoint chimes with your own, i never got the impression palmer was much of a foodie and the places he chose rarely seemed to have any culinary merit. Gerrard appears to see the value in a long leisurely lunch and is writing about more interesting places.

Did i miss an announcement on mark palmer? The last few weeks pieces have been written by Jasper Gerrard, who so far, has been doing a much better job of it, I hope he has the gig.

it's got a month to settle down and increase the portion sizes before i get there!

I continued to be astounded by your uber perceptive restaurant ratings, firstly actually eating there yourself doesn't seem important and now how full it it is is the criteria? I walk past McDonalds in Leeds everyday, just near anthony's and it's always busy must be brilliant! silly me all that time i've been in anthony's and i should have been eating up the road.

don't worry DH are on the case....

i've made a reservation for a few weeks time.

I was interested to see tom roll out pierre koffman last night, as pierre is also a very big fan of another GBM competitor, has been to the restaurant and even wants to spend some time in the kitchen with him. Honestly quite why pierre would be interested in an 'arrogant' chef with 'no michelin stars' who cooks 'inedible' food i've no idea, maybe after all those years teaching those no hopers such as Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay has left him with a 'cardboard palette'?

so my dear friend Gary I think you just misunderstood "edible" with "tasty"... ← did i ? sorry, the crushing inanity of the debate must finally have got to me.

i've eaten most of those dishes including the olive oil dessert and can assure you they are very edible indeed. being arrogant has hardly held gordon ramsay back has it?

very similar

that's exactly what my man said. my local butcher who generally buys a beast a week and cuts it up himself said the abbatoir won't give the cows heads back, pigs head/cheeks no problem and i'm sure you can import them from rungis etc quite easily if you are in the trade.

ooh is it time for the annual debate again?

I don't suppose it would come as any great suprise that i could legitimately have claimed to have gone to cambridge university, given that particular licensed establishments proximity to my department. (approx 1 minute).

i remember my friend saying as a rule he didn't want his hotels classified as 5 * even if they were, as they'd lose valuable public sector conference money, and we al know how keen those boys are to spend our hard earned tax!

...and you and I both know that we will quickly revert to our crazily hedonistic student personas, albeit with slightly more money, an inferior BMI and less fashionable haircuts. Baa bar, Mello Mello, 051, Garlands, The Cavern, Cream, Nation, Wildlife at the Uni... Ah, halcyon days. ← now i do feel old.

more concerned with presentation than taste? tony obviously takes presentation seriously but at the expense of taste? anyway i went to northcote once and it was crap, i do use nigel's hotpot recipe though.

well, as we are grown up now thom i suggest a lovely long lunch at friache, into town, and well, let's see what happens....

yes the conference market is exactly their game.

my friend who has spent millions recently renovating the midland will no-doubt be delighted to hear that i must admit to a soft spot for the adelphi, i've had many great nights there plus if you are staying there it's pretty easy to find after a night out, i like the faded glamour of what it once was. before you know it thom we'll be having a night out there......

surely fraiche is a not-very-far cab ride from the adelphi? it's only over the river.

been looking through my michel bras & el bulli cookbooks but there's no tart with a quenelle of cream and berries, surely some mistake?

all the time i was in the pool the tower restaurant was shut, does it revolve too or was that just local folklore? i forgot you were ex-pool as well thom, we really are the poster boys for that fine education establishment aren't we