Gary Marshall

i absolutely agree, the retired should pay.

Are you reading this Marshall? I am not paying again next month. ← oddly enough i had no cash for prets today either so don't feel singled out!

panacea wasn't part of the recently reverse take-over, steve bought it as a personal project, a man needs his own bar after all

the lowry sells pies for £18.00 the worlds gone mad!

had a similar problem myself a while ago with thom and bapi. thom bless him seemed to think that poncy asian-y 'we have a new concept in dining' bar was the appropriate venue (panacea?) , i thought not. we ended up in one of the chop houses can't remember which one, which seemed to get most of the way there, but manchester does seem to lack an old stalwart like la grillade in leeds where one can mariande oneself in reasonably priced red, scoff half decent food, eat some cheese, progress to calvados and ultimately big trouble with her indoors. thom was trying to get us to go to the lowry for a long lunch, i've not been for years.....

I give without making a fuss. I do not go showing my friends etc, copies of my bank statements containing my charitable direct debits. Maybe I defy human nature This is the point many people through their work, giving time, giving money etc do it for the joy of helping others, pure and simple. They do not make TV programmes about it. it's the substantial sums part that's the key as i say your private contributions are of interest no no-one I am not sure what you mean by this? If I was Jamie Oliver then I would not be cynical about myself? Or if I had his money I would not be cynical? If the former you a right. If the latter you are wrong. what i mean is if you were going to donate, say £2m you might change your mind that you would like a bit of recognition for it, i would but then i'm shallow like that Yes you are probably right. Now this is where my confusion lies. What has he actually done? In regards to his current programme all he is doing is giving one person the chance to run a restaurant? A lot of banks do that? It's not really benefiting mankind as a whole. Maybe it is my naivity but what is the purpose of 15 to society, but to give 'disadvantaged' kids the chance to become chefs? I reiterate is it that hard to become a chef in the first place? errr, set up a charity, set up fifteen, set up fifteen in cornwall (no tv show so far, set up fifteen amsterdam ( i think, no tv again as far as i know), spent months on what looks like an ultimately fruitless (no pun) anti school dinners campaign and now the pub thing. how hard is it to become a chef? i don't know but if you turned up at my kitchen door saying i'm an unqualified car thieving heroin addict can i have a job? you'd not get very far, you may just get a break at fifteen, and hopefully learn some skills not just being a microwave jockey He may not have done more than most in 'his financial position', as most do not make TV programmes about then giving their money to the 'disadvantaged' (except Jeffery Archer et al). You are right about pilloring though, I need to be careful or I could end up like poor Boris Johnson who had the audacity to criticise Jamie’s campaign as being ‘too much’ and ‘over the top’. Consequently there was a national backlash, newspapers were up in arms, mothers wept and Boris had to apologise . Even the Conservative party decided to rectify the matter by having a vote on whether ‘Jamie Oliver was a national hero’, with 77% in favour. now if you're going to have a go at boris i'm really going to get started ←

what's the phrase, harry enfield i think (smashy & nicey) 'i like to do my bit for charity but don't like to talk about it' as they correctly parodied, it's patently bollocks isn't it? no-one gives without making a fuss about it if there's substantial sums involved (my modest cancer research direct debit is not exactly front page news) It's human nature. As in all these things it's easy to be cynical when you haven't done it yourself or are in a position to do so, you might find 'crass' behaviour is suddenly more appealing when you do. Warren buffet has spent most of his life off the radar yet when he teams up with gates to give away a few billion it's front page news, he could have kept it quiet as he has most of his business dealings. i'd take the £56m with a substantial pinch of maldon they have the habit of forecasting prospective earnings rather than what you can actually write a cheque for at a given moment, i don't think he's a saint, but think he's probably done more than most would do given his financial position and for that he shouldn't be pilloried.

credit where credit's due old boy the first couple of series of naked chef had a big impact when they launched (and i was a youngster) the format clearly tired and grated by the third series, but it made home cooking a cool pastime for a generation that was previously aspiring to M&S ready meals, and who wouldn't have a clue who elizabeth david was. (like me for instance read about a page and lost interest)

it's easy to knock jamie but i think it really is unwarranted. he is quite patetenly rich beyond his needs, has a family that he seems keen to spend some time with and surely any more book deals/tv shows are only going to make an incremental difference to his wealth. yet he still keeps launching these projects to help, he doesn't need to, he's not fronting a global resto company a la ramsay, there's little personal benefit to him from more punters going to fifteen at the end of the day and yet all he seems to get is a load of sh*te. the projects sound great on paper but in reality are a lot of hassle for him when he could be whiling away his days with his family on a beach. If i had the money i'd like to help in a similar way but suspect my patience would have run out a long time ago, he does deserve a bloody knighthood imho !

calling bapi, calling bapi yeah only a pub, what would she know about hospitality? www.crownandcastle.co.uk 18 rooms is plenty, let me tell you

the dining pub of the year award was awarded about a week before we took over, this years good food guide entry though is all our own work and we have maintained our entries in the good pub guide, alistair sawdays & michelin red book & pubs and inns.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/st...1998383,00.html thanks jay

If they do ban it i can't quite see that it is going to make much difference, york not exactly being a hot bed of foie gras consumption!

went last march, not overly exciting probably in need of a change

basildog is also being very modest here with regards to hardens, his bistro has one of the highest ratings in the guide (and well deserved naturally!)

Hard to say whether they will get the deserved star before the end of the month, but I do know that they have had two visits from one inspector this year. Olga told me that he had introduced himself at the end of the second visit - apparently he told them his first visit had been on a very busy night - any comments on the significiance of two visits? Or the introduction? David ← To announce themselves and to make several visits before inspection is perfectly normal. what does matter is the name of the person who announced him/herself. ← pretty much all the michelin UK top brass have been and identified themselves over the last few years, so that's not new. The fact that they are still receiving multiple visits though suggests there is at least continuing interest from the red book. i think what is often forgotten with michelin is their inherent conservatism and the number of promotions and demotions is never as great as we'd like/expect, especially when lots of the 'new' stars each year tend to go with michelin starred chefs in their new guises, hence i wouldn't be suprised to see arbutus get a star and j baker's in york too. What they want is consistency and if you've proved your worth to them they tend to be loyal, over the last few years john burton race, simon gueller, martin blunos and gary rhodes (from memory) were all re-awarded stars in their new guises very rapidly. The box tree hadn't been back in action under simon and rena for more than a few months when they regained their star. hence a star for atelier wouldn't be shock either. so my prediction is it won't be half as exciting as we hope, but i'll book a table at anthonys for a celebratory lunch anyway

I know L'Arnsbourg is in the middle of nowhere but isn't Buerehiesel in the middle of Strasbourg? ← you could be right, for the first time ever i went away and didn't make any reservations myself i just turned up in the hotel lobby at the agreed time and the others got me to the restaurant great stuff! we did wessermans place in strasbourg which could well be beurheisel, it was ok but not earth shattering, the one in the middle of no- where which is probably l'arnsbourg was like eating in a spaceship, i loved it. we also hit auberge de l'ill which was very much 3* comfort food, but none the worse for it. the place in the sticks did it for me though, despite the several thousand euro taxi ride from strasbourg - possibly a slight exaggeration but it aint close to strasbourg if you're planning a trip.

busy then david? well i remember as kids a weekly choice from the freezer for tea of chicken kiev or cordon bleu - being stuffed with ham & cheese. cheers gary

although i've managed a fair few meals this year most have been at my usual haunts anthony's, number 3 york place, the star at harome, st vincents arms etc who have all performed well. outside of that list my favourite meals were.... 1) le champignon sauvage - cheltenham 2) beurheisel - in the middle of no-where alsace 3) chez denise - paris

afraid not, i did mention it as a potential venue for a boys lunch but alas they don't open for lunch and i'm not allowed out past 6pm anymore although andy hasn't been to anthony's, anthony's have been to sat bains and reckoned it is well worth a visit, especially given the room/meal deals.

Given the derison with which the november OFM was greeted in some parts does this months not deserve some credit? Flinn, rogan, blumenthal, adria, this etc surely enough to keep the most obsessive foodie quiet for a while, no?

how fortuitious that when i arrived in manchester in '96 i went to look at a room in a shared house in west didsbury, and had a pint in what was then 'the nose' next to the lime tree. i thought straight away this looks the perfect spot for me. When they opened a pizzaexpress just down the road that was it, i never ventured into the town centre on an evening all the time i lived there, everything i needed was 5 minutes walk away. i hope the lime tree is still as good as i remember it, though at that time i thought i was being very adventurous eating exotic dishes containing the likes of 'seared duck breast'.

After a very pleasant saturday that saw a trip to anthonys various outposts around leeds and then back to the pub - sometimes all you need is a steak, chips & a bottle of morey st denis i thought struggling through my hangover with a fully booked lunch to contend with would be the biggest of my sunday problems - indeed one of the regulars who i'd been chatting with on saturday night said he was 'amazed' i was behind the bar given the 'state' i was in the night before. They forget i've been doing this all- day drinking lark for some time now! anyway all started well then at 12.30 with 21 arriving at 1pm with more to follow, we had a power cut this meant..... no gas in the kitchen - it won't work if the electric extraction isn't working. no telephone - ours are powered and mobile reception virtually non- existent. no cash - till wouldn't open no credit card machine. no light in most of the kitchen. no glass/pot wash luckily the food was ready to go the joints resting, yorkshires/roasties ready at least but the hot starters were off as were any main course that wasn't pork or beef. i had the dilemma that even if we could serve some food or drink, could we take payment for it, most of our food sales are on cards and we had little change for bar drinks. we also had to run hand written tabs for all the tables as food orders usually go straight in the till. We soon found some change and the old school credit card back-up machine so we were in business - sort of! i had luckily bought a few extra torches the other week in anticipation of winter so that helped, but it was so dark that behind the bar we were struggling to find wine bottles and see enough to pour it! In the kitchen andy had his KP's and waitresses holding torches at strategic heights so he could see to carve the meat as the 'business' end of the kitchen has no natural light. anyway whilst all of this was happening we were fielding customers who were arriving for their lunch, as the pub is lit with a lot of candles anyway some were unaware we had a problem, most customers were understanding and could see we were doing our best to serve them something others were saying daft things like - can you heat this up a little for me. FFS! if had power we would, i think sarah's glacial stare said a lot, in fact when she said look forget it , we won't charge you and pulled the plates away they got the message! anyway in what seemed like the longest hour and a half of my life power returned at just before two so we managed to serve a few more properly and even with the power off we still managed to serve over 40! fair to say that once the power returned and we were tidied up i felt i'd earned a pint!

so i hear look forward to seeing you cheers gary

oddly enough given the cringeworthy cover i actually found it not a bad way to spend an hour. got to be better than the sunday times style section