Gary Marshall

Yet, these are the results for the 2005 Best Restaurant in the World awards organized by British Restaurant Magazine. ← you're right it is a parallel universe that must be the only explanation for HAVING EXACTLY THE SAME DEBATE AS LAST YEAR AAARGGHHHH! sorry, feel better now. cheers gary

i wondered if it was laura aikens, but i thought she was an aussie? sounded very english. Certainly looked friendlier in hells kitchen than in her own place gary ps i think they must have had at least a few days training before last night, the celebs did last time from memory.

Poor gary he seemed determined to stick with his tough guy persona. I'm sure his professional demeanor is not the cheeky tv chappy we all know, but at least JC was himself, buy it just didn't suit gary at all. i'm sure i'll end up watching it but feel it is already lacking ramsay/sarge/angela. could really care if its z listers or public taking part so that doesn't bother me but trying to build a rivalry between jc/gary? oh well, it's not aimed 'us' i assume but just cheap tv so let it wash over and wait for the service which is the interesting part for me.

What with Holidays, drains on resources such as the star, l'enclume (and mrs marshall trying to restrict my restaurant spending mad.gif ) and colleagues wanting to go for beers in all bar one, keeping me away from my trips to no 3 i felt the need for a visit to catch up with denis and see what's new on their ALC. Although there were potentially more exciting things on the starters, in the interests of financial prudence i had the roast chicken soup with tarragon oil, a veritable bargain at £4.95. Those of you lucky (?) enough to have dined with me will know that i will almost always order anything tarragon related, it's like human cat nip for me! ( and if you aren't fortunate to have cats you will have no idea of what i'm talking about, if you have cats you'll know exactly what i'm talking about!). Suffice to say it was a 'proper' soup made from a roux base with a creamy texture and droplets of highly flavoured tarragon oil. For the main course i was torn between the loin of Loin of Rabbit with a Cinnamon Brioche Crust, Fricassée of Frog’s Legs, Buttered Noodles, Carrot Purée, Velouté of Pommery Mustard or the Canon of Local Lamb Poached & Roasted, Crushed New Potatoes, Young Vegetables, Jus Roti, Sauce Polaise. As denis rightly mentioned you don't normally get rabbit and frogs legs in north yorkshire so i went for the rabbit, i will return for the lamb, as paloise is a bearnaise, made with mint rather than tarragon- don't get me started on butter based sauces! The rabbit came in three sections of loin perfectly wrapped in breadcrumbs with two decent sized deep fried frogs legs and a textbook pommery mustard sauce sauce, with the carrot puree, althought it tasted great, from an aesthetic point of view i'd have gone for a more neutral coloured base, but hey you can't go wrong with pomme (puree) though to be fair that is available as a side dish, and is robuchon-esque in quality. with a curry for dinner tonight i passed on desert but was pleased to see black forest gateaux making its return! full menu below. cheers gary Roast Chicken Soup with Tarragon Oil £4.95 Ravioli of Goat’s Cheese, Confit Tomato, Aubergine Caviar, Balsamic Vinegar £8.95 Chicken Liver & Foie Gras Parfait, Black Grape Compote, Toasted Brioche £10.95 Roast Breasts of Wood Pigeon with Wild Mushroom Risotto, Fried Quail’s Egg, Wild Mushroom Velouté £9.95 Pan Fried Sea Scallops with Curried Calamari, Carrot Purée, Cumin Caramel £12.95 Ballotine of Duck Foie Gras, Carpaccio of Smoked Goose, Apple Remoulade, Fig Purée, Pain d’épices £11.95 Scottish Langoustines 3 ways £14.95 ******** Roast fillet of Sea Bass, Lasagne of Crab, Braised Fennel, Ginger Cream, Red Wine Reduction £20.95 Steamed Fillet of Salmon with a Marinière of Shellfish, Calamari, Young Vegetables & Basil £14.95 Halibut Roasted on the Bone, Garlic & Potato Purée, Caramelised Salsify, Wild Mushrooms, Wild Mushroom Velouté £17.95 Roast Fillet of Beef with Braised Ox Cheek, White Onion Purée, Paris Brown Mushrooms, Red Wine Sauce £19.95 Belly Pork braised with 5 Spices, Buttered Spinach, Seared Foie Gras, Jerusalem Artichoke Purée, Baby Onions, Truffle Jus £ 16.95 Canon of Local Lamb Poached & Roasted, Crushed New Potatoes, Young Vegetables, Jus Roti, Sauce Polaise £18.95 Loin of Rabbit with a Cinnamon Brioche Crust, Fricassée of Frog’s Legs, Buttered Noodles, Carrot Purée, Velouté of Pommery Mustard £18.95 Roast Breast of Gressingham Duck with a Salad of Duck Confit &Young Leafs, Sweet Potato Fondant, Buttered Savoy Cabbage, Sweet & Sour Sauce £17.95 Side Order: Panaché de Légumes or Pomme Purée £ 3.95 ******** Crème Brûlée scented with Ginger, Rhubarb Compote, Strawberry Sorbet & Jus £6.95 Hot Pistachio Soufflé with Pistachio Ice Cream & Chocolate Sauce £6.95 Iced Lemon Chiboust with Lemon Curd, Orange Tuile, Citrus Fruit Marmalade & Sauce Suzette £6.95 Black Forest Gateau, Cherry Sorbet, Cherry Syrup £6.95 Cox’s Apple Roasted in Caramel, Iced Vanilla Parfait, Sablé Biscuit, Caramel Ice Cream £6.95 Assiette of Desserts £ 12.95 Selection of English & French Farmhouse Cheeses £ 7.95

will you be in a jd wetherspoon's at any point over your birthday period?

sorry, how remiss of me. bapi kindly bought scott and i a couple of cokes to start with (with tactical coke stuck on the front!) and a bottle of red. unfortunately olga being the pro she is, waited for us to choose our usual modest-ish bottle of wine before informing us bapi was paying for it unfortunately i have no idea of when bapi's birthday is and have a very bad memory for dates gary

seeing as Yin is now joining us, even after i told her the the full guest list here's what we had the other week at scott and gary's birthday lunch as a taster, nb i haven't got the official menu descriptions these are my recollections. cocktail amuse, cucumber, ginger and mint. I'm rubbish with cocktails the nearest i get is one half pint of lager loving mixed with another half pint of lager, so i can't remember what it was based upon but it was a pleasant enough palette cleanser. then it was straight in with the big guns.... first of the seasons asparagus with first of seasons lamb sweetbreads with a reduction. big sweatbread almost foie in texture, mmmm. hurrah! white onion and parmesan air risotto, the original and still the best. Despite having eaten this plenty of times i was struck with despite the 'air' looking dense on the fork it disappears in the mouth leaving an almost ethereal taste of parmesan, brilliant. pigs cheek on pomme puree, baby parsley, potted shrimp sauce. The baby parsely crulley picked before reaching adulthood were from tony's greenhouse. For the record Tony lives in a flat in leeds. 'nuff said! it had a remarkable pungency about it. pigs cheek great and shrimp sauce a winner. I've seen shrimps in a lot of things of late, simply potted at my local and in a vinaigrette at the star. next crab, coconut & coconut milk with ice leaves, nice light-ish dish. duck neck stuffed with duck confit , a potato fondant made from a peeled ribbon of potato with a tiny poached quails egg on top. Bloody marvellous. red mullet, fried chicken skin, enoki langoustines almond creme caramel, skin great, i like the enoki's too and the creme caramel was a big hit around the table. slow roast rib of beef (from the 55 degree oven) with skewered baby octopus and braised oxtail. Beef was very tender, seared then left in the oven from 11.30 am until we scoffed it at about 3pm. would have been rude to pass up cheese, so we didn't. Now served by the number , can't remember how many but we shared the larger, a good taste of cheese with pickled celery, mini bread and home made crackers. then the citrus 'selection' a sort of lemon assiette, very refreshing. then the cucumber canneloni and finally birthday cake to finish! i wouldn't take this as an indication of what an official tasting menu will look like, it was more a work out of some new dishes and old faves, that we greatly enjoyed. cheers gary

scott and i finally made it to L’Enclume the other saturday evening, but where to start? naturally with a booking with the menu gourmand at 7pm there was a lunch shaped gap in our day, however arriving in the lakes too early would have resulted a few hours too many in the local hostelleries so a diversion was required, to the star at harome, only about 45 miles in the wrong direction but hey we didn’t want to spoil our dinner! scott was in no mood for taking it easy and a loin of roast pork was quickly despatched, i went for the girls lite lunch option of lemon sole with rosemary and sea salt and a caper beurre noisette i think. Thus replete we set off for cartemel and a mere 3 hours later arrived in the pretty village. Our first thoughts were that maybe there’d been some sort of alien abduction as there was no-one to be seen on the streets, i suppose the unusually sunny day had lulled us into a false sense of summer and i was expecting hoards of tourists, but no just scott and i. We checked into our rooms at the cavendish arms and settled down to a well earned post drive pint. We had been told the cavendish was close to l’enclume, well it’s so close we wandered down the road to look at the menu with our beers to check out the menu! we then went in search of life and found a few more faces in a pub on the square whilst killed sometime before heading back to change, which. included a scary simultaneous conversation ‘what time is it? ‘‘6.30’, ‘what time are we eating’ ‘7pm’, (both) ‘time for another then!” thus leaving our selves approx 6 minutes for a shower and dash the 20 paces to the restaurant. We arrived at l’enclume for our 7pm slot and were swiftly taken (past the very attractive cheeseboard) by penny through to a second seating area in the conservatory where champagne was suggested and naturally accepted, we had already requested the menu gourmand so there was no real ordering to be done but we took the chance to have a read and to peruse the wine list. the wine list i thought offered excellent value for money with an interesting selection, they share a wine merchant with my local so lets say i was on more than nodding terms with many of the bottles, but after a chat with mary we went for an auxey-duresses and a ladoix serrigny, both £30 something. At our table we were offered a good range of very good bread and all was well with the world. At this point the restaurant was quite quiet but it was full by the end of the evening with most going for the full fat-boy gourmand. the slate of contrasts was first, being an old hand of palette cleansers i expected strict instructions on what order to eat them but pleasingly they were absent, A balsamic jelly, beetroot foam, a spicy beef meatball, piece of melon and a salt brandade were on offer and quickly dispatched i enjoyed the balsamic and meatball the most. next up chestnut and bacon broth, chervil topping, in a little shot glass, pleasant enough but no real wow. perilla and parmesan french fries were next , they looked like french fries, two of them in a shot glass with another shot of parsley dip and for some reason a ginger marshmallow. The fries were interesting but couldn’t really see the link between the other items on the plate. cubism in foie gras, two cold, one hot, cantaloupe, fragrant myrrh, almond cake up next, a little pyramid of parfait, the hot being a cromesquis and and foie ice cream. Unfortunately having had hibiscus’s foie gras ice cream this fell short of that mark. Almond cake provided a little sweet contrast and being fans of salt, we could have done with a little more than the line on the plate. Also ice leaves on the plate, seemingly the garnish du jour. overall an attractive looking dish but not as dramatic as expected. half soft and scrambled eggs, soy, wasabi, smoked cod froth. This i really liked, the first dish of the night with a real kick to it- nice dish served in the egg shell. flaky crab, curried avocado, parmesan yoghurt sorbet. The individual components were good, i especially remember the tadpoles of curried avocado, but again there were a lot of flavours there that didn’t seem complementary. virtual tomato, consomme. With a deep fried basil leaf and a savory crisp, poured from a test tube and gradually melting the powder, it tasted to me exactly like tomato paste from a pizza base, not quite what i expected. white truffle custard ‘chinese style’. The chinese style being a take away pot with 47 on it and the accompanyment of a duck spring roll, again couldn’t quite see the angle here. scallops, bacon polenta, cauliflower crunch, passion fruit crunch, hibiscus sweet. Back on song here a good looking dish (i’m relying on photo’s to prompt!) and everything worked well. next the reknown cubes from land and sea, eucalyptus hollandaise. Although i’d heard a lot about i didn’t actually realise what was in it, for the record nice brunoise of lambs sweetbread and lobster, the green hollandaise flashed under the grill didn’t look great but it was an interesting mix of textures and an interesting dish. hot pepper terrine , langoustine, various nik naks, jasmine foam. A single langoustine, on a little square of red pepper terrine, and the now familiar tadpoles and streaks of seasoning on the plate, there was also an asparagus tip, bit of fennel and the nik naks which were little chilli twists, an ok dish. roasted sea bass, ice cube, frogs legs, hydromel. the cube was supposed to be a taste of the sea but it wasn’t pronounced, rest simply cooked and fine. John dory, bergamot aromas, bitter caramel. i don’t remember the bergamot aromas - and i drink gallons of earl grey! the bitter caramel in a circle around a chunk of JD. fennel irish coffee. worst dish of the night, think it was consomme with a fennel cream, one mouthful was enough as it was like drinking gelatinous cold beef stock. mrs little’s beef fillet, waberthwaite air dried ham,apple, juniper berry juices. A nicely cooked piece of beef the ham inserted in the centre, adding some salt and a nice berry reduction, could see this as a good full size main course. the other ‘main’ was loin of lamb, grains of paradise, aubergine, butternut confit, cumin boullion. Again nicely black ‘n blue loin sliced in two, i liked the cumin boullion too another dish i’d happily eat more of. cheese was described as monsieur rabauds cheese from our trolley, Although i love french cheese i was slightly suprised to see it was entirely french, as everything else was shouting its local provenance where appropriate. As i have a quite serious montgomerys cheddar habit, i would have welcomed some at this point but it must be said the cheeses were all in good condition and a decent selection despatched. slammer all in one was a tequila based palette cleanser thingy, we did as told and knocked it back. hazlenut paline ‘sandwich’ , mandarin filling, sage infusion. Nice praline millefeuille type dish, enjoyed by both of us. melting fig fondant, cassia bark, icy fennel, spice. another very good dish, nice to seenan interesting take on the ubiquitous choc fondant. chocolate mayhem, no more voices. much hyped and if i hadn’t read about it before it would have passed me by. Lots of preparations of different strengths but not unlike assiettes of chocolate served in numerous places, however well executed and no complaints, just didn’t live up to the billing. After all that obviously a medicinal calva was required with our coffee, which came with another flurry of p4’s which i remember several being seriously good! We then reverted to type and had a few kronenbourg’s whilst rabbitting on to mary and penny, until erm, 2 am. service had been very good all night with all questions answered and wine choices recommendations good, mary talked us out of a £40 puligny montrachet into the auxey duresses, which was the right call as we had the pm later and the auxey was superior, we also enjoyed the captain gagnerot ladoix serrigny too and the wine list was good in general. before dining i was wary of the unusual menu descriptions and i think they give the restaurant a certain novelty factor which detracted from what is obviously a serious, skillful and intelligent kitchen. thinking about it now the 20 course menu was bound to include some misses, i can see that the shorter menus would leave a more positive impression as there would be more killer, less filler. With so many courses though and a couple of consecutive ‘misses’ every now again did worry us at the time. With some of the dishes it seemed they were comprised of a series of ideas looking for a partner like the fries or the crab, rather than a coherent dish of complementing flavours such as the scallops. in terms of the hits i liked the slate, the eggs, scallops and bacon, cubes from land and sea, the lamb/the beef, cheese, praline, fig fondant. the misses were chestnut broth, virtual tomato, truffle custard and fennel coffee and a few courses were interesting but i wouldn’t write home about them such as the terrine, dory and sea bass which all came consecutively until the mains lifted the pace again. overall a very enjoyable evening, i thought it was solid one star cooking and was very impressed with the kitchens’ ability to turn out complex tasting menus to a full restaurant . It goes without saying it takes balls to open with such a ‘no concessions’ menu in such a remote village so i wish them all the best and hope that enough diners make the journey to what is a beautiful part of the country. and yes, we stocked up on sticky toffee puddings from the shop on the way home! cheers gary

best call them quickly, i've got two tables of five and there's two other sixes in as well! if you go come and say hello. cheers gary

and sean hil said the same to me also.

this is the key for me, something i have found in every meal at some point there's a 'f*cking hell that is good' moment that i just don't seem to get with the same frequency anywhere else. it might be an amuse/ a pre desert/ a sauce/even a strategically placed garnish or whatever but it's always there and that's what keeps me going back just to see what he'll come up with next. the love of what they are doing in the kitchen comes through in the service and just makes it a very special place. Hibiscus is the only place like it to my mind, both future 3* imo. cheers gary ps say hi from gazza next time you see georgio

georgio locatelli (clang!) once said to me that everyone said nice things about his food to his face but he really took notice if they made another reservation. glad you enjoyed it david cheers gary

i know you think that, but it's simply not true. i've taken a lot of people to anthony's from leeds locals to world weary, been there, seen it all 3* veteran new yorkers.... and i expect every time someone is going to say 'no'- 'it's just not that good' or ' i ate that in el bulli 2 years ago' and so far no-one has, which adds to my belief that i am right, and it is a truely exceptional restaurant, but I don't need the validation from other diners, it's good that others agree but i can certainly cope with any contrary views! there's another nine people coming this weekend several of whom write here, maybe some of them won't like it, and if they don't i'm sure they'll write about it, then we can have a debate about it, i won't find it hard i'll find it interesting. cheers gary ps the kitchen has just been extended, i'm sure the tasting menu will follow shortly.....

So what can we expect this weekend then Gary? Can you tell- I am a smidgen excited? HINT- That Mullet / chicken skin/langoustine dish would be , er nice. ← what can you expect? given the company, probably a headache you really are obsessed with langoustines aren't you?! cheers gary

i didn't think you were being negative, you just sounded interested! there appears to be a particular form of sado-masochism that comes from working in kitchens with michelin aspirations. For tony & co it almost appears a challenge to see just how hard they can work. cheers gary

i agree with moby, i've never seen a decent knife in a butchers or a fishmongers yet and my friends butcher supplier once sharpened his knives and knackered them all. it's better to learn yourself, by whatever method that works for you as modern knives lose their edge so quickly you'll constantly be without your knives unless you learn yourself. cheers gary for those in the north peter maturi in leeds sharpen knives, the guy comes in on friday, i had one done before i saw the light - aka shaun hill's how to cook better

i had issues with my globals but i have got them very sharp of late doing the following..... my chefly friend says you should never let anyone else sharpen your knives, i assume it's similar to a fountain pen where it adapts to your style, anyway i use a global mid grade whetstone slightly damp. (or maybe he got bored of sharpening mine ) i sharpen the cutting edge, for me beinf right handed the left edge by pullingit across the stone with some pressure, 20x then flip the blade over and do it once or twice. i then finish it off on an ordinary carbon steel held at about 42 degress. before i use it every time i give it a quick whizz on the carbon steel. seems to work for me, just as i thought they were needed a re-fresh i sliced my finger on them in the washing bowl. if they are sharp they should cut a tomato without pressure, just dragging across the skin should be enough. another tip, don't put then in the dishwasher, they get blunted by the abrasive particles in the powder. cheers gary

covers are the key, anthony's are full every evening which is 32 covers i think, plus lunches and they are booked on saturdays until july, although a nice situation to be in it puts pressure on the kitchen as every guest be they trade, press, guide or ordinary punter expects the place to live up to its great reputation. Holly said there is no quiet night, every night for them is saturday night (but at least on sunday they get a day off!) so everyone in there is working just unfathomably long hours- how does 6-ish am till 2-3 am grab you?! Even their 3 course alc becomes 6-7 courses with cocktails/amuses/bread/pre deserts. As for other places 2-3 man top kitchens are not uncommon in the provinces but it is all relative to the number of covers/complexity of the cusine/number of services- shaun hill was a very busy one man band but he didn't do 10 services a week. Places such as le champignon sauvage, hibiscus, black pig etc are not likely to be that busy every day, or it's a steady upward progression and the restaurant grows into its stature, anthonys has only just been open for a year and has been coping with full services every night for some time yet. Most places are little more slow burn eg merchant house/hibsicus/ludlow phenonemon. but at the winteringham/ramsay level you are looking at 10 chefs plus easily, hence the term 'brigade' for the kitchen staff, it's like a military operation comprised of lots of specialists each doing their own part of a bigger piece. cheers gary

This is strange as Fraiche in Birkenhead produces a la carte, and two tasting menus (6 and 12 courses) and they only have two people in the kitchen. That said, should Anthony's start offering a tasting menu, I would go back if I was in the area. ← why is it strange? is the fewer the chefs in the kitchen now an indicator of quality?! cheers gary

Tony has wanted to do a tasting menu virtually since day one but had to get his kitchen sorted, for a long time there was only 2 in the kitchen and they really need three/four to fulfill his ambitions so they were sticking to the ALC, and believe me he's not someone who likes to send out anything that is not spot on! he did say on Saturday that he's promised a lot of people that the tasting menu was coming and is aware that it's not yet materialised.... but they have just enlarged the kitchen and i think they are pretty much sorted in the kitchen now so hopefully it'll not be too much longer....... what we had on saturday was pretty much the full new ALC, we are happy guinea pigs /greedy so they know they can give us anything and we'll happily eat it, it was so new even Olga hadn't seen the dishes before! cheers gary ps i think i last had jacketless potatoes at christmas, they were as good as ever, in a short space of time he's got some very memorable dishes that would sit nicely on a tasting, however i don't know how time consuming they are to prep which might be an issue.

back on 16th at lunch. will write up saturdays adventures, new a la carte very good.... cheers gary

good post matt cheers gary

forget paying cash, why don't you ask your favourite places if you could work unpaid as a stagiare? i'm sure you could get something to gain some experience cheers gary

I certainly didn't mean to imply you were at fault, but I am surprised that Michelin didn't check their own press release a little better. I didn't look through the entire guide either, but a couple of two stars that were two stars at least two years just popped right out at me and I quickly checked them against last year's guide and they still had two stars last year. That drove me to check a few more of the two stars and most of them were inaccurately identified as new. This called into question the entire release. I'm sure some of it is correct and I'm sure some of it is inaccurate. All I can say at this point is that it's not reliable. I'm not sure the Michelin web site is reliable either, but it shows Jardin des Sens as having three stars and the page says © Michelin 2001 - 2005. ← i think the 'nouveau' and the 'espoirs' are a line out in each case it should be the one above or below in each instance, i can't remember which. but jardin is definitely now a 2 star! cheers gary

i thought thomasina was a deserving winner, the guy was too inexperienced and caroline a good copy cook, thomasina seemed to actually be original and passionate about what she did. cheers gary