Gary Marshall

so tuesday rolled around and thus started my run of three lunches this week (today tbc-that would be 4 ). I met a shivering Robin maj outside leeds station, although originally from rotherham, the years of london dwelling have obviously softened him up! Swiftly we were in Anthony's and working our way through a couple of glasses of festive house champagne which warmed us up nicely whilst checking the menu. Robin fancied the white onion risotto, i went for the black pudding and salmon cheek. With seasonal game to follow for robin, woodcock i think and suprise, suprise vension for me. once downstairs we busied ourselves with a bottle of riesling as Olga brought the amuse, a variation on the coffee/tobacco/passion fruit/bourbon, previously it was in a shot glass, now it had been gelatinised and was presented in a small dish. next up should have been the pine nut veloute but olga kindly remembered i don't like it and so tony gave us a preview of his new for 05 amuse, grated fresh hazlenut (from olga's aunts garden!) with pomme puree and smoked pumpkin air, very good and seasonal- a winter warmer i think was the considered verdict. breads next with parmesan, salted and toasted butters as good as usual. then the starters arrived, i knew i should have slipped in a risotto somewhere but given my greedy schedule this week didn't think it wise to go down the 'two starters' route- though i do recommend it ! Robin's looked just the dish for a cold december day and although my black pudding/salmon cheek/mango was textbook, i think i definitely had a bad case of food envy. ( he did give me a taste though!) . We had the obligatory chorey-les-beaune with the mains, Robin seemed very happy with his woodcock, though given his propensity for 'nose to tail eating' he was a little disappointed not to get the head and brains, chatting to tony afterwards it appeared he did have them but most customers don't fancy them. My Venison/carpaccio/foie/quinoa was again most excellent. we decided on a cheese course and shared a selection and also a new pre-desert a chocolate and banana concoction, lifted by the strategic addition of salt, which robin and i both heartily approved of. we had pre-ordered the black olive and pineapple tatin, once again this dish has to be eaten to be believed. Such ingredients just shouldn't taste this good! coffee/choc's/calva/grappa followed and considering we were in the restaurant at just gone twelve, time rapidly vanished as in no time robin was running for his 4pm train. It was good to see the place full on a tuesday lunch with as robin noted, a good cross section of punters, neither suits nor students but all seemingly enjoying themselves. I will also confess to popping in last night, but restrained myself, i merely ensured a friend from london got to the restaurant safely and ordered well, ie risotto/vension/tatin/chorey les beaune! I had a rapsberry beer and left her in the flinn/s capable hands and whilst imagining it was white onion risotto, enjoyed my big mac meal on the train home! cheers gary

Tell me more, am intrigued. ← could be wrong but i think heston started it, unfortunately not much to add (perhaps culianry bear will know more) but as a consumer of them, they were the usual choccy truffles but coated with space dust so they 'explode' in your mouth and then you get the soothing choc. it was while ago that i went too! cheers gary

was just thinking exactly the same, quite a catchy name, but quite unappetising if you know what it is (an agent used to 'fine' wine to clarify it) gary

thanks for that, i use viamichelin a lot for planning trips and didn't realise you could provide feedback that way. cheers gary

yes it is leeds only starred place,i feel a bit sorry for them, everyone has plenty to say about ant's/no3 but i rarely hear anything about pool court, and certainly nothing that makes me think i should go back. we are having an office christmas lunch at brasserie 44, (the sister restaurant, in the same building if you don't know leeds) menu looked so uninspiring i said i'd hold the fort instead ! from what i hear michelin are open to suggestion about visiting, if you write to them with your menus/wine lists/get your regulars to recommend they do seem to take notice. And they take a lot of notice of negative thoughts of places they recommend. your man at dinham needs to be a bit more proactive, though i would have thought given its close proximity to the other ludlow stars michelin probably would have passed through, it's hardly out of their way. cheers gary

they don't say must have riedels, silver, linen cloths, sommelier etc but most assume that's the sort of direction youmust be heading in to get your star and beyond. ← Surely that's the crux of the matter for many smaller establishments - what we ex-biologists would call convergent evolution rather than divergent; many different places feeling they have to conform in order to get a star, certainly to get two. Shouldn't it be about time that individuality is more highly valued? ← absoluteley. i'm not saying i agree with their methodology, and no doubt michelin themselves would say there's no set formula but starred places do tend to conform! having said that, i do like that style of restaurant and find michelin to be the most reliable of guides, however now i find these sort of boards significantly more up to date and useful for plotting culinary adventures. cheers gary

well it's not that simple! michelin don't disclose their criteria. they just say vague things (that i think andy mentioned ) about 'good food worth a detour 'which doesn't help much! they don't say must have riedels, silver, linen cloths, sommelier etc but most assume that's the sort of direction youmust be heading in to get your star and beyond. cheers gary

is one star i think

been on the christmas sherry have we already baps?! not really comparing like for like here are we? tom aikens was the youngest chef to get 2 stars (pied a terre?) and was already well known/infamous in the industry, he is also in central london. Tony was essentially unknown outside of the chef world, and is in central leeds to have people already flying in from america/heading to leeds especially to eat there is pretty remarkable. think ta denied the 'expected to get 2 stars' as far as i'm aware no-one starting a restaurant from scratch has got 2 stars (transfers yes, but not unstarred chefs). so i agree it's very unlikely it'll get stars out of the box but as i say, given what they've accomplished in 9 months, it's feasible they could get 2 the year after. let's face it they gave the fat duck 3, anthonys should be on course for 4 haha! cheers gary

With a few days holiday to use up i felt an appropriate use of time would be a trip to the box tree with a lovely sleep in the next day to look forward to! We went up to ilkley on a particulalry cold and miserable thursday evening, we were welcomed in from the cold and the maitre d' noticing sarah's shivering state (even though we'donly walked a few steps from the taxi!) suggested a seat by the fire in the middle room which we happily accepted. our arrival coincided with that of rena gueller who joined us for a chat whilst we got on with the serious business of a) drinking the very agreeable glasses of house champagne we had ordered b) devouring the excellent canapes and c) the obligatory gossip! Special mention must be made of the canapes, one in particular- a plaited of bread straw thingy with anchovy in the middle of the plaits, they were delicious, our enjoyment of the canapes was evident as rena ordered us some more! For me the only low point of the evening was the starters, the selection just looking a little uninspired for a new restaurant, the website menu looking much more interesting. From memory there were 2 sperate soups (one a fish with the usual trimmings) can't remember the second. Two foie presentations one a mosaic and one with quail, the scallops facon simon (which i had last time) asparagus with warm hollandaise and duck egg, and lobster risotto with tarragon and lobster essence. I would normally leap at the asparagus but thought it unseasonal so had the rissotto. Simon's risottos are usually pretty special this one wasn't badly cooked or anything it just didn't seem to gel cohesively, there were reasonable chunks of lobster but didn't discern much tarragon and i also remember it being £14 odd, which i thought a bit toppy price-wise. Sarahs foie gras mosaic was wonderful though, served with a warmed fig and a chutney and toasted brioche. i was undecided on mains when rena mentioned she'd seen them plating up a squab pigeon and it looked good. so i had that. Bloody hell, it was good. It may have been cooked 'en vessie' but to all intents it was a perfectly roasted, and more importantly, rested, breast, i like pigeon, and i like rare meat but sometimes it can be a bit too rare, you know, like a good vet could get it flying again? this was rare but not bloody with a lovely seared outside. Then there was the red wine jus, what was a couple of magnums of wine and stock (probably) reduced down to a dark sauce -perfect, but it gets better. The legs often an afterthought tasted almost confitted/griddled with a lovely caramelised underside, they demanded picking up and chewing - so i did. Guess what? there's more ... a small paupiette of savoy cabbage wrapped foie gras, perfectly steamed and sliced in two. Certainly one of the best dishes i've eaten this year, just goes to show you can foam and dessicate to your hearts content but yet there's still place for the classics intelligently done. Sarah had i think seabass or turbot with a red wine sauce, that looked and tasted pretty good too, the small bits i got! Cheese followed, a pre plated selection of english cheese - did the trick, had better/had much worse. but the finale was a triumph. Pastry has always been a strong point of simon's kitchens, his tatins are fantastic unfortunately they were not on the menu. what was though was a pear crumble with vanilla ice cream and lime custard. it had been made and served in a fine pastry case, with just the best crumble on top. The accompanyments added to it but i could have eaten two or three crumbles no problem. We shared it and i would have ordered another but wifey forbid it! Coffees and calva followed in the reception room and all too soon the taxi appeared to whisk us back to our glamorous 5 star hotel (ok, the cow and calf pub!). We had the '93 les settiles chardonnay with our starters and a domaine d'arlot clos de foret red both very enjoyable, and even better mrs M picked up the not inconsiderable tab! (around £200 don't get me wrong, it was worth it) I think the box tree certainly has the hallmarks of reinventing one of the great names in english gastronomy. By now i think there will have been some staff changes which will tighten up the ship service wise and take pressure off rena who has had to do most of the 'guest liason' type stuff, i think they'll get there and it should regain a star if it carries on in this vein. they were un/lucky enough to have a michelin inspector through the door on the 3rd night of opening! they are considering lunches friday/saturday too, if that would suit it might be worth emailing/ringing to let them know the demand is there! cheers gary

i think anthony's is the exception here being as you say, very busy already and well known to a national audience rather than a regular, local fan base. I would say usually a star will bring in more 'out of town' custom. i have heard that stars can add 20 -30% to a restaurants business. It is often cause for raising of prices too, but i think the general eating out market is so cut-throat that is less likely nowadays, i remember ramsay saying he actually cut his prices when he got 3 stars as a thank-you to his customers. Hibiscus was already full on peak services with one star, when they gained 2 claire said the main effect was the quiter services and lunches started to sell out too as well as the friday and saturdays. i expect anthonys to get a star, i doubt it will have much effect on the business but will justfy the work they have put in this year and keep tony happy, if nathan outlaw's got one tony won't be happy until he's got one! Given the ambition i wouldn't be suprised to see it quickly gain 2. They are already working on the bits and pieces that you would expect to see in a 2 star. I also expect number 3 to get one too, they have worked extremely hard to build a consistent, highly enjoyable restaurant that to me is a text book one star michelin, denis has always worked in one and two starred places so knows what buttons to press. cheers gary

It was a close call but with the aid of a 'it's the fastest route to alcoholism- but it works' hair of the dog bloody mary i got the train back to leeds after a shall we just say 'hectic' friday in london. i was meeting the esteemed majumdars and J an american friend who had also joined us at st john the night before. Being slightly more abstemious they managed the 9-ish train and i met them to the scarborough taps in leeds where they had enjoyed a couple of beers, i had also forgotten that it was 'match day' and the place was full of 'leeds, leeds, leeds' fans i think they were quite relieved to see me and head over to anthonys! On arrival we opted to head straight to the table and got stuck into a few glasses of champagne with a sherry for younger majumdar. amuse today was a variation of the passion fruit cocktail. Today it smelt of coffee, but didn't taste of it, only passion fruit and bourbon. very clever. next up the veloute of yeast with pine nuts and a new addition of grapes, still doesn't do it for me, it's their 'marmite' dish. bread then arrived the usual tin loaf with parmesan, salted and a new one 'toasted' butter, made from beurre noisette, and very good it was too. Simon fancied a savignon blanc so we had a new zealand one with our starters, which for me was the comforting red mullet/horcharta combo, still excellent, we also had a quail & garlic ravioli and a black pudding /salmon cheek/ mango. Simon and robin are pork connoisseurs and J makes his own chorizo so these were serious piggy eaters and all were impressed, all were enthusiastically scoffed though, i was pleased that such seasoned london/ny diners were blown away by leeds finest! Although there were new dishes on the mains such as 'game of the day' and turbot, which the others had, i couldn't get pass the venison, for the third time (!) and i am confident it is my favourite dish of the year, i told Olga but she quite rightly pointed out they haven't yet been open a year yet! the usual chorey-les-beaune accompanied this, i am a creature of habit! a couple of portions of cheese were ordered, fleur de whatsist, mrs bells etc all with the usual pickled celery. desert was a high point, the rest of the table shared a selection, but i had to try the pineapple tatin (?) with black olive ice cream, I think i may have the description wrong but that's not an issue, if you go you'll see it on the menu and it needs pre-ordering i highly suggest you do. Olives are known for being sour, and pineapple is not let's face it a know haute cuisine ingredient. But Tony has put the two together in a stunning dish, desert of the year. retiring to the bar for ginger milk, coffees, calvas, and of course rasberry beer rounded off a extremely pleasant afternoon. Georgio Locatelli (CLANG!) once told me that lots of people told him his food was brilliant, but what really counted was if they made another booking and returned. suffice to say that robin and i are heading back for lunch next week!

as far as i am aware there are two sittings a 7pm and 9.30pm (or thereabouts). a great place and highly recomended. cheers gary

i'm heading there tomorrow lunch, provided i make it back from a cafe du marche lunch and st john dinner today gary

......and look out Cornwall. Much seat reinforcement planned with Objective One funding. What's the payload on the new chairs, Basildog? Seriously good news for eveyone. Is this airsouthwest, or airyorkshire? ← leeds is ready and waiting for the padstow 'massive' cheers gary

here you go.... http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/food_an...sp?story=586564 good review, think he got the right impression! cheers gary

post the mangal, a few pints, the apple shop opening and a tube back to putney i very quickly found myself changed and on my way to Putney Bridge. Mrs M chose the company, her university friends and i chose the restaurant. Her friends are not regular diners at this level but i was pleased to see everyone getting into the spirit, almost literally given the pre-dinner cocktail consumption! They had decided to go for the tasting menu which suited me fine! After drinks we were shown to our table, by the window. Plates of several pre-amuses swiftly followed and were swiftly devoured, so quickly in fact that i can’t remember them! then the amuse proper, a veloute of pumkin with a cube of parmesan jelly in the bottom, very interesting and i meant to ask how it was made but forgot. I discussed with the sommelier the possibility of wine to match each course by the glass but he recommended a bottle with each, given there were 10 of us we’d get a small pour each. Although i agreed with his choices in the end i thought it safer to stick with a red and a white and let the individual decide what they wanted, also the sommelier recs were about £40 + a bottle and i didn’t want the wifes friends to have coronaries when they got the bill. At our price range of £30-ish there wasn’t much of any age in my usual burgundy hunting ground torn between a lafon macon-milly and a rully truffiere the somm recommended the latter so we went with that, after a few bottles i did change to a gruner veltliner as the rully was just a bit too young being only a 2002 from memory. i did go with his choice of red a lacoste borie 90-something a 2 ieme cru classe which was extremely good with the meat and cheese courses. Anyway back to the food! First up off the menu proper was dorset crab and pink grapefruit cannelloni a tanslucent pink jelly tube with the crab inside, inventive but tasty! next a saute of foie gras, clementine confit, black treacle, brioche cream. This was the four elements on a plate with a streaks of the ‘sauces’ i scoffed mine and sarah’s friends too who hasn’t yet got into the joy of force fed liver just yet! third was a carpaccio of oysters, goats cheese salad burnet. This was an unusual combination. The oysters covered the plate, in thin slices and tastes and smelt very fresh and, well , oystery. The goats cheese was in a small quenelle. It cut through and was intersting but didn’t go down too well on the table, as far as i am aware i’ve never seen oysters/goats cheese in combination before. the fish course was sea bass, saute of young squid and sea purslane. According to the mrs this was a nicely cooked filet of bass with little piles of squid around the edges of the plate, i seem to think with a reduction underneath, but i could have made that up!. There was a choice of meats, either roast wild duck, chervil root puree, quince and armagnac or fillet of pure breed wlesh black beef, fat chips red wine reduction. Mathew Grant had told me about the beef and how good it was so i went for that, as did most of the table, matt also said when he spent a night there lots of people ordered the steak well done which was a crying shame, i made sure there were no well-done embarassments on our table! They managed to cook i think 8 beef and 2 ducks as requested which is no mean feat, the beef was excellent and went down very well with the bordeaux. The selection of artisan cheese was 3 different french cheeses, the only suprise being the tiny almost thumbnail size portion. I have to say i was quite full by this point but the portions did look a bit stingy. deserts came in the form of chocolate and orange croquette, creamed rice, rhubarb sorbet. and to finish a caramel panna cotta, roast pear, brioche perdu. I don’t remember much of these but am assured they were good by the mrs. Coffee and p4’s followed and i then left the table for a ‘quick’ chat with anthony demetre in the kitchen. Apparently i’d been there an hour when mrs marshall navigated the rabbit warren that leads to the basement kitchen to come and find me, and then she got talking, then another search party was sent to find us as everyone was waiting to go home! Anthony demetre was a thoroughly decent bloke and i thought we had a interesting conversation, although i hope he could understand my somewhat ‘tired and emotional’ state by that point! it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, i suspect the large lunch wasn’t ideal preparation for such delicate and thoughtful food but i would certainly recommend it and i’ll head back, next time for a la carte i think. cheers gary

now £550,000. shall we start a whip round? cheers gary

sounds like his bosses disagreed, you've made the news page of restaurant mag with turner saying it's going to be a 'deep clean', whatever that entails. cheers gary

very good review by jan moir in saturday's telegraph. sounds like just the sort of place i'd like and she got across very well the idea of a comitted chef/patron operation that i tend to go for. cheers gary

an excellent dinner here last night, 12 of us all fed and watered brilliantly and fussy non-seafood/chocolate eaters very ably catered for with some really nice dishes, frogs legs with parlsley cromesquis for example. it came hard on the heels of a wenlock/angel mangal kebab session at lunch time so i'm not quite up to writing it up in full just yet, vegging out in front of the simpsons with a pizza is the limit of my ambitions for tonight! cheers gary

i'm all for free speech on the boards, i don't think anyone is suggesting otherwise. i think the difference is in this case is that it is just so out of character for this story to emanate from hibiscus, and that anyone who knows it feels there must have been provocation on 'p weavers' part, as i said initially, even if they weren't aware of their comments. you don't build an acclaimed 2 star restaurant with long waiting lists by randomly attacking customers for no reason, however young. i can see how you may read into it that trashing some places are taboo because lots of established members like them but that's not the issue here. There have been negative reviews of places like the fat duck, foliage and putney bridge that have elicited reasoned debate from their supporters/detractors, not finger pointing and stupid playground i hope they lose their star type comments. cheers gary ps go ahead and trash st john's, overhyped on my experience , and i'll have another go at why anthony's is a million times better than the fat duck part 87!

well i am indeed heading there on saturday night, the wine list is not on line, any thoughts good /bad value, recommendations? Going with a group of wifey's friends (if if have to go london, i get to choose the restaurant, seems fair ) I have no idea what they will want to spend. did i read there is a glass to match the tasting menu option? as that is what we are going for. thanks gary

do you want those pictures on the net? do you?!

*sound of coffee being forceably ejected* they obviously haven't seen the photo's i have of bapi in his gimp gear then cheers gary