camp_dick

Instead of the usual failures, Ramsay working with successful restaurateurs to take their operation to the next level might be an intriguing TV proposition, especially if the chef/restaurateur involved is willing and able to go toe to toe with the craggy featured fucker in a swearing contest. They'd have to change the name though, surely. Who'd want to be associated with a Nightmare?Alternative titles: Ramsay's Kitchen Epiphanies Ramsay's Culinary Slam! Ramsay Meets His Match

I recommend Cuisine Gourmande by Michel Guerard.

Wasn't this the place where Squirrel got so vexed at being ignored by Michelin that he hung three car tyres over the door?

I met a sous chef from Roast socially, a very nice chap (although it's somewhat incongruous for a Senegalese whose last gig was @ Zuma to be essaying 'English' food). I told him I hadn't bothered with Roast because it seemed to suffer from London Restaurant Syndrome (aka, pretentiousness). He said, maybe, but the kitchen crew are deeply committed to the concept and particularly fastidious in sourcing ingredients and that they are still improving from a disastrous start. Apparently, Marina's review torpedoed them. However, it had a galvanising effect and, six months on, he reckons that the operation has hit its stride. He also pointed out that the bar - as mentioned elsewhere in this thread - offers better views, at least, than The Wheatsheaf...

Obviously, it has to be 101 Knightsbridge!

Me too. He's about the only reason I buy the paper (apart from the TV guide). BTW, CB: Andy's link is to last week's episode, the first in what will be at least three parts. In today's, Jon distracts Elaine from rickshaws by making an interesting observation about discarded Lucozade bottles and hails a taxi to the restaurant, where you order your food in a well-lit bar before going to dine in pitch darkness. But, after twenty minutes they have yet to be presented with menus...

and is my nomination for the restaurant with the most inappropriate name, meaning:* A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system. * A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message. * The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity. * Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society. If the owners of Entropy were to open a sister establishment - perhaps in Peterborogh? -what would they call it? Dyspepsia?

What about Leicester? I've heard that this is another city in the Midlands with a substantial Asian population. Do they have restaurants there also, or is it mostly crisps?

I noticed that Toby Young reviewed this place in the Standard magazine on Friday. I didn't read what the ignorant slaphead had to say about it (he makes me puke!) but you've got to figure that if La Maschler passes up the opportunity to have first say on a new restaurant, it can only be because she figures it's beneath her dignity.

My sis sez she just jangled the keys to her Volvo and flashed her Platinum credit card. Have you visited the Peterborough store, in the Queensgate Centre, above the bus station?Thought not...

How then do you even know you were there? Or is this one of those dodgy 'recovered' memories? Perhaps the partners are going round hypnotising people into believing they went to Waitrose and it was like Aladdin's cave!As for Stepford wives thing, what my sister most likes about the Waitrose that's her nearest food shop is that they have a self-scanning facility for registered users which hardly anybody else seems to use, so she never has to wait at the check out. And they are so incredibly classy they even disdain the obvious slogan, 'No waiting at Waitrose'.

WTF?

Didn't somebody say that Time Out is going to discontinue its Eating & Drinking guide? I find TO is chiefly of historical interest, for anoraks who like to survey the evolution of the London scene, rather than punters lookiing for somewhere to have dinner. The accuracy of any old fashioned print guide, published annually, is largely determined by its reviewing budget and, even then, you need a small task force of reliable inspectors to get around. The accuracy of a Zagat-style survey depends upon the size of the sample and I *believe* Hardens has more contributors and fewer of them are trench coated corporate drones (who are not to be trusted!). Providing accurate, up to date restaurant information is surely one app. that's perfectly suited to the interweb, but has yet to be satisfactorily essayed, despite numeropus contenders (I quite like Urban Path). Time Out's internet ventures have been consistently crap over more than a decade! Zagat's London web site looks like a forlorn backwater. Likesay, I wish the Harden Bros would get their act together online.

What about the nude mud wrestling with Greg Wallace? Or is it only the producer of this execrable farrago who gets to do that?

I do wish Hardens would finish the major upgrade they've been promising for so long.

Surely you want something a bit more definitively British and distinctively London than a flash Chinky or Belgian novelty? You want Rules or, if that's too grown up for the eleven year old, The Wolseley.

Where it you said you wank - er - work?

I've recently been visiting Tooting on a regular basis and it's packed with excellent, cheap Indian restaurants such as Lahore Karahi, Jaffna House (Sri Lankan caff) and Masaladar (which is not so cheap, but I may be addicted to their Kali Masoor Dall). Not forgetting the superb Kastoori. Plus, there's numerous green grocers offering better quality produce than the average supermarket, and terrific sweetie shops such as Pooja... It's worth an excursion. Travel to Tooting Broadway tube and walk form there back up to Tooting Bec and you will encounter all manner of wonders along the way!

I doubt if Jay knew ACB in his pomp as the drink was definitely getting the better of him by the time Mr Rayner acceded to his post @ The Observer. I also doubt if ACB ever actually laid a glove on JR (or, if he did, if Rayner noticed). Of course, there was a time when you were nobody if Compton Batt hadn't threatened to break your legs...I also enjoyed the sidebar to this piece, The rise and fall of a fashionable restaurant (which includes a cameo from Jay Rayner as The Restaurant Critic!) How much am I looking forward to the reinvention of Shumi as a 100 seater Japanese restaurant with Alan Yau OBE spending another five million quid on the makeover? Not at all!

You might pick up some clues from Alex Renton's article in Observer Food Monthly on the Demise of the fashionable restaurant .

I'll resist the urge, but I thought moonshine was basically a prison thing! If you're interested in legitimate distilleries, I'd recommend a visit to the Beefeater, in Kennington, which is the last London dry gin to actually be made in London. Alternatively, Plymouth Gin is well set up to receive tourists. A good place to hunt for crafty independent distillers, I reckon, would be in the West Country, where The Somerset Distillery has led the way in making British calvados. I bet there's a few locals who've followed suit on the sly, but can't see how you'd ferret them out online... Good luck

Hubris caught up with him and he took up drinking. Jay Rayner's perceptive profile tells the tale. Poor old sod got what he thought he always wanted and can't understand why he isn't happy. Personally, I believe that MPW personifies the fiction of Mervyn Peake. He started out as Steerpike and, having successfully usurped the establishment, is now turning into Lord Groan.

Alan Yau also received an OBE in the NY honours list. According to The Guardian it's 'for his reinvention of Chinese food in the UK with Wagamama', which goes to show how much they know. Recognition from the Old Bloody Establishment surely represents another nail in the coffin of his credibility?

Even my local street market and the 'old fashioned' (round here, that seems to mean 'Turkish owned') greengrocers now sell strawberries and asparagus all year round.

Seconded. Jeremy was prone to pomposity, but ahead of the pack in promoting seasonality. There's been loads of books since that take a similar tack: Fresh From The Market by Sarah Woodward (1993) was a good 'un and pipped Huge (sic) Fearnley-Whittingstall's Cuisine Bon Marche (1994) to publication. The latter is particularly interesting because it predates Hugh's TV career.