sunbeam

I'd say Joe wasn't so much smokin' as incandescent! I bet everyone in the office is wearing tin-hats this week and desperately avoiding his eye. S

It was a bit of a dull evening compared to previous years; stuffing all of us into cinema seating for what seemed like a lifetime and leaving us dangerously hungry and sober may have been a mistake. I went home and had to seriously raid the fridge, I may have managed 4 canapes at the event and those I had to knife fight a spanish journo for. Nice to see Terry Durack giving Melvyn Bragg's spare wig a well-deserved night out, though. I suppose it's what happens when something grows big. The event has become more corporate and dull and controlled by suits and Joe's personality has been rather taken out of the mix, which is a shame. I was surprised that Petersham nurseries won nothing - I suppose it's the antithesis of molec gastrom and therefore about as fashionable as cordon bleu to the judges. S

Cat, unless you intend uploading lots of hi rez pics, I think you'll find posting quite possible even with dial up 56k Thing to do is write it in Notepad or similar off line and in your own time, then cut and paste the text in when you come to the forum. You can be in and out in a flash! Or am I missing the point? Perhaps you have no connection at all at home. S

yeh and some journo on metro now likes el faro too... better late than never I suppose, probably discovered it by lurking around on this forum. It is a long way out though which is a shame. I'd like to go again but it would mean driving and thus not drinking. Can't do that. S

Thats why a lot of restaurants close on Mondays all day. Here in London tumbleweed blows through most places monday and tuesday. London is still a city, unlike say New York, where people go out for a treat, not as a regular practice. To spend money eating out on a monday or tuesday would seem decadent, especially when there are sausages in the fridge and The Apprentice on telly - best wait for the latter half of the week is most ordinary folks' thinking. Of course I have no idea what the wealthy Londoner does. Probably has a posh takeaway sent round. They don't like getting the Smeg dirty if they can help it, not when the Polish cleaner isn't due until friday! S

As a veteran of many a film shoot I should warn you to go nowhere near during the filming. They will be doing unspeakable things to the place, cheerfully knocking holes through walls to pass cables, trampling the flower beds underfoot, even resiting windows and doors. Whatever is needed. They will of course put it all back straight, but I've seen grown men weep when making an ill-advised visit to their property while it is being used as a location. Take plenty of reference pictures now, in case you need them later S

Well of course at weekends all the new media kids are at home in other parts of London. I dont think the look is over, it's always new to someone. And at least they dont have those high-backed brown leather chairs, the ones that just about every restaurant in London seems to have these days. I wish I was the bloke who retailed them, he must be retired in Bermuda by now S

I went quite recently. The new chef is very good imho and the place was 75% full, not bad for a monday and what is a big room. I thought it was just great and the crowd was a nice mix of ages. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the decor etc in this valiant old boozer saved from the squatters is romantic, baroque and brilliant. One of the restaurants that make going out to eat a joy again as its more than just creative and inventive food, it's an environment and an event. Oh and Loungelover for drinks after, well cool. No I don't work there or anything, I just think it now needs reappraising, the comments here refer to a different chef and many years ago. S

Going back to the original subject, I went to Faro some months ago and it is jolly good as said. Weird place the Isle of Dogs - old cranes and yuppie joggers, bare buildings etc. Could almost be a different city S

I am actually a five foot nothing brunette called Tabitha. ←

Rather a large picture of him accompanying that article. He may book anonymously but it will be a dangerously slack maitre d' that hasn't added that portrait to his 'ones to watch out for ' wall in the kitchen. I don't understand why restaurant critics have their pictures next to their column at all really, it doesn't make any difference to the reader's like or dislike of the writing, just blows their cover. Ahhh maybe the pictures are red herrings and are actually of someone completely different? Oh that would be crafty. Imagine Fay Maschler all these years has really been a strapping six foot six blonde bombshell! S

Oh well, I still feel it was sly and snidey in a way that I cannot properly define or argue. Just an eGut feeling. But I accept I am in the minority of one. I often am. S

I was sorry to see that Jay Rayner made use of the relevant discussions on this board in his Observer review of Alexanders. That seemed to me underhand and a caddish thing to do. The things discussed here are surely 'off the record'? Otherwise people, particularly chefs and proprietors, may think twice about joining in and the board will be the poorer for it. Perhaps I am a little old-fashioned in having such scruples. S

Ah well who knows where Smiths get their steaks. Probably from Argentina! No problems about Ginger Pig here, although I think its a bit poncey and pricey whatever its good intentions but that's the new Marylebone for you eh? S

Oh I see, but now I don't know what you mean by 'proper'. Tapas bars in Spain are all a bit different by region in what they serve and how they serve it aren't they? That's the impression I get from my stays in Madrid, Barcelona etc. I haven't been to Barrafina despite working around the corner. I don't like the idea of having to wait. One thing about 'proper' tapas bars in Spain, be they hatches in the wall, or something more substantial, is that you can normally get seated and served fairly quickly. Which I think at the end of the day is what most of us want from a bar, be it proper or improper. S

It's a perfectly good marketing technique. As someone said, get people to come in on an offer, and if they're impressed they will come back and pay full price and also tell their friends. And if they hate every dish, at least they can console themselves they didn't pay too much. It is true though that some restaurant staff can be a bit supercilious when you go in on an offer. I have a skin like an elephant though and don't let that get to me. I just don't leave them a tip. S

Poor old Nicky Hawksmoor, starts off as an architect and ends up as an American steakhouse. But then Spearmint Rhino was a legendary 18th Century explorer and look what happened to him. Why do they use the Ginger Pig when they are so close to Smithfields? If you're going to debase a famous Londoner's name you could at least use the meat market that he would have been familiar with. The market needs support if it's not to become another block of unaffordable flats. S

It's also about maximising space to place lucrative colour advertising. That is essentially why the Sunday colour supplement was invented in the first place. We don't actually need or read the massive amount of paper that thuds onto our doorsteps each Sunday. I personally would be happy with a lot less but of higher quality. However there is no going back it seems and so we get special subject supps that are full of padding and the OFM is no different. It's very hard to fill all that space each month and the pool of quality writers must be small as the same people seem to crop up in all the papers all the time. S

You like the idea of a tapas bar? I don't understand. Are you referring to some particular concept of Barrafina that's unique? S

Never ask for advice in my experience, unless it's to do with something practical. Most artists ignore it anyway, and quite right too. Critics seldom agree, there is no objective truth, only opinions. No one 'knows' except with hindsight The only true judge is your till! S

Not as smacked as Gahan, ho ho, although I hear he is clean these days. You can get sprouting green broccoli, although it is techically a beet I believe. Cima di Rappa Yes I have an allotment, although not yet a flat cap. S

Glad to hear it, I've had some as limp as Graham Norton's handshake, yuk s

I'm not surprised MPW was evasive when quizzed by a journo about his financial situation. Who on earth would be anything else? One's finances, like one's sexual fantasies, are not something you want broadcast to the world. We all have our dark little secrets. And as for Hells Kitchen, why not? Money and the chance to be on TV. Giles Coren has just signed up to advertise Birds Eye products on telly for the same reasons. Who can blame him? Although he has muttered some obligatory eyewash about believing in the product etc. S

I cant speak for Italy but my own experience in France, I have the traditional 'waiting to be restored' ruin there, is that supermarkets rule The big LeClerc outside my nearest town was pulled down and an even bigger one built in just a few weeks. Local markets are becoming sad affairs with mostly clothes, a handful of veg and the obligatory African chap selling Bob Marley posters. The french like everyone else don't want to pay any more than they have to or drive more than they can afford. Its like that programme slagging off tescos on telly the other night. Surely if people stopped going to Tescos/Tesco Express etc then they would stop building more? The supermarkets are meeting demand and it's only a few people who dont like it (And I bet they shop at Waitrose) The French are like us...except they dont seem to moan about supermarkets, simply embrace them. S

fnarrrrr sorry, Brit humour N