chefsimon

But restaurant websites are notoriously awful. Sites for great places like Hibiscus fail to even have basic info like opening times on them. And there's always that slow flash upload which is just tedious. Why fancy restaurants have to have...*gibber, gibber* Either chefsimon is too angry to manage to reply and hits 'post' too soon, or he's simply breaking the egullet quote and edit guidelines enough so that he gets thrown off. ← Dont worry bertie i m still here just not replied yet as thinking about things like us ultra intelligent chefs do!!!!!!!! i will be replying in the near future, dont you worry

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Well i ll defend myself in good time as i m obviously going to!!! But i got a busy sunday lunch first Whs it a nice review brown bear?

I didnt invent it i just perfected it,only joking i m not claiming to have re invented the wheel, i know people have done chocolate fondant with caramel before but saying that the fondant recipe is mine, the ice cream recipe is mine, the foam is mine and the salted caramel is mine, but over the years i have seen a number of chefs attempt combinations very similer to what heston does, which are obviously noticed as there so different, the chef in question being one of those people. ← come off it, i have 2 recipes for chocolate fondant with salted butter caramel from books, I doubt either of the chef's were original when they produced them. Copying combinations from Heston? What next, chef's serving deconstructed bacon and egg ice cream? Heston has created some innovative dishes, but criticising a chef for perhaps using his ideas as a basis for their recipes, or even for coming up with a mixture of ingredients similar to those at the fat duck is surely daft. No offence chap but i think its a bit rude to accuse other chef's of such things when you are trying to get your restaurant going. ← Hey i didnt criticise, i think hes a very good chef, it was just an observation, maybe i m wrong

There is also a big difference between using ideas you have done before and copying, of course people are going to take inspiration from chefs they have worked for ,books, meals they have eaten etc etc

I didnt invent it i just perfected it,only joking i m not claiming to have re invented the wheel, i know people have done chocolate fondant with caramel before but saying that the fondant recipe is mine, the ice cream recipe is mine, the foam is mine and the salted caramel is mine, but over the years i have seen a number of chefs attempt combinations very similer to what heston does, which are obviously noticed as there so different, the chef in question being one of those people.

Could some one tell me how a 3 michelin star chef could not be creative please?

What a surprise sat bains copying heston!!!

No problem but what did you think critics and food writers was abou then? Dont think to much it ll start to hurt!!!!

And so they should, what you are doing, where you are doing it is going to get people talking. And it is going to take time for people to venture out for it other than Friday or Saturday night. You are nowhere near comparable with pub/old style restaurants. A dining experience with you is going to cost a certain amount whatever you have as there are obviously a lot of people involved in getting it right. The bog standard punter does not take this into account. They just look at one thing and thing ' £33-£65 to eat in this place, bloody hell.' Yes I have and three courses (salmon, steak, side of brocoli & salad and pud is £41 - Tasting menu £65, a la carte £64 (scallops, beef, pud, cheese) obviously you hope that is going to help with cashflow in delivery the 2* dishes Matthew mentioned accross the whole menu. I wish....I am simply saying that with the obvious high start up costs and ongoing costs, why was there not an amount allocated to PR. In your original thred you said, Yet you are now using one, you have done a deal to get Matthew to post about you and the original thred of yours got Jay down there quicker than a scallop diver on a comission of £1.60 a scallop. See above You and your food are your best PR, I just don't think you needed to get them talking with the thred you did. I have not been negative about Matthew's review, I am simply pointing out that thre two negative points he did mention were potentially enough to get Jay lighting his barbaque given what he said in your original thred.....IF i was to come to your place and, at those prices, found a single fault, I would put you over the spit and bbq you. To the average punter, those two minor minor minor points are hardley going to be a reason for them not to return or reccomend. But for a food critic of a national, and not one that rewrites the menu, we'll see. Maybe it is the wrong word, but something does not add up given the weight of posting you are generating about everything other than the food. I look forward to dining at Alexanders, wish you the best of luck and look forward to reading the Observer Magainze. ← A couple of things for you i definatly did not do a deal with matthew about writing on here, i invited him down and made it clear i wanted no bias but would be intrested in his feedback. both positive and negative as there are clearly people on here worth listening to and people not worth listening to. Now your say myself and the the food are the best pr which totally contradicts what your saying about me looking for some kind of ADULATION yes i want people to get out my way when i walk doen the street, i dont think About the brasserrie again you mention expensive things you dont mention you can have 3 courses for £23 and if you order a side of broccoli and a salad, very strange, do you have a food intrest or you just here to be negative about people trying to do good food in a nice environment Not everybody goes out and has 4 course or the 4 most expensive items on menu again you getting on your band wagon with your blinkered view Could you tell me what doesnt add up. give me the sum? Also what shall i do come on here and say this this and this is great my food is fantastic all come and try it !again i dont think so !!! Do you not think this site is a good place to get intrest in a new venture? Please tell me what was so bad about the food critic thread it cant be that bad as your fine self has obviously taken such an intrest and spent some of your mighty valuble time writing on the subject

a) Do you know how much the majority of Pr companies cost? and what the majority of there conditions are, i ve got nothing against pr companies and some are very good, in fact i ve actually got one now Victus PR, who are very good reasonable and flexible to the needs of a new start up restaurant b)Look at the response i ve got a lot of people are talking about it now on Egullet, We all know Jay has been in, Matthew has been in for a meal, there is also another guy coming in next week and i have now got a Pr company, thats not bad for starts It doesnt take a rocket scientist to work out i was going to get people talking about Alexanders and i ve had some good positive advice from a number of people and also a lot of people want to be negative, like yourself out of matthews review you can only pick up the negative points do you know me, who are you to say i want more adulation that will come from just the locals, believe me if it was a successful business i didnt need any awards or any reviews and nobody knew who i was and every customer every night was from Limpsfield High Street, the food and service was good i d be happy with that, but as thats not going to happen we need to go out to a wider field. Of course myself and the team want to be recognised for the fifteen,sixteen seventeen hour days we do and work and passion we put into it but adulation, definatly the wrong word to describe it On that note

The Website is also up and running a lot better than a couple of weeks ago will give people a much better idea of the place

I had a look around the shop this morning and there is definatly some fantastic produce in there, I was in the vine king on saturday picking up some wine for the restaurant and they were promoting him so lets hope he does ok and word gets round hes there

Today we had some hand dived Scottish scallops ( I know it's a long way from here, but they were offered, OK ) They worked out at £1.25 each, but one was just a smidge under 4oz. ← hows Buisness at the moment Simon? Was VD day good for you? ← Good thanks Basildog Did a 6 course taster and coffee for £50 over tuesday wed thursday did 40 on both tue and thur and 58 which was full on wednesday so not bad and yourself

Thus the similarities with restaurants are blinding chefmatt. I have never heard such generalised claptrap. Then again, sticking gastro onto any public house that does not serve packet food is the biggest generalisation of all. I'm off now to buy my own private island with all the dosh I've made from charging people so bloody much. ← Couldnt agree more baker states, i hate the word gastro pub cannot stand it, what do you do or where do you work chef matt

It was nothing personal to your mate!and it happens in every country, just because i live in another country doesnt mean i cant have a point of view and i visit your country on many occasions during the year Obviously a cancellation to these kinds of restaurants is not going to effect them, but if your friend does it to these whos to say its not his common practice on smaller independent restaurants also, independent restaurants can be very difficult to book a table at to at prime times I ve experienced it before as a chef/restauranteur and its not nice especially when you have turned down a table who would really like the experience you as a chef/restauranteur has to offer! So its definatly not a good practice and if someone cant decide where to go and only book one place they got issues, maybe do there reserch a bit earlier Simon

Do you realise how restaurants may suffer when you cancel 3 of those dinners An absolutly discusting thing to do in my opinion Ok the larger restaurant may fill your cancellation no problem, but smaller independent ones may struggle

Whats your definition of a Gastro Pub, everybodys is different! I m sure Heston would not call the Hinds Head a Gastro Pub

Well i guess that depends on your staff, maybe that happens where you work chef matt people do say some unfounded ridiculous things some times!! On what information are you basing that comment

That's a very good point. Interesting that his longest-standing employee is the sommelier, and the kitchen at his new place is run by his twin brother. Perhaps it's best not to speculate about specifics. But, generally, it may be plausible that if an employer tends not to trust his employees to do their jobs properly, he tends to be left with employess that are not worth trusting. Vicious circle. Dont understand this comment? Spoken like a true chef. If I were to work 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and insisted on overseeing every single aspect of my business, the basic quality of everything I did would suffer. And it would not be too much of a surprise if I started accusing people of stealing teaspoons, or attacking co-workers with pallet knives. ← Is the that Toms Kitchen run by his brother or is Ollie Couillard in charge?

That's a very good point. Interesting that his longest-standing employee is the sommelier, and the kitchen at his new place is run by his twin brother. Perhaps it's best not to speculate about specifics. But, generally, it may be plausible that if an employer tends not to trust his employees to do their jobs properly, he tends to be left with employess that are not worth trusting. Vicious circle. Dont understand this comment? Spoken like a true chef. If I were to work 20 hours a day, seven days a week, and insisted on overseeing every single aspect of my business, the basic quality of everything I did would suffer. And it would not be too much of a surprise if I started accusing people of stealing teaspoons, or attacking co-workers with pallet knives. ← i ve only just learnt to write, you know us chefs

As it happens, I talked to Tom about this a month or two after Tom's Kitchen opened. He said he was running service Monday to Friday at the eponymous place until all covers were on desserts and coffees, So whos doing the desserts then, because i know a number of pastry ches who ve been through the door Tom, I'd suggest, takes perfectionism to the point of an obsessive compulsive disorder. He seems completely unable to delegate. I'm not in the least bit surprised that he has a problem with staff turnover Which doesnt put him in good stead for expanding, i m not doubting his quality but you have to have the team behind you, thats one of the differences between being a great chef and a great restauranteur, i know its a very old saying but a true one, your only as good as your brigade -- it must be a nightmare to work for him, stuck in that tiny basement kitchen where the boss is always looking over your shoulder and telling you exactly what you're doing wrong. Yeah it is, i ve seen it and i wouldnt reccomend it there, but all good places are hard work If all the "empire building" is taking a toll on quality (and I'm not convinced that it is), then it's most likely to be because he is in his kitchens far too much, not too little. Dont understand this comment? ←

Fair enough. My point was though that he had done enough (even if he could achieve more). I don't think the comparison with JCN is fair either, by all accounts the man went completely expansion-bonkers, and there is no reason at all to suppose Aikens' project is of the same order of lunacy. ← I wouldnt say tom is trying to expand at the haute money making as his his new offerings are not trying to be Restaurant Tom Aikens, if anything there there to make money to help Tom Aikens, i am in no way saying Tom Aikens doesnt make money but we all know how hard it is for top end fine dining restaurants I also wouldnt agree you have to get to 2 star 3 star to expand, but i would say you have to have a solid team and i would say if you expand before you get to that level, its very hard then to get to the 2-3 star level which again we all know Tom Aikens wants to, So maybe there is the question whether he has decided lets just make some fucking serious money?

Who’s cooking in the kitchen there if he’s busy empire building? His former head chef Dylan McGrath is running Mint in Dublin since early summer (pretty impressive in a torturously small kitchen). He said that Aikens was very hands-on during his time there. I recently picked up a copy of his book as I’ve never eaten in his restaurant and was interested to see how it compares with what’s on the menu at Mint. He’s a good looking guy, but why so many “achingly cool” B&W reportage shots? Tom wrapped up in a snuggy jacket out walking, Tom on the phone, Tom reflected in the mirror… ← I am lead to believe the head chef is a guy called Dominic cant tel you more than that, i think thy worked together at some time before

My meals have deinatly deteriated imho, obviously yours not and i agree the breads have always been amazing. Also i d like to say the somelier fantastic i think he has been there from the beginning To be a great restauranteur you have to have a great team like gordon did and now there all in very good places, the majority of his head chefs now were there at the begnning!i think thats where tom could struggle i did a stage there at Tom Aikens for a senior position beginning to middle of last year and none of the staff apart from Dylan the head chef who has now moved had been there more than a year and none of the staff there were very happy! in my opinion whether you got the money to or not thats not a good position to be starting a restaurant empire!!!whether they be just round the corner or not! Also we all know what michelin think about spreading yourself to thin before you get the top accolodes! so 2 stars could be a way away!