chefmatt

my time in canada was riddled with pants food apart from one meal at west. we were self catering most of the time and the only place we could get really good produce was at the market in vancouver but it was bloody expensive. i missed good cheese, bacon, prosciutto, pickles and jams, and while i am sure you can source these ingredients (probably not cheese) to quite a high standard they are noy as widely available as they are in london at waitrose, even sainsburys have pata negra ham nowadays. just to second what is said above, jams and pickles, ginger beer (luscomb farm hot), in fact anything gingery, preserve, duchy originals chocolate covered. and yes some real ale, and you can make it as cold as you want in your enormous fridge back in seattle!!

i am a big fan of nahm, although at lunch mainly as it is far less costly. andy is right, too many sweet dishes can unbalance the meal, but the staff should help you out in that respect. it has the cleanest tasting thai food i have ever eaten, better than the rough and ready street food i ate in thailand, yes its fun while you are there but nahm really is the next level up. is there a term for when a restaurant betters the food it is using as its inspiration? Nahm, amaya, hakkasan etc, not to be cinfused with authenticity like bar shu. also desserts are very basic, nice if you fancy something sweet but certainly not if you want to be impressed, mainly of thye sweet sticky rice and fruit variety.

lets put a spanner in the works! firstly pastry chefs in this country can get paid a considerable amount of money (£30k-70k if not more if you are at the very top) certainly at michelin level and have the power to negotiate good deals regarding hours and so on as most (not all) the skill is in the mise en place and construction of desserts so if they train their staff well there is not a necessity to oversee service. But what i really want to say is that it is very rare that i have come across a pastry chef that cooks what you want them to cook. Head chefs know more about a complete meal than someone who specialises in one aspect of cooking. I have always loved the simple yet perfect constructions of many of the three star chefs in paris and of marco's in the old days. you don't want too much to think about at the end of the meal it just gets tiring, what you do want to be is stunned with the look of the dessert and the flavour. I am always more stunned by something simple and perfect than a load of redundent sugar work, foams and uneccessary mousses even if there are all in perfect quenelles. there are of course exceptions to this rule and i am talking from my experience, don't all you pastry chefs out there get your knickers in a twist! one of the best pastry chefs i ever worked with listed his favourite desserts as tarte fine aux pommes and strawberry sable and although frustrating in many other ways it was nice to be on the same wavelength. he is sadly no longer with us and will be sadly missed. Big bud, you are very lucky to have someone you can relate to, this for me is one of the most important parts of the pastry - head chef relationship. anyway i know it is a bit rambling and i will probably add more later matt

i think msk do all that sort of thing. on a seperate subject, i hate bloody farmer's markets, they are expensive, the gear is never the very best and worst of all when i am there i am completely taken in by it and end up spending a fortune alongside the other middle class chinless wonders! adey are they cherry tomatoes on the rossini, is there any truffle on there?

we all know the deal with the anchor and hope, we know that if we arrive late we will have to wait and the food will have run out. so if you know this and arrive late and the food has run out, don't bloody moan about it. i always eat early, or at lunch, have always had a table without sharing, have always had the whole run of the menu and always bloody enjoyed. i am very impatient and would get bloody pissed off if i had to wait ages and had to be told that half the food wasn't available, but i ensure that doesn't happen. it is also bloody poor form to go off to another pub, what was wrong with drinking in their bar? if you thought it was too packed or noisy or not enough choice maybe (which there is), then you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

we all know the deal with the anchor and hope, we know that if we arrive late we will have to wait and the food will have run out. so if you know this and arrive late and the food has run out, don't bloody moan about it. i always eat early, or at lunch, have always had a table without sharing, have always had the whole run of the menu and always bloody enjoyed. i am very impatient and would get bloody pissed off if i had to wait ages and had to be told that half the food wasn't available, but i ensure that doesn't happen. it is also bloody poor form to go off to another pub, what was wrong with drinking in their bar? if you thought it was too packed or noisy or not enough choice maybe (which there is), then you shouldn't have been there in the first place.

help needed! i need to source a fresh juice company that will be willing manufacture juices to our specification with our label in relatively small batches for a high quality fast food outlet. any ideas?

i think sober is the correct definition. if ever there is an industry that knows the finer points of addiction........... One can never be a former alcoholic. Only a dormant one. ←

the review doesn't read too badly, i am not sure why he gave it one star, probably because it calls itself the best polish restaurant in london, that is asking for trouble, a bit like when you open up a restaurant that looks like a russian palace and declare your food as ukrainian haute cuisine!

i need a list of those people for divo!!!!

oh my good lord, just spent some more time on their website. what is Easton mess, is it made of steel? on the table d'hote, two main courses with mash the other two with chips! the only thing i fancy is fish of the day but i would lay money that the waiter would have to spend five minutes at the table describing how the fish was nestling on a bed of something silly.

its like all the garnishes have been muddled up on the dishes! tempura veg with foie gras, thats a new one on me. who is the chef?

whenever 100% chocolate was delivered by mistake in the kitchen we would use it to play jokes on people!! in my experince there is little difference between that and cocoa powder it is essentially the same thing and i have never found any use for it.

cafe anglaise?

there is nothing wrong with what heston is doing, it is interesting and we can all take something from it. what is wrong is people, particularly trade press, referring to the fat duck as the greatest restaurant in the world.

You said you don't like having his food in your mouth.So why do you go to his restaurant to eat it? ← i have been but i don't choose to go back, even if i did like the food, it is very expensive and the menu never changes. i would never suggest to anyone not to go, i think it is a very important restaurant in british culinary history, people should go and make up their own minds, as did I. my point about not particularly enjoying his food was in reference to somebody classifying the food of the fat duck as "great"

i didn't say that anyone was forcing me to go there. what is your point?

and.... i said "some ill judged food", not all ill judged food and i agree entirely about the "gastropubs". i have great respect for heston and i think he has a lot to offer on the technique front, i just don't particularly enjoy having his food in my mouth.

I think that "great food" is up for discussion, amusing maybe, imaginative, most certainly, individual, yes, great? that is certainly subjective.

wiltons?

rules?

i'm off to read harry potter, perhaps that is where i will fnid out what magic water is!

i have never wished to "slag off " heston, he is one of the most talented and admired figures in the catering industry. the problem i have is with his fanatical fan base that can't think for themselves and have to have their palates told by somebody else what tastes good. it is depressing to see the cuisine of heston lauded as if it is the only way forward for aspirational chefs. as well as being responsible for the fat duck, heston is responsible as the inspiration for some wide spread and seriously ill judged food in this country. as i said, food theatrician, not chef.

Not most brilliant chef but most brilliant food theatrician.

i don't wish to state the obvious, and very admirable but neither basildog or marc are in london. i am sure the anchor and hope are doing their usual free for all or maybe try somewhere un-romantic like st john or bar shu. ledbury or glasshouse might be worth a punt at this late stage. i think out of the centre is probably your best bet, chapter one maybe?