augustine

France's finest chefs are coming too. Don't know who but would love to be a fly on the wall if Pacaud, Passard, Allèno etc are there.

Does anybody know who exactly are the French chefs attending the banquet?

Something screwed up with the website (errr, this seems to be recurring theme) which means the window size ain't working properly. You can see the underlying if you "view source" Good thing you managed to get rid of that joker Gary Marshall, anyhow! John Mc Kenna and Georgina Campbell!!!!!!!! Not next year please. We have tried hard to peel ourselves away from the paddwhackery of Ballymaloe and blackberry picking. I suggest if you are going to need more Irish opinion than Flynn, Lindsay and Peyton (a perfect little trio to make us proud) you should try Cathal Armstrong, from Eve, Alexandria. Or even better a list of the 50 best people to pick the top fifty. J PS Andy... Freelancer having public hissy fit with potential employer on open forum... NOOOOO so not the way to add to credibility and get more paid work! ← It all works beautifully on a Mac but then doesn't everything. I will look into browser compatibility and get it fixed. ←

I totally disagree that Restaurant magazine had anything to do with putting haute cuisine into the mainstream. It was fortuitous for Restaurant Magazine that it launched during the expansion of all things food and drink, something akin to the way fashion changed on the high streets. Haute cuisine is still very far from the mainstream but what you have are lots of media, retailers and producers hawking the idea of "haute simple" to sell their products. Restaurant Magazine is part of this process as is clear by having Nespresso as a sponsor. J

HEll Yes. Spain spain go away come back another day. Last should not be last by any stretch and what about La Pergola. Senseless gastro-fad drivel.

If you,re friend is planning to make trip to Ireland, some planning and recs would be needed, drop us a line. Great blog.

I absolutely agree. Interesting point, but I think the half star is a good idea. The only logical alternative would be to list the restaurants in order of merit (as opposed to alphabetically), otherwise the list would be potentially very short... and a bit like Michelin! I think it's hard not to be predictable on these lists and you're always going to get a sense of the critic's personal preferences (this is the sort of thing that sells newspapers). Doorley is not into "new cookery", so I think Mint actually did well to be rated so high from his perspective (I bet the Tom Aikens comment is doing Dylan McGrath's head in!). And he included Thornton's this time, which he left off the Eating in Ireland list about 2 years ago. Welcome to eG Forums btw. ← My concern comes from Doorley's own personal food preferences which are centred on innovative cooking, referring to a better use of ingredients. He is on record complaining about the abuse of salad leafs, the unseasonable use of key ingredients etc, yet most of the restaurants in the list serve the antithesis of the preferences he prescribes to. Maybe food commentators are by wanting to remain true to their subject inevitably going to be tainted when talking about restaurants. It's the "gin and tonic problem". With lime and I'm a carbon loving demon, without it life is anodyne. For an example of this read Lucinda O'Sullivan review of Thorton's. Personal perhaps but ultimately useless and to a visitor it will only serve to frustrate and disappoint. Thanks for welcome.

A predictably useless list. His preaching about local food, clever and innovative cooking, etc is in contrary to the kind words he writes about some Dublin restaurants. L’Ecrivain is certainly not better than Mint and Ely may have a good wine list but the wine service is terrible and the food rubbish. This system of offering half stars and full stars gives him the potential to include 10 distinct categories, enough I presume not to offend old and new friends. This sort of malarkee makes the Michelin system worth all the fuss.