Jon Tseng

Dunno if any of the names on the OUSU site would pique your memory - unfortunately they don't list by location: OUSU restaurant guide J PS Adam, if we're having a do does that mean we can crash round your place after given a) the likelihood of severe drinking b) the relative isolation of rural oxfordshire to the big smoke :-)

Well lawyers, it seems! Come on, you //must// have seen the thread the other week: Georgio and the Truffle ;-) J

Oh, you'll be referring to the Grand Finales book then. Visually stunning. Insanely uncookfromable. Perfectly suited to the coffee table of your choice. Or, if you want to be particularly flash, streak it with flour/chocolate to give that "just used" look and leave it lying around the counter. Just don't complain if guests call your bluff and ask you to cook from it. Don't try, just look ;-)

But that assumes people buy books in order to cook from them. ;-)

Well if you're venturing sarf of the river (why?) have fond memories of Rick's Cafe in Tooting Broadway Good, honest modern european; a warm welcome; gutsy portions... J

Providores or Hakkasan would be the obvious suggestions for quality, non-budget fusion. Though Hakkasan gets a bit noisy on evenings so may not be ideal for quiet birthday dinner. I'm sure others will come up with more inventive ideas. J ps or the usual michelin-wannabe-fusion-joints nahm, mju, nobu (buy her the David Thompson thai book - which is awesome - and do nahm?) pps or even the they-also-do-black-cod-places zuma, sumosan, tsunami (esp. the latter)

A shame about Hywel Jones, although having Rob Reid's stuff at the Oak Room post-MPW I can say he's a fine catch. Shame about the Old Manor House too. Many fond memories Jon PS And is Paul Rhodes off from Deca too? Remember seeing a piece recently (Restaurant mag, I think) about him starting a catering business (a la Phillip Britten?) - it didn't seem clear whether he'd be carrying on at Deca too

I'd second the Robuchon the only genuinely successful attempt to translate three-star cooking for the home chef J Fernand Point's Ma Cuisine also has an awesome reputation, although personally I always found it a bit dull

i think my mum uses either shoulder or leg for char siu at home... marinades it in bbq (hoison?) sauce and other goodies. not loin - it would be too lean. for some of the other ones I suspect oven temp is also an issue - domestic ovens just don't get hot enough. J

Yeah... have munched at Mr Kong til well past midnite in the past. Good nosh, although the decor perhaps a little less salubrious than the ideal post-theatre j

sounds fun wot duz etioleted mean?

we should get him to join us on this board!

Personally I'm a big fan; I think he's one of the outstanding food writers, certainly amongst the British press. In particular the fact that he comes from the foodie end of the spectrum shines through in how he writes and the store of knowledge he draws on. Contrast that with the AA Gills of this world whose main aim appears to be to show the world how clever they are not... I'd highlight the piece below; a little old but still one of the most perceptive articles I've seen about restaurant cooking in recent years: What's Cooking? cheerio J

One of the french three-stars does cromsequis of foie gras - can't remember who oh, and tournedos rossini, if someone hasn't mentioned it already j

Plus some more london suggestions Ivy (again the establishment not a chef): salmon fish cake, berries with white chocolate sauce River Cafe: Chocolate Nemesis Fergus Henderson: Bone Marrow Salad (how could I have forgotten?) Jean-Christophe Novelli: Sea Bass & Chorizo J

Albert Roux: Omelette Rothschild, Souffle Suississe Raymond Blanc: Courgette flowers stuffed with crab mousse Peter Gordon: Scallops with chilli relish and creme fraiche Paul Bocuse? Fernand Point? Pere Bise? Marjolaine cake (can't remember who) Alain Senderens: Langoustines wrapped in vermicelli Thomas Keller: Oysters and tapioca Jean-Christophe Novelli: Pigs trotter MPW: Scallops and squid ink Pierre Koffman: Salmon confit Richard Neat: Snails in chicken mousse dusted with powdered ?morels Nico Ladenis: Cep risotto Heston Blumenthal: Lasagne of langoustinne, pigs trotter & truffle, crab biscuit Martin Blunos: Duck egg with caviar & a shot of vodka Can an establishment have a signature dish (does seafood boudin count as Taillevant's or Vrinat's?). If so I nominate the roast pork puffs at Royal China in London. And the chorizo and rocket rolls at Borough Market? Will undoubtedly think of more J incidentally note this a) seems to be a french or french-influenced thing and b) a haute cuisine thing (though the chorizo rolls may be an exception

from the review could ya tell if they'd visited you in the last yr (eg the dishes they talk about)? am always a bit suspicious on the guides how often the frequent the places they rate j

basildog - r u in it? j

will bitch about lucas carton in time... bit snowed under for mo also would it be worth shifting this to the General board? j

Steve, I was actually addressing the other part of Jay's question ie why some people pay more for food rather than art; what was the experience & justification &tc. Anyhow, getting onto whether the prices are justified, isn't that just the way the free market works - price is determined not by how much something is worth, but how much people are prepared to pay for it. [similar argument as to why teachers and nurses are paid f**k all - it's not how much they're worth to society, its how much society is prepared to pay for their services). Presumably if somebody is prepared to pay the price, by definition they think it's worth the price. ? J PS on the more general "price-inflation" point would be interested in knowing if posh joints are charging more across the board or for select items; does everybody have the two hundred quid truffle dish, or do most opt for the hundred quid prixe fixe. Possibly average spend may not have gone up as much as the few "high profile" examples imply. PPS Also does anyone know if wine costs have hiked up much in the last few years?

Have a suspicion your quarry fall into two types - Firstly are those to whom the price is an irrelevance. In this case there is no particular motivation; it may as well be 30 euros or 3000 euros The second type for whom it is a splurge people are clearly spending that much because they believe they are paying for more than just a meal. What makes up the "added value"? Random (as ever) thoughts: i) Memories - a really great meal you can look back on again and again ii) One off - not something you'd do everyday but the scarcity value justifies a higher price (need to define this pt. a bit more) iii) History/particular dish - you're paying for a deep fried truffle or a particular dish. Or you're prepared to extra becos you're dining at a particular establishment. Again the "value-add" comes in the looking back on it, but also the sense of an achievement. Would you pay twenty grand to climb a mountain? No. Would you pay twenty grand to climb Everest? Some would. iv) Ultimately all boils down to fact people have different value systems. Certain people are prepared to pay for for the above, and other things. Others would rather be down the pub. thats all for the mo. sure will think of more j

to be fair a) suspect costs in Bray are as high, or higher, than central london... smack in the middle of the london stockbroker belt, access to the river and all that. b) sounds like they went for the degustation - there's a thirty quid lunch which is would have at least halved the bill. c) waterside inn = converted pub, ferme de mon pere = converted farmhouse... its not what it was converted from that counts; it was what it was converted into... ttfn J

On a related theme, vegetarian haute in London is still a long way behind what they're up to in the US (eg Charlie T). Only places I can think of are the Lanesborough and the Admiralty. I suspect the imperative is commercial - the market for haute cuisine is small enough; with veggies only being a fraction of that (would it be fair to say there are less veggies as a proportion of foodies than non-foodies) the incentives to do veggie haute are sadly lacking Which is a shame because there are times when you want a top-class meal but really don't want to be slaughtered by a torrent of truffles and porked-up goose liver. Even two starters don't always help in some of these "foie gras with everything" joints cheerio J

ya right... i just saw his cv. surely we should be the ones asking him for the recs! david, have fond memories of the petit blanc when it first opened although things appear to have gone downhill since... j

My opinion. I'm sure LML will disagree ;-) i) Heston Blumenthal at the Fat Duck. ii) Gordon Ramsay (in his Royal Hospital Road incarnation), Fergus Henderson at St John, Heston B. (a welcome by-product of the scientific exactness of his cooking), Chez Bruce in Wandsworth iii) St John and a trip out of town to the Fat Duck. This is assuming I was trying to avoid the whole three-star-degustation-posh-nosh thing (which can be had in any major city in the west) and angle for something I wouldn't find elsewhere. cheerio J ps where are the stages?