PhilD

...and more to come.

We traversed Spain from SS in the North East down to Seville in the South West. The highlights: Tapas in SS - IMO the best in Spain (although I have not been to Madrid). The great Mathew Grant (not Gary Marshall) review has a link to Todos Pintxos that has suggestions for different Tapas crawls - it is very useful. We loved Mugaritz on both our visits - although desserts are not his strong point Roast baby pig (21 days old) and lambs at an Asador (a restaurant that does simple grilled meats) in Segovia, a tradition across the central plains. Seafood on the atlantic coast was really good - a couple of towns have large open air restaurants where you choose the food at a fresh fish counter and then it is bought to the table. Very casual, quite quick, but excellent - Romerijo. The Carabineros which are like huge very red prawns are amazing if you can get them. Expanding my knowledge of Spanish wine, especially sherry in Jerez and some of the less common ones in other regions. Breakfast, lunch and dinner at Hacienda Benazuza was really great, probably the only place you can try a Ferran Adria breakfast. And to sum it up: the broad range of tastes as you moved for area to area underpinned by easy access to high quality food in every town, at many price points. Spain isn't perfect and there are as many (if not more) bad places to eat than good ones. But compared to many countries good food is easy to find and accessible. IMO the way to spot a good place in Spain is no different to spotting a good place in NZ, UK or anywhere.

Brian - we did our non-professional food tour last year and spent 21 days meadering across Spain. We stayed in a wide range of accommodation from expensive to moderate. Like any country though most towns in Spain will have lots of options and you can pick and choose based on budget. We generally average between €80-100 a night for something that is reasonable. Try lastminute.com, venere.com, or expedia.com are all worth checking (we use a range and compare and contrast). If you want something interesting then: http://www.sawdays.co.uk/accommodation/spain/ is pretty good. For San Sebastian I think Gary Marshall published an almost definitive guide to Tapas bars - search the board and you should find it. They don't do dessert but some of the creations are spectacular.

I also thought I read that when MPW was in residence his restaurant was in another part of the building i.e. not in the Foliage space. Didn't the Dorchester have two top chefs with Ducasse and Byrne up until recently?

Simplicity!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dan the Man. ← I eventually got around to watching it last night. Overall I thought it was very, very close Dan definitely got his act together. I suspect one more lamb chop on Peyton's plate may have swung it to Claire. First and fish course to Dan, but main and dessert to Claire.

Most popular restaurants, brasseries and cafes have seating that is so close and cramped that you are practically sharing a table with your neighbours anyway. It is relatively common for conversations to develop with your neighbours, however it is good to be sensitive not everyone will welcome the chat and Parisians tend to be quietly spoken and good manners are essential. It may be a shorter list if you reverse the question and ask for restaurants where there is space between the tables.

Lipp is indeed a challenge, although we managed to navigate through it and generally ended up having a good meal and sitting at the front (a feat in itself). In-fact out best meal was when I took my 80 year old father there and the staff were fantastic. The three cafes/brasseries in that area Lipp, Flore Deux Magots are all worth a visit if only for a beer or coffee. Lots of history, and quintessentially, modern moneyed, Paris. One of the challenges of putting together any list for a visitor is to balance exceptional food with the history and glamour of Paris. I am quite food obsessed but I appreciate the decor in places like Boffinger and many of the other Flo places. OK the food is only passable but I think you need at least one grand brasserie on any itinerary. I agree with John on Balzar, we popped in on passing on my last trip , and it was a big mistake. The decor isn't stunning and the food was poor. And on railway stations there is always "Le Train Bleu", passable food (if you are lucky) but stunning decor.

I wonder what ex-Jamie Oliver means? He has two restaurant concepts. Fifteen which is a charity that takes kids with problems (homeless, drug problems, etc.) and trains them to work in professional kitchens, the kids are mentored by professional chefs at the restaurants in London, Cornwall, and Amsterdam (I think the one in Melbourne closed). It would be great if it was a graduate of Fifteen who has found a solid career in food. His other concept/chain is "Jamies Italian" which is mass market high street cooking.....not good. The original Jamie connection used to be the River Cafe in London, as there are a number of good chefs who came out of the River Cafe at the same time Jamie was there. I am not certain Jamie was ever really a chef (if so only a very junior one), I understood TV stardom whisked him away from professional cooking at such an early stage of his career he hadn't really established himself.

With Mr Hayler? he also comments on it on this weeks blog.

Simplicity!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Dan the Man. ← Andy Hayler has some good comments on his blog - I liked: "I am guessing that the commis chefs in Clare's kitchen kept their heads down the Monday after the results came out."

I don't understand your point. We all know what the lorries are full off. I believe we all have a fair understanding of the types of restaurant/pub that use them. Thus we understand the nature of the term "home made" in these types of places. What has it got to do with Ramsay, to my knowledge he doesn't use them?

i think it was the irritating voice over that came out with that to be fair. think she's come across quite well, i'm enjoying the precision of her style, sure danny's tastes just fine but it's not exactly technique driven is it! ← Watching Danny this week is a bit like watching slow motion car crash, each day he seems to lose it a bit more, hopefully he will bring it together tonight to make it a close competition.

OK my first meal may be beer, more beer and then a decent curry. But isn't it meant to be a celebration meal not simply a taste of home, or food I missed most whilst I was away. The "art" of the competition is to combine the two concepts....I suspect it lies somewhere in-between this weeks contestants. That said I think I would be equally happy to eat both meals (minus Danny's dessert) but I think Claire's may impress my Mum more, which would make me happy. I believe the competition is for service personnel and their families... a happy significant other is also a key consideration (wow that is a PC sentence).

None. I'm a judge/respondent/whatever for the US:East region. The point is that I'm supposed to have dined well within that region. They also ask me to include two restaurants from outside my region -- this helps establish some basis for comparison, as a statistical matter. But to say the respondents for region X haven't been to region Y is beside the point. ← But I assume you did dine in the two you voted for outside your region?

Has anyone worked with GR to confirm this? For some reason I always thought his on-screen personality was a bit of an act (even the first TV programme about him striving for the 3rd star). t times on "Kitchen Nightmares" I though I saw a chef who liked to develop talent by giving people a chance, coaching them and stretching them as evidenced by people like Wareing, Harnett, Atherton, Sargeant, Zanoni etc. Which does seem at odds to the TV persona. Which is the real Gordon...?

I would say that is its weakness - I am not certain I trust jetset diners more than well grounded locals (there are notable exceptions). From my understanding of how the voting works a panel member uses two out of five of their votes for restaurants out of their home region. Some will know the relative standing of these two restaurants quite well, whilst others may only have sampled one or two within that region. As a result up to 40% of the votes have the potential to be far less accurate than the 60% for their home territory (their area of deep expertise). OK it creates a discussion and some fun in the debate, but it is sad that some really great restaurants miss out to some pretty average ones - or maybe that is just London...!

A list to take with a pinch of salt, which is I think what Jay was saying; it is simply a bit of fun. But is it? The problem with the list is that it reinforces a narrow stereotype. Take Australia as an example. Food journo #1 asks journo #2 where to eat when in Australia: Tetsuyas and Quay. Journo #2 has a short trip to Aus eats in these two plus a couple of others. The cycle goes on. 99% of visitors eat in these two restaurants plus a few other random restaurants, but too random to show up on voting. As Alex mentions this is the same reason for Steirereck's position on the list. OK it is like the "WH Smiths Top 50 albums you must own" innocuous and a bit of fun (but you would never buy Val Doonicans Greatest Hits). So why am I against it? IMO it is too narrow, it limits experimentation. The Fat Duck is the best restaurant in the UK only because 99% of the panel went there (did it have to be within the voting period?), so 99% of visitors will still try to go there because it is #2 on the list. It is self reinforcing. How could it be improved. Simple: publish a top 50 for each sub region, or at least a top 20. It would expand the publics perception of good food in a region, and could broaden peoples/journos experience i.e. instead of having two "must try" restaurants on the list for Australia there are 20, a broader sample size for the next survey, and maybe some more interesting, less predictable choices (of course that would depend on the panel members having actually eaten in 50 or 20 restaurants in each region).

I would say that Tim Haywards comment (up-thread) addresses the difference between pre-prepped and ready made. As I understand it professional kitchens don't cook to order, instead most dishes are pre-prepped to some extent. The only difference here is that the pre-prep work is carried our in Ramsay's offsite/central kitchen rather than in the service kitchen. Top Michelin starred restaurants are similar: they have a series of kitchens including a prep kitchen which take the raw ingredients and then feed the service kitchen with the pre-prepped components of the final dishes (some of which will be complete in their own right). This is very different from buying-in ready meals that simply need to be plated and that you (or your staff) had no involvement in the preparation. Ramsay's team take the raw ingredients - he owns the all the kitchens and employs all the staff - and preps then for his pubs. IIRC Delia buys her ready made ingredients from supermarkets, using products that have been manufactured by large commercial food companies in factories, and then assembles them into meals. To me that is a fundamental difference.

I think the argument about the differences between "ready made" and "pre-prepped in an offsite kitchen" have been well made in previous posts. I do remember the recent episode were he rejected the "ready made" boil in a bag lamb shank. IIRC it had an un-refrigerated shelf life of 18 months (I wonder what chemical concoction achieves that). I would assume the sous-vide preps from his kitchens have a shelf like measured in hours, possibly days. to me that is a completely different proposition. I am certain most of Ramsay's target market do appreciate the fundamental difference, and will still eat at the pubs/restaurants. And if anything a bit of controversy probably won't harm Kitchen Nightmares of the F-Word. My guess is that 90% of his restaurant/pub customers are no longer the same audience as those for his TV programmes.

We are heading to Fowey for the long weekend and have already booked into Nathan Outlaw for our Saturday night dinner. Are there any other recommendations? The only other place I have seen on the board is "The King of Prussia" (Slacker '07). Thanks in anticipation.

Scott - isn't this the fundamental flaw in your argument? GRH is the business, operating units within that business include the pubs and GR Logistics. Thus control/ownership remains in the business of GRH. Brake Bros on the other hand has a commercial relathionship with its customers, and the customers only "control" is the decision to purchase, there is no owbership unless they buy shares. Another flaw in your argument is to ignore the impact of scale. Brakes is enormous (nearly £2 billion turnover) with extended lines of control, a large number of product lines and a myriad of customers. GRH is relatively small (TO £41 million) and GRL has a limited number of customers. Ownership and relatively small scale must enable GRH to tightly control quality and ensure the product cooked in their kitchens (at GRL) and served in their pubs meets their brand standard?

Hang on. If you outsource anything you no longer have direct control of it, you contract it out and someone else controls quality etc. You pay the bills and the supplier performs to the contract/SLA's etc. In this case Ramsay owns and "controls" GR Logistics. It isn't outsourced it is very much part of the overall company GR Holdings - as are the pubs restaurants etc. OK they sell to other companies - good for them - it doesn't mean Ramsay doesn't have any less control. The difference between this and Brakes? Easy the users don't own the facility/business. Brakes will make a margin on their food, the restaurant will then need to make their 70% GP on this. Profit on profit. I assume GR Logistics isn't a stand-alone business therefore supplies the restaurants in the Group at cost. A very different proposition to Brakes. They also have a centralised HR department that provides services to the 900 staff in London. Does this destroy the character of the individual restaurants. Do the restaurants suffer because a central team handles recruiting?

I wonder if Jay (Rayner) is a judge this year? I seem to remember he penned some good articles about last years judging process and the attempts that had been made to broaden the list.

I thought it was quite a weird article, obviously a slow news day. I know places like the Crowne Casino (in Melbourne) already do this, with lots of top name chefs including Nobu already established and Ramsay opening soon. Isn't the same true for Las Vegas and Dubai?

...and what about that Finn chap in Leeds, or Ducasse in Paris. Do all their restaurants work completely independently or do they consolidate production of certain dishes in a primary kitchens..? The public needs to know. Let the fearless reporters from the Sun expose this scandal, despatch them immediately for an in-depth investigation (all on expenses of course). Remember to eat both lunch and dinner at each restaurant to really check the quality, ideally more than once.