PhilD

I like "Lantarna" (Charlotte Place?) which is good walk down Oxford Street but worth it as it does great Australian breakfasts - great fresh ingredients and interesting dishes that owe a lot to the chef Bill Grainger. Flat White (Berwick Street) in Soho is another good option, although their food choice is limited. The coffee in both places is really, really good, which is key for me. Obviously if you want to stay English you could drop down to Piccadilly and head to the Wolseley - although given the rest of the itinary this could be overkill.

I would say the answer to that is in previous posts. Foods that lend themselves to prior preparation are fine, but lots of foods don't so you need a chef in the kitchen to do the final prep and grill. A good food pub will understand this. However there are lots of pubs don't have "real" chefs, but you know which ones they are and no doubt you avoid them. In effect the boundaries of this approach establish themselves - good pubs with good food have lots of customers and make good money. Push past the boundary and the food quality declines, as do the profits.

Isn't the problem with this debate is that we are lumping all gastro-pubs into a single bucket. I too love my local, it has a good chef, uses local products etc. But to me the Ramsay pub experience is different, in effect I would be buying the brand promise of Ramsay i.e. good quality, well cooked, consistent food. Ramsay using a high tech central kitchen, to service his own restaurants, strikes me as a good idea especially as his restaurants are all in London (it would be different if it was a unrelated third party). My guess is this debate would have taken a different direction if it had been based on a positive press release from GRH extolling the virtues and benefits of this system. We may all then have rushed off to try the product and assess whether it did indeed deliver, and whether the central kitchen resulted in better outcomes on the plate than 99% of pubs that serve food.

How about Maze (not Maze Grill, it is very different), Wild Honey, or Corrigans. All close to your hotel.

We ate there on Easter Friday for dinner. It was our third visit and I felt it has slipped (last visit 6 months before), I used to love it so it was pretty disappointing. Hopefully it was simply a menu that didn't correspond with my tastes. From memory four or five choices for starter: soup, mussels, snails and chorizo ragout, rough pork pate. For mains: roast chicken, lamb rump with minted peas, steak and bernaise sauce, grey mullet on a bed of squid ink risotto, and leek tart. And for dessert a choice of three including cheese and a hazelnut tart Overall nothing really jumped out to me from the menu - everything seemed a bit boring and predictable. My pate was fine and my partners mussels were very good. Her mullet was again good, but the risotto lacked flavour (not enough ink?). My lamb as very underdone, purple not pink, and quite boring. The hazelneut tart was great. The wine list is very good especially their bin ends, we had a great slightly aged Charles Melton Nine Popes for £34. The 3 course menu is approx £27. I can't remember if it was always such low price - I have a suspicion he has changed the menu in order to cook for a price point, with more basic food/techniques on offer. Maybe this is why it didn't seem as good as it used to be. I am not going to cross it off the list yet as it was so good, hopefully I will enjoy it more next time.

I think I understand your concept of but you have chosen a label that has a lot of negative connotations and therefore the label gets in the way of the argument. Here is an extract from Wikipedia: "In psychology and psychiatry, excessive narcissism is recognized as a severe personality dysfunction or personality disorder. The terms narcissism, narcissistic, and narcissist are often used as pejoratives, denoting vanity, conceit, egotism or simple selfishness. Applied to a social group, it is sometimes used to denote elitism or an indifference to the plight of others."

Another to add to the list is my local suppler Great Western Wines. I tend to visit their shop in Bath but they have a good web site and cases are shipped free of charge. A lot of their business is wit restaurants and they seem to supply some pretty good ones.

Mrs Brown - another mis-informed person. There is bad veal and foie gras production as there is bad chicken, beef and pork production. There is equally good production of veal and foie gras as there is good production of chicken etc etc. I assume the Presidential banquets would buy high quality artisanal produce i.e. well sourced and well produced. As someone up-thread says these attacks are as much "class/privilege/money" driven as welfare driven. If it was really animal welfare driven then it would by targeted against KFC and their ilk. But I assume that would generate more police activity...!

But not dinner - it is a different proposition.

However, it is still only a short walk past some good sights and interesting streets to Le Comptoir de Relais. We ate lunch there just before Christmas and it was as good as we remembered, we bracketed our meal there with some other top spots like Spring and Le Cinq and I felt it held up well (obviously different style and price point but still good in its category). I especially enjoy their charcuterie plates - although I suspect they are designed for two! Do remember that the restaurant has two formats. Monday to Friday dinner is a formal bistro setting with a set meal, linen on the table and only half the covers of the lunch and weekend dinner Brasserie format. This is more casual. Dishes from the bistro format do cross to the brasserie format but it is a different menu. For The bistro format you need to stay at the hotel or book a few months in advance (or ring on the day), the brasserie format is first come first served

I thought this years challenge/objective was going to compromise the quality of cooking and I think the first week illustrates this. The "taste of home" produced for a broad range of palates (private's to generals) is going to have to balance innovation and top ingredients with tastes that the "man in the street" likes. GP seemed to deliver to this brief whilst DC seemed to deliver 2 star food which I assume is similar to his restaurants standard menu. I thought GP never really got out of 3rd gear (apart from the fish course) whilst DC seemed to be pushing hard. As a result did we really see what GP can do? I am worried the other heats will also deliver throttled back cooking as a result of the brief. Last year most of the chefs had GBM menus in their restaurants (I tried to visit all the SW and Welsh entries which was insightful). Assume they do the same this year I wonder which menu I would like to pay good money for? I also suspect I would probably opt for GP's standard menu to experience him at his best rather than this compromised one.

I note that Andy Hayler mentions on his blog that he has been filming for a new series which should air in September.

hmm... works in cambridge does not a cambridge graduate make (unless i am mistaken) ← Tony, both you and Saltandwoodsmoke miss my comment that this is a stereotype. The impression I get is that the production company is setting the "tension" in the competition this week based on these stereotypes. I am certain that both DC and GP don't really fit into these pigeonholes and I am finding it a bit irritating they are portrayed in this way. Jenni Bond may have a lesser role, which is good, but the set-up of the competitive tension seems more obvious and forced than in previous series, which is not so good.

hmm... i though he came over as a bit of an arsehole ← I am starting to worry about TV production stereotyping. The chippy brummie versus the intellectual Cambridge man - I suspect rehearsed lines and editing to achieve the effect. I realise this staging isn't new but it seems far to obvious this time. I also feel Glynn isn't trying that hard - OK great fish course but the other two dishes seem a bit weak. Is it a "planned" handover...? I also saw Hospitality Action has a GBM dinner to raise funds - GBM Cchefs Dinner

You're right, this seems to be a very common name among castillian asadores. My mistake. ← Yes there is one in Palma and I have eaten there. It is very traditional, with lots of dark wood. The cooking is really old fashioned, we went for a long Easter Sunday lunch and were surrounded by multi-generational families enjoying a true feast. Don't expect culinary fireworks but do go if you want real food. We didn't eat in Tristan - we looked and thought it looked but is seemed very expensive. Follow Vikings advice 1. Do hire a car 2. Go to El Raco D'en Teix in Deia Deia is a really pretty (a far bettter place to stay as well) and El Raco is (IMO) the best on the island. We had a really fantastic meal there last year - it is small, but great food.

I was going to add a post along the same lines. My first ALC dinner was pretty poor and I vowed not to return. However, the positive comments on the board made me think I had been on an off night, so I tried it again. Sadly, I came away disappointed. But is it my imagination that whenever I read great reviews it is usually for the set menu that is only served at lunchtime. Is the food different at lunch? Or is the quality/price ratio better, thus making it a better experience? However, I suspect that is coincidence, and really it is simply a matter of personal tastes, ZKG is one of those restaurants that polarise opinion. Some love and enjoy it, for others it doesn't appeal. And there is nothing wrong with that.

Of course there are exceptions to following the traditional route into professional cooking. Heston is a good example, Rick Stein is another. Maybe Mat will be another

My advice is to head to London. IMO I don't think there is any other town which gets near it for the breadth and depth of food. The UK has a two categories of town - London and the rest. OK lots of places have a few good options, but most simply don't have the variety and strength in depth to keep me interested. I find the majority of the restaurants outside of London are quite abysmal. Yes, there are exceptions, and these exceptions are worth travelling for (The Star, Purnells, Sat Baines, Martin Wishart, Margot's etc - I am tempted to go on because it isn't a very long list). But to be honest once you have tried the best 2 or 3 in an area the others tend to be so far behind not to be worthwhile. I suspect my post will be contentious but can anyone really name a town and list 10 to 20 restaurants at any price point (within a 30 minute drive/bus ride) that are really good (i.e. worth going to 3 to 5 times a year)? I too returned to the UK after 15 years absence, I had read how the quality of food had improved dramatically, and how the UK now had really great food options. I am afraid these articles were delusional. I now wish I had moved to London rather than the country. Don't make the mistake I did - head for London.

You are correct I mis-remembered.

Well she was pretty cold when we ate there last year - it wasn't good FOH service at all. Problem is that is all I really remember a year later. However, I do plan to give it another try because I seem to be in the minority.

I thought Steven was runner up? James Nathan was the winner, and I read he has served time at Gidleigh Park, Stockcross, La Gavroche and most recently Bentleys. He takes up a full time position as a junior sous chef at the Bath Priory (now under Michael Caines) in the near future. I guess he wouldn't have had doors open for him so easily without MC, but it does look like he has put in the hard yards over the last 12 months. times article

Gary are you certain this figure is correct I thought it was generally in the 60's. The Baldwin paper Jackal shares specifies cooking times that are mainly in the mid 50's. I can understand your concern if your experience of this is at 39 as it is quite a good temperature to culture micro-organisms.

My read was it was 30 to 40 people over a three week period, one report said there as not pattern of server, table number etc so that points to a period of time, and thus a virus/carrier rather than a product. I would also say that as SV cooking often isolates the portion/batch from other portions/batches it seems unlikely there is cross contamination between portions/batches and therefore unlikely to be a causal agent in 30 to 40 people falling ill.

Creativity is in the eye of the beholder - an observation, based on Jadis in Pierre's list. It may be "truly creative" for Paris but I found it to be quite average compared to the UK. The UK has seen the early gastro pub/St John influence become common/mainstream, and Jadis seems to be in this genre. Thus it is tricky to recommend without knowing a persons experience.

Or maybe a more obvious reason. From how the symptoms are described it sounds like a Norovirus (or as it is known in the UK the Winter Vomiting Virus) which is highly contageous and can easily be passed very easily from person to person as well as by ingredients like oysters. As someone can be contageous from the time they feel ill until three days after complete recovery it can be tricky to isolate the source. As you can see from this CDC article it is thought to be the source of many mass "food poisoning" episodes (i.e. cruise ships) and because of the extremely small amount of virus required to spread the illness it can be spread very easily and inadvertently. I hope they find the cause and get back to business ASAP and they don't suffer long term PR damage.