LizzyWizzy

Is it just me or is this week very very disappointing so far? The only thing remotley exciting is Marcus slamming them both and them taking it like little commis chefs, grow some balls gents!!!!!!! Have they not both got stars and voices?

Very well done to him, also a fantastic event last night, well done to all involved!!!

That would be quite tricky as boiling point was at hospital road?

not wanting to get off topic, but there are people in every warp of life who are not liked by everyone!! Gordon got to the top of his tree before he thought about doing anything else, you cannot knock this!!, Tom Aikens prime example of somebody doing it the wrong way! Yes he has fallen out with a few ex employees, very common in the chef world, for some sad reason i cannot give!! but look at the ones who have stayed with him, mark askew probably being the prime example in the back ground, i am sure he has not been short of offers over the years, yes gordon does pay well to, no i dont work for him!!! There is the argument he has sold himself out, and when he was younger he was very against it as was Marco I am sure it is very differnet working for the Gordon Ramsay machine now then when he was iin the kitchen all day doing service The bones of the story are he has got to the top, and now tried to make some money, because there is definatly no money in a 40 cover restaurant, if he hadnt expanded, people would be asking why not, he couldnt win The question of how much money he has made and how well he is doing now would be a totally different topic, i m, sure a very good one for discussion Mark Sargent has always helped with books etc, he was always gordons boy, as to how much now i could not comment Back in the day Gordon had a massive respect from all the team, junior and senior, unlike a certain TA

Visiting relatives on the island, had lunch at the hambrough, all in all a little disappointing no parking outside, or no car park and a little tricky to find around the road system in Ventnor, got in the pay and display around the corner started with a couple of drinks in the bar a 250ml glass of sauvignon blanc for £6.50, a 200ml fruit juice for £5, i never really have a problem with price, but just seems a little silly, pleasent view, nice glass of wine, but no atmosphere, some nibbles would of been nice, a couple of people working who seemed a little under pressure when 2 tables arrived for lunch at the same time, we ordered in the bar and moved across the corridor to the restaurant squid ink bread sticks with salt, crispy and salty, amuse bouche of butternut soup and truffle, lacking flavour, to much truffle oil, very poor, bread was nice and hot, mini foccacia, walnut and white rolls, nice buttter, second round of bread ,must of includede some rogue foccacia from the day before, as it was like a frisbee Starters, haddock veloute, poached egg, nice flavour, maybe expected a little bit of haddock, but there was none, pigeon with foie gras pumpkin risotto cake, watercress sauce, pigeon and foie nicely cooked, pumpkin risotto cake after butternut amuse, not much imagination in my opinion, watercress puree/sauce lost, no flavour Mains- slow cooked lamb, savoy cabbage, liver, and carrot puree, lamb nice enough, good flavour, no starch on the plate, carrot puree just tasted of anise Cod- nicely cooked, stale tasting saute potatoes, nothing else very memorable on the plate, there was 9 other people in the dining room, the ladies that do lunch were saying its the busiest its ever been at a lunchtime, may explain the stale tasting potato, you would get at a dodgy pub on a sunday Desserts- chocolate souffle, very wobbly with an ice cream that was a flouesent orange and tasted of flavour compound, very poor in fact shocking Bannana parfait, far to frozen and icy, would of needed an electric drill to get into it Sevice was plesent enough, glasses nice, crockery chunky and porcelin, no finesse but overall the meal was probably the poorest i have had in a michelin star restaurant, robert was there cooking as i saw him in the restaurant on my way to the ladies, past the boxes and bbins on the floor outside an open door, in my opinion a very strange set up from where his career has taken him before, I just cannot understand michelin and the aa when places like marc at fraiche and anthonys have to wait years, or are still waiting and the Hambrough is awarded a star within 6 months, there is absolutly no way they could be awarded a star on what i recieved on my visit

new pub mentioned on here called the Cowdrey, not been so cannot comment, looks nice though

in all honesty it is unlikely, by the time you got out of passport control it would be 9:15pm would be too late to get into London and back, Croydon the nearest town has one good restaurant but is is a warzone in the evening and Brighton would be 10pm before you arrived so just that bit too far to get there and back. ← whats the one good one in Croydon? ← Cassoulet, but i think your be cutting it fine, thats another 25-30 mins from reigate avoid gravetye if i was you!

Lots of flavour repeats for a tasting menu, fennel 3 times coffee twice plus coffee for afters, not so sure i d enjoy that!! Just seen and beetroot twice

Went to Maze last night, got to say best meal i have had in london for a long time food wise, they were very busy great atmoshphere, service a little slow at times, good look around the kitchen, my only real complaint would be the room was very dark in the restaurant, had the British menu blt and got to say exceptional, full report to come

i d hurry up Aiden may not be there for long!!!!!!

The chocolates are water based ganache no cream and are bought in from Damien Allsop

So i see that Tom Aikens has gone into liquidation, and still trading, bought out by friends, business people, what ever you want to call them, no real change in the restaurant and who normally loses out, all the suppliers? Does anybody know anymore about this, i ve seen it so many times like when Burton Race did it at the Landmark, his suppliers lost out he went to France for a year got paid, came back and opened a new restaurant I m sure Tom did not want this, but it irriatates me how people can just re open there business with a different name i love Toms food its a real shame, but there must be something seriously wrong with the prices he charges, when he always use to be full lunch and dinner, has the credit crunch got him?

None of them, you always need to find out for yourself!!

Sorry but some one has to say it What a load of BOLLOCKS!!!!

I heard a rumour Elisha has gone to Pennyhill park as Michael Wignalls sous chef, please do not quote me on that though!

Went for dinner last night, started with a lovely bombay and tonic in the bar then moved through for dinner about quarter past seven A few tasters to start, the ham was amazing and a tuile rolled and fiiled with tomato, great, a gaspachio was nothing to special, I must say the presentation table of slicer, breads and oils etc was beautiful. By far the best bread i have had in London since early days at Tom Aikens massive selection, multi seed probably being the best, Three of us for dinner ate off the ALC Foie gras brulle apple and peanut, tasted nice but no definative flavours I had basically a rabbit foie gras and truffle ballontine, large portion, under seasoned, looked nice, rabbit sinew around the outside, served fridge cold, one friend had tandori lobster ravioli, nicely spiced, other had foie gras 2 ways, again massive portion, fridge cold no seasoning, cherries and muscat grapes cut through foie nice, it was at about the right temperature to eat when he could not eat anymore the portion was so large Next was L'Escaoutoun, a signiture dish apparently a little taster of cooked down chicken stock, flour, oaty type of thing, that looked like baby food, it was not cooked out properly and i can honestly say it was the most DISGUSTING thing i have ever tasted, i was in so much shock had to have a second spoonful to really believe how bad it was Mains- Friends had Pork assiette, very very good flavours, pork 5 or 6 ways, beautifully presented, other had veal with tuna paste, 2 massive cutlets did not finish even with sharing, As i missed out on pork i had the beef fillet cooke in chicory butter,was it? who knows? it was very aged on the verge of being too aged almost a little sour, perfectly cooked served with some little onion rings under seasoned celeriac puree, grated tonca, which went very well with puree and bitter coffee sauce, a nice piece of cooked foie, it was also the end of the fillet, i would expect a perfectly cut centre piece of fillet paying these prices(£10 supplement too) Very full now but onto desserts, pre was the best part of the meal, lemon grass cream strawberry compote and almond macaroon, worked perfectly together I had a very chocolaty gancache with a perfectly churned and flavoured raspberry sorbet, but could not find the galangal brulee in there anywhere Figs for one other and 100% chocolate dessert for the other, to be honest i was so full by then, i did not really enjoy, some petit fours nicely presented A very good Condrieu 2005 and Vosne-romanee2002 helped it all down Nice little touch of a printed menu of what you ate given as a leaving gift Overall, beautiful room and atmosphere, service very good, restaurant manager Dominic who spent many years with Gordon, food a real mix, i really could not understand the portion sizes and how some things got out of the kitchen with a reputation like she has, she was not in the kitchen last night, Interesting aswell they are shut Sat and Sun, so she can be at the Paris restaurant on a sat night, Crockery and cutlery unbelievable, especially dessert, i could not even start to comprehend the start up costs!!! Would like to go back, aslong as someone else was paying!!!!

Hi everyone Could i have some suggestions for a 30th birthday dinner in London, first saturday in December for about 12 people, somewhere with a bit of atmosphere and nice food, spend for food about £30 Having a bit of an eating out week, taking him to a couple of nice places, this is more for his friends so its more about the social side but still want to eat something half decent, any type of cuisine, all suggestions welcome Thanks in advance Liz

Do not try and confuse me with all this present tense operative!!!! I am niether of the above just offering my opinion on a matter which have some very good sources of information If i m an ex employee you sound like the managing director!!! ← Right. so friend of disgruntled ex employee. meh, much the same thing. ← definatly not, but your obviously convinced!!!

Do not try and confuse me with all this present tense operative!!!! I am niether of the above just offering my opinion on a matter which have some very good sources of information If i m an ex employee you sound like the managing director!!!

not sure you make much sense. you've only heard horrible things about them to work for, and in the same breath you concede that attract, retain some good chefs while paying them well. confused much? ← i have heard many a bad thing about them as a company, also where in my statement did i say they retain chefs, i dont think so ? 4 chefs in 2 years at the Orrery, the supposed flag ship or was until it lost its michelin star!! If a chef gets offered say £80,000 -£90,000 they will obviously think about taking the job, just because they pay well does not nessercerrily mean its a happy ship! It will be intresting to see where there new band of chefs take the company and how long they last If they are such a good company why was almost every chef in London and every agency in the country approached for one of there last positions, surely if they had a good reputation, there would be a que of chefs at the door for that salary, also i know a lot of people who will not deal with them now to there lack of proffessionalism in the recruitment process!

Absolutly no chance, i would be very interested to know where you have found they are a very good company to work for? i have only heard not very good things They are attracting and employing some good chefs, but they pay silly salaries, probably more than you would imagine!!! how much do you think a head chef should get paid for a 100 cover restaurant and small deli type thing?

Could you tell me how adey,or am i being totally unreasonable?

sour grapes? ← not at all, i m a lady from the south and i said i respect nigel, i just think the whole programme is a bit of a joke! another topic for discussion the food this week for both chefs is a totally different league to last week?

What an outrage!!!!! I really respect nigel hawarth as a chef and his food is great, but how did he win tonight? Modern British, not really, was it not obvious from the first comments he was going to win? Anthony looked gutted and rightly so, Matthew Fort, probably the most respected critic in the trade, knows what he is talking about, but the others ? What right does Oliver Peyton have to judge this competition when one of his restaurants has been fined for mice infestation? does he really know what he is talking about? Sorry for my rant but it just really pissed me off tonight, excuse the language, as mentioned before in this thread, the judges obviously knew who was who and it was clearly rigged I wonder what food the top chefs attending the dinner would rather eat? Obviously i was not there to taste but............

Surely people with ambition strive to be the best at what they do, wether it be in a kitchen or not, i know i do, This week is a totally differnet league to last week, maybe they can both go through at the expense of steve terry there is now something modern adn exciting going on from both guys