Pam Brunning

Go for it Patrick - give them a ring and make sure they have plenty of staff on for Saturday lunch - the food is great - better than you will get in most places in London! Pam

Well thanks to all those that looked at this post. All 200 of you!! I can now report that despite no other interest in the place we have now been. I did ring with the idea of booking on Monday evening but the young lady on reception said they had very few booking for lunch next day so I decided not to bother. I don’t like booking on a first visit, it makes life easer if we don’t like the look of the menu or the place and decide to walk out! Arriving at 12 o’clock at this palatial pile in the Buckinghamshire countryside the maitre d apologised profusely and explained that they were full. He then suggested we go and sit in the library and study the menu and they would set up another table for us. I had visions of a dark corner but no, there are no dark corners in this beautiful restaurant. The other half decided to go for Head Chef Daniel Richardson's special seasonal 3 -course set lunch with coffee & Hartwell fudge for £19.95 per person including service. I decided to go for a selection from the standard lunch menu - 2 courses at £22.95, 3 courses at £29.95 including coffee & Hartwell fudge and service. We were glad we stayed. Canapés were a very thin roll of chorizo filled with a cream cheese and small squares of ham galantine. My lunch was excellent, my galantine of rabbit set with what tasted like a Sauterne jelly was a good balance of flavours. Rump of lamb was cooked just as requested medium rare and served with a red wine jus and very good roasted vegetables - they even managed to get the aubergine right, it still had some bite and was not soggy with fat. My chocolate dome was superb, a dark rich chocolate case under which was a rich soft, melt in the mouth consistency, mousse matched well with a lightly flavoured mint ice cream. Strong coffee and Hartwell fudge was good. The bread was also good. My other half was not so lucky with the spring set lunch. His courgette flower stuffed with salmon mousse looked a picture but he thought the mouse was rather dry and the sauce was too acidic with lemon despite the accompanying finely diced carrot. His main course was his best, a moist, flavoursome chicken breast with fondant potatoes and baby vegetables and plenty of good sauce. Why must they all do it? Chef hasn’t learnt that Tarte Titan is best made with a short pastry that stays crisp and caramelises around the edges with the fruit juices. In this one the plumbs in it were sour and the puff pastry was soggy and tough. We drank a bottle of New Zealand Crossroads Gewürztraminer 2005 - the best Gewurzt I have had from outside Alsace. Obviously it is worth paying that bit extra for the main menu. At least you can see what you are paying for in a place like this. A stunning, well maintained house and park with a beautifully appointed dining room and extremely attentive staff. It was pleasing to see so many men fittingly dressed for such gracious surroundings. There were only two scruffy ones lacking jacket and tie despite their partners being smartly dressed. You could pay a lot more in one of the grotty gastropubs for the pleasure of eating off the table with no cloth or side plates. Bring back elegant dining!

Upmarket bistro at the sumptuous MO - oh how hath the mighty fallen and we can all see what happens eventually to absentee chefs - reference GR! ← To be fair Pam, I reckon it will be more than just a simple bistro serving ciabatta sarnies etc. We are talking a three star chef here, who I believe deserves a bit more respect. I don't think the place should be knocked, even before its opened. Seems the British way though doesn't it. If its H.Bs take on a 'Bouchon' set up, then it will be grand. ← Well said. I also don't understand the GR comment. His food standards are good across all his restaurants. OK many people don't find his style exciting, or innovative, or to their taste (but lots of people do). But he does deliver to that style in a consistent manner across his brand. Divorce your personal taste from your judgement and then assess how well he does as an absentee chef. OK GR has some financial challenges, but given the scale of his expansion it was always going to be risky, a risk exacerbated by the recession. But he is still in business, and reports predict a return to healthy profits. So if HB expands like GR, keeps his house style and product as consistent (no, I didn't say the same as GR), and makes as much cash; Is there a problem? ← No problem if standards are maintained but from what I have read recently they haven’t been with GR. Let’s face it the Fat Duck is pure theatre, some of his dishes are brilliant, but blink and you miss them. Still I suppose some people do go to the same play over and over again. It will be interesting to see if he comes up with something really different. I just lament the breaking up of the superb team that was at the MO.

Upmarket bistro at the sumptuous MO - oh how hath the mighty fallen and we can all see what happens eventually to absentee chefs - reference GR!

That sounds good. I made a big pot of raspberry yesterday with raspberry vodka and freeze dried raspberries with milk/whipping cream 50- 50. It is great, really creamy and soft scope straight out of the freezer.

I have several large aluminium pots that I have had for years and use for boiling up bones for stock. I do worry about using them sometimes, maybe that is why my brain is going!! If you put thin aluminium utensils, such as measuring jugs, in the dishwasher they soon become holey.

Hear, hear. It is offical HB is taking over the Foliage site. A sad day for London dining!!

Has anyone eaten at Hartwell House recently. I have heard their young chef Daniel Richardson is good. Any comments?

Sigh.. a pain I know only too well living in the.. cultural hotbed of Stoke-on-Trent ← Here are the photos http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...lbum&album=6663

Well this should be interesting we are hoping to go tomorrow. We went to The Sportsman last week and the service was terrible! See my post on The Sportsman. ← Pam - it won't be that bad. Interested in your comments on the food. Do get the family to save space for Brittany's desserts: although the deconstructed Tiramasu my partner tried on our last visit tasted better smoosched together (re-constructed). ← You were right, we were not disappointed. The food was very good and they had sorted the service, the sisters? banished? Brittany was very attentive, they had one chap behind the bar and Guy was bringing food out as well, It was a good family atmosphere, mind you they only had 10 in for lunch, it could have got fraught if more had turned up. They are doing a good job, good luck to them.

Was it similar to THIS? If so, it really wasn't airy/fluffy mousse-like when I had it either. It had more of a pudding (in the American sense of the word)/ganache consistency and weight. I thought it was excellent. But, I didn't for a second think of it as "diet food." ← Phil Harris (joint owner) kindly rang me this evening and we spent a long time discussing my posting. He apologised profusely for the service but thought my other comments were unfair. Thinking it through it nearly all comes back to the lack of service. We would normally have ordered three courses, the main reason I didn’t was because one of our guests - my daughter’s partner is a very light eater and I knew he would only have a main course and I find it embarrassing if my guest has to sit and wait for me and my husband to eat a starter. If when we ordered and decided to have bread the staff had pointed out that there was no charge for the bread if we had a starter as well- just one evidently - I would of happily paid the extra for the home churned butter, to pay extra for the bread and the extra for the butter (£1.20) was getting a bit much. If the staff had been about I would have asked for side plates, I am sorry but I don’t like wiping my bread around a bare table trying to spread the very hard butter. Phil assures me it is good Normandy butter but at the temperature it didn’t come through as such. If the staff had been about I would have requested more cream and finished my pud, although heavy it was obviously made with quality chocolate. No it didn’t look like yours ‘ulterior epicure’ if I could find out how to load photos on e gullet I would show you! (E gullet help doesn’t tell you.) I do still think the puds are too expensive though. As for my comment which Phil didn’t like about ‘a very basic pub’ I was referring to the atmosphere, which I have no problem with, not the food which is far, far superior to the majority of pubs.

Well this should be interesting we are hoping to go tomorrow. We went to The Sportsman last week and the service was terrible! See my post on The Sportsman.

Cool, drain off into a glass bowl and use a bulb baster to draw the stock off from the bottom.

What has happened at The Sportsman we lunched there two years ago and enjoyed a terrific dining experience. Finding ourselves in the area again, with our daughter and her partner, we decided another visit was a must. When I booked the day before I was told they were full from 1pm onwards - so booked for 12.15pm. When we arrived they were about a third full. Having had a somewhat fractious morning we immediately ordered a bottle of Prosecco (£16.95) to relax with while we considered the blackboard menu. The bottle appeared on the bar, opened, with four glasses about fifteen minutes later, as our tongues were hanging out my husband went to fetch it, - well it is a pub. ‘Oh I was going to bring it in a minute,’ said the young waitress. We decided on a main course and dessert as I remembered that the puds here were super. We ordered a platter of their home made bread, £1 a head, with fresh olives. We were disappointed to see that the butter was not their own freshly churned as it used to be. When we asked why we were told that would be £1.50 extra! Some plates on which to spread the excellent bread with the hard, inferior butter would have been appreciated but with no staff around we used our paper napkins on the bare table. Monkshill Farm pork belly and apple sauce with creamed potatoes at £15.95 looked, and from the appreciative comments, was delicious with a slab of crisp crackling. Seared thornback ray, brown butter and cockles with a sherry vinegar dressing at £17.95 was also pronounced excellent, the fish perfectly cooked and a good combination. My roast cod on a bed of asparagus was topped with white crab meat and served with a delicious crab bisque - £16.95 - it was superb. The seafood came with a dish of creamed and new potatoes. Eventually the plates were cleared but with no sign of a dessert menu appearing I went to collect it myself. With desserts at £6.95 each the men decided to pass. Our daughter chose the lemon tart with meringue ice cream which was very good with a thin crisp crust and a creamy filling. I chose the dark chocolate mousse cake with raspberries and Jersey cream. The raspberries were good, the cake was a heavy stodge and the cream just a slick on the plate. I needed more cream but as usual the staff had done a disappearing act. I left the remainder deciding it wasn’t worth getting fat for but finding someone to do the bill did provided another bit of exercise. It eventually arrived with the legend ‘Service not included’ scrawled all over it. I felt like pointing out that was painfully obvious! They never did get more than half full, clearly they have dire staff problems and limit bookings accordingly but it appears they still miscalculate. The bill, at £106.65, with only one dish each that got top marks, was excessive for what is a very basic pub. Their success has obviously gone to their head and they are getting away with murder. And no, I didn’t leave anything for service.

All I can say is 'Ha, ha to personal!' With all his commitments he will never be there. If I spent a lot of money on a work of art (another ha, ha!) I would expect it to be painted by the master not one of his students. The same if I pay a lot of money for a meal I expect the master in the kitchen, not just his students knocking out the food.

I sour my own cream - whipping or double. Just put ½pt in a jug add 1 tsp of lemon juce, stir and leave to stand in a warm room, covered, for several hours. Give it a stir and you will find it is realy thick and delicious.

What a tragedy, one of the best restaurants in London now going to be ruined. All HB will do is put his name to it then bomb off around the world and leave someone else to create his gimmicks. I bet Chris Tombling and his team are gutted!

Can anyone tell me where I can get tinned white peaches in London or on line?

If you are in London and don't mind an early morning or late night why don’t you have a look in Nine Elms fruit and veg market. In the Growers Pavilion you will find R&G Stevens herb stand. They have a fantastic range and you can buy any quantity from supermarket size packs upwards. If you walk into the market it is free, if you want to drive in they charge £4. My daughter says get there between 12.30am and 5.30am their stock is fresh in every night . Check out www.rgherbs.com

Good girl! You'll always be a member of my club. We're seriously considering burgers at Smokey's here in Seoul sometime soon. ← I'm planning on having homemade potato chips and a milkshake in the Philippines! If I can get to the right places, that is (I have a list and made my very own google map!). BTW, the area around Sisowat Quay still seems like a bit of a mess. We didn't spend much time around there, so no coffee for us! Both PP and SR were quite dusty. I think being exposed to all the fine dust led to the nasty case of bronchitis I had. Next time I go to Cambodia, I'm bringing masks to wear! (surgical type, not Halloween type) ← Hey, did anyone knowingly eat rat while in Cambodia? The following is from an article I have just had published about the consumption of rats around the world. Just thought you might be interested. “In the 1980’s the University of Reading ran a summer school for Rat Catchers. Students from around the globe spent twelve weeks learning the basics of rodent control in the class room and visiting farms around the district baiting, catching and trapping the rodents. They then returned home to pass on their skills to the locals. Today talents for catching them live are much in demand. In late 2008, Reuters reported that the price of rat meat had quadrupled in Cambodia creating a hardship for the poor who could no longer afford it. Cambodia also exports about a metric ton of rats daily to Vietnam as food. Flooding in the Mekong Delta is forcing rats to higher ground making them easier to catch. The rise in price has encouraged a return to rat catching, children are entering the labour market for rat catchers and are offering rat meat in the local markets.”

At last a pub worth returning to. Not since our visit to The Sportsman the other year have I had a pub experience worth repeating. We went to The No Body Inn the other week it was awful but this time we struck lucky. I must admit due very much to e gullet, you have all been going on about the great £10 lunches at The Hand & Flowers in Marlow for a while, well we eventually made it and I have to write about it. I have written about The No Body but it won’t encourage you to go there so there is no point in putting it on here! The H&F is a Greene King I see, opened in 2005 by Tom and Beth Kerridge it gained a Michelin star in its first year. Divided into three eating areas which were obviously the original, public, private and snug bars it oozes old world charm with beamed ceilings and heavy oak scrubbed tables. We booked fortunately, by 1.15pm they were turning walkins away, one party of eight was most upset. It was a warm spring day so some were offered the use of the garden which they readily accepted. The only problem was that this put the kitchen under pressure to say nothing of the waiting staff who were running in and out and the service got slower and slower. We sipped a glass of Prosecco while we scanned the wine list and enjoyed an appetizer of deliciously crisp white bait with a Tabasco dip. Food was quickly ordered as there were only two courses to choose from on the £10 menu, the wine took a little longer but as usual after going through the whole list we settled for a carafe of house red - a vin de pays. If any foodie pub can’t offer a good house wine it is not worth patronising - we weren’t disappointed. Bread was freshly made, a soda bread and white rolls, served with a good quality slightly salted butter which was spreadable - alleluia - not straight out of the fridge. My first course of west country pork pie with piccalilli was very good. The pastry was not too thick and heavy and the filling was tender and tasty with plenty of jelly and the piccalilli was not vinegary. My partners leek and chive velouté was lacking in salt but blossomed when some was added. Our Hand & Flowers Lasagne was different. Served in deep bowls the freshly made pasta encased a tasty mix of shredded beef, rather than mince, mixed with tomatoes, mushrooms and herbs. I must admit, when I thought of the shredded beef, a naughty thought went through my head ‘mechanically recovered meat’! But no, the beef was good. The dish was finished with a béchamel sauce sprinkled with nutmeg. A gratined cheese topping would have given more life to the dish. Puds were, a very dry chocolate tart with super thin pastry served with malted milk ice cream and a rum baba with coconut sorbet. I enjoyed them both but my partner was not impressed, not being a pud man, it takes a lot to impress him. Mind you I ate half the rum baba but couldn’t taste any rum. Three courses were £13.50 - a good quality, reasonably priced pub lunch. I would love to try the à la carte but starters average £8 and mains £17 and by the time you add puds, coffee, drinks and service it becomes a special occasion venue.

Wanted to put pictuers to go with report on H&F but dont know how - they won't copy and paste.

Yes we did lunch at the Capital three weeks ago. Had heard good reports and was looking forward to it very much. We were very disappointed. I was reviewing it for our Society in-house magazine. The main trouble was that the mean was boring with little inspiration. Main courses were a vegetarian, a daube - I had one of those sitting in the fridge at home - sole with capers - Grenobloise, sea bass or duck à l’orange. I had the duck, two lumps of breast cut in half length ways giving two chunks of meat which were difficult to cut up without spraying the sticky orange caramel sauce everywhere. The sea bass was served with chorizo which completely overwhelmed the flavour of the dish. The only inspirations on the menu were the desserts - they were good. The sommelier treated us if we were idiots because we ordered a Marcel Deiss Gewurztraminer 2006 ‘You realise that is sweet,’ he snapped with a smirk. In fact it went well with both dishes. It is a pity lunches are the poor relation of dining out. Not everyone wants to travel a long distance on public transport, at night, in the middle of winter, to enjoy an outstanding dining experience. If I wanted to eat beef stew I would have stayed at home but obviously in some circles popping out for a bite of stew for lunch even if it does cost £33.00 for three courses plus 12½% is the norm in London. We wish we had walked across the road to the Mandarin Oriental instead. When I go out to eat I am looking for inspiration, some texture and flavour combination that are different, unique. I grew out of duck à l’orange thirty years ago! And the chips, sorry pommes pailles’, served with it were soggy. Full report published in our Society journal in March.

I have been using a fan oven for two years now for all my baked goods. I make four cakes at a time in 8 sponge pans on two shelves and they all rise fine and even. Bread, rolls and pastry are great. I don't use it for joints as I find it can dry the meat out and when roasting I always have a little water in the pan - it helps pork to crackle and makes a start for the gravy. If you use a fan oven it dries up too quick. The bigest disaster in a fan oven is quiches - weather you put one or eight in they always rise lopsided.

We found The Sportsman last summer it was great, glad to hear they are keeping up the standard. Yes have found skate listed on menus as ray, I looked into it and they are the same.