genuineness

Apparently staines was quite surprised when the news broke. I agree though that it would be a great shame if heston's restaurant were to be opened at the expense of Foliage.

With Mr Hayler? he also comments on it on this weeks blog. ← Yes that is right.

I was at Foliage yesterday and the staff at the mandarin oriental were pretty tight lipped about this - neither denying or confirming this rumour. They do have a large storage space on the LG floor which is undergoing some renovation but they did not say what (if any) the purpose was for. Read what you want into this.

Slightly off the topic, I would have loved to see someone like Rachel Humphrey's competing- she has after all had 3 years experience with the RAF - but I suppose Le Gavroche doesn't really need the publicity.

great win for Danny and well deserved especially as he is cooking his own food and not making use of someone elses recipes. I swear his whole timing and presentation issues were part of his ploy of getting Clare to drop her guard.

In case anyone is eager to try the Hell's Kitchen menu, it is available from 15 Apr to 27th Apr at Marco, Stamford Bridge.

Malaysian food - try Kiasu its cheap and efficient. I have heard buzz that their standards are slipping but when I visited it was passable. Frankly I don't have high expectations of Malaysian restaurants in London. Giaconda - I assume Giaconda dining room? They open mondays to fridays and last order is at 9.15pm. Also if you plan to get a table try to book a few days in advance as the restaurant is very small and you don't want to end up with the table next to the coat rack. Le Gav - they def cater to post theatre (not sure if they still do their post theatre menu which is a very good deal) They aren't open for sunday lunch. Might be difficult to get a table on a Saturday night - I had to book a month in advance, but who knows with the recession there might be a late cancellation. Sunday Lunch - L'Autre Pied and Foliage do a relatively affordable sunday lunches, or you could try Ledbury if you want something abit more up scale. For a good view maybe Blueprint Cafe?

Agreed, I mean... Fish Pie??? What next? Fish Fingers??? Oh wait... they did that last year... I hope the beef Wareing tasted is better than the beef he uses in his restaurant and tempts him to change his supplier. This week has so far turned out to be MW appreciation week I wouldn't be surprised if he was named the winner.

Their clash almost seems scripted - otherwise it would be three bumbling old people agreeing about the same things. I also felt that the best menu won - that cheese and pickle sandwich was simply wrong for so many reasons and I was telling J when the Salmon dish was prepared that the beetroot powder was there for a show of technique. That said, Kitchin's kedgeree was downright boring. It wasn't even a modern take on the dish itself e.g. Howard's (the Square) version of kedgeree would be something more appealing to me.

well think yourself lucky, they charged us full a la carte prices for 3 set lunch dishes that we added to our lunch! ( a starter and 2 desserts from memory) and we'd already racked up the bill by taking ALC plus extra starter each, plus 2 fish courses to share (between 4). didn't notice at the time we paid the bill, the small matter of £235 a head (though we had more than our fair share of wine) i emailed them after to point it out, got a swift response from mrs wareing saying she'd look into it, then nothing. so i have no reason whatsoever to return. execution was admirable, the rest blah. ← bleeding your customers dry is probably not a good idea in the current economic climate when many restaurants are struggling to fill tables on a saturday night. While this may not be the case for MW, their lack of generosity is duly noted and I will think very carefully before I return especially when the cooking there is rather meh.

the cheese sandwich thing made me go...'huh'??? It would make sense as an intermediate course between mains and puds but as a starter?

Spot on... if this were Great French Menu then Clifford would have won hands down. Unfortunately both his starters and fish course did not really remind me of 'a taste of home' while his dessert which is quintessentially british did not deliver in terms of taste. Makes me wonder how good Purnell's dessert really is because he got through on the basis of 2 dishes. ← K, His desserts are really on the money Not complicated, just loads of flavour They were that good I asked on our last visit who was on pastry? I'm sure they said Simon ( Szymanski ) If that was what I remember correctly, this figures, as they have been together going back to Simpsons,( ten years?) he's an intrinsic part of Glynn Purnells success. They are also good friends. Flavour is all , here.. I bet that you are cursing your luck at not being able to get a table on your recent Birmingham visit? ← Yeah... pretty annoyed but I can't blame anyone but myself as I left the booking till quite late. not that it would have made much difference since his restaurant is booked solid 2 months in advance for weekend dinners. I wanted to go for Friday Lunch but J had some experiments she had to do on that day itself. I might try again in July.

Spot on... if this were Great French Menu then Clifford would have won hands down. Unfortunately both his starters and fish course did not really remind me of 'a taste of home' while his dessert which is quintessentially british did not deliver in terms of taste. Makes me wonder how good Purnell's dessert really is because he got through on the basis of 2 dishes.

I visited in January and tried both the Lunch menu as well as the ALC. In general, I felt the lunch menu was nothing more than gastro pub food. In addition service was awful. You can read my full experience here.

In January, Mosaico located at Abermarle Street underwent a makeover, a renaming and appointed a new head chef. Michelin starred chef Riccardo de Pra brings with him his inventive, interesting cooking style to Mayfair. He also prides himself with producing his own cured meat, smokes, olive oil and cheese. Prices are high but so is the level of cooking. You can read my thoughts on my recent visit on my blog here.

The review of my second restaurant I dined at Birmingham, Simpsons is up. In general I had a very enjoyable experience although the prices charged are more akin to London than the midlands. You can find the full review on my blog by following the link attached to my signature.

I'm pleased that you enjoyed it. Lets hope success does not start to push the prices up too much. As I notice from your review the "tasting" is now £49,when it was £45 a short while ago. Not that I am nit picking,its just that the recent "tasting" I had at Fraiche was only £55 for an incredible amount of courses,and top,top,quality. Sorry if I give the game away,but I'm looking forward to your upcoming review. I won't name names,however we know its not Purnells (shame). I'm interested to see how you rate it! ← To be fair on them, our tasting menu did include a few more posh ingredients (venison, caviar, foie gras) and of course now features home made bread (always a good thing). I will get along writing the review of the other restaurant this weekend when I have a bit more time.

Was at Birmingham last weekend to catch the All England Badminton championships and dined at newly crowned Michelin starred restaurant Turners. Here is an excerpt of my experince: Our meal at Turners was a pleasant event. Staff were friendly and attentive while Richard Turner himself would pop out from the kitchen from time to time to… cut the cheese! In terms of the cooking, you will not find much innovation or a sense of adventure. Instead, the food here focuses on well sourced, quality ingredients which is cooked well with good technique. This indeed was a good meal and the denizens of Birmingham should be proud to have such a restaurant. I will be happy to return should I happen to be in Birmingham but I don’t think I would travel up specifically to eat here. For a full review, you can find it on my blog by following the link below.

Does Sat Bains still do an a la carte menu at all? The website only seems to list the three prices for the tasting menu and the bespoke menu, with the added proviso that the cheapest tasting menu is only available Tuesday to Thursday... ← If im not mistaken they have a small ALC menu tues to thursday but your choices are rather limited ie almost like a set lunch menu. On Fridays and Saturdays you have a choice between the 7 and 10 course tasting menu.

Visited Giaconda yesterday. Here is an abstract of my review. Despite a short stand-off at the start due to a booking confusion (it must be added that this was dealt with very well and professionally), the service at Giaconda was otherwise pleasant and friendly. The chef Paul Merrony wears his heart on his apron and this is reflected in his cooking which is simple, no nonsense, good tasting food. It is not going to break any gastronomic boundaries but this is not what he is aiming for. Our dinner experience at Giaconda was highly enjoyable and highly satisfactory and I am already looking forward to a swift return visit to try out more of his menu. You can find the full review on my website Giaconda Review

I had a table booked back in November but the week before we were supposed to visit, we were informed that they had changed their policy such that you HAVE to go for a tasting menu if you choose to dine on a weekend. I am personally not a huge fan of tasting menus since I get bored after the 5th course is brought out and it simply takes a whole lot longer to get through. I rather do 3 course ALC with supplement courses and share each dish with my dining partner - that way we will get to try as many dishes as we would if we had gone for the tasting menu. In all fairness tho, Sat Bains does only a small no. of covers per night with no table turnoever unlike certain 'fast-food' chains, and each table having their own wait staff so I can understand why they are trying to maximize as much profit as possible from each diner. As a side note, after last yrs' GBM, Purnell did charge a £10 supplement for his 10-10-10 egg surprise...

I'm with David here. I'm not really a fan of the show purely because the presenters do my head in. I do usually catch the odd episode here and there and this year I did watch the final week. Although the two other contestents seemed talented, this guy really did look like class. He seems to have that uncanny ability to just know what goes together in a dish and seemed to have an amazing ability to come up with original dishes that worked (I say that without having tasted them myself though!). I hope he does get his head down and get some experience behind him at some kitchens and then on further to make it with his own restaurant. ← Either he is a culinary genius or very good at ripping off ideas from other chefs. Not directly referring to Matt, but I am pretty certain some of the dishes presented during the competition will direct ripoffs from cookbooks/ magazines.

yeah... i dont know how to do it... but I did add a signature linking to my blog. My my you do spend a lot of time on egullet forums dont you!!!

Do you have a link to his blog? ← http://theurbanfoodie.blogspot.com/

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 ← I was referring to Steven Wallis, winner the year before