Duncan

That or perhaps they've just got their act sorted out, or maybe they have more staff on as the summer season ramps up? I think all the tables were full when we were there (which isn't bad going for a Monday), although I have no way of knowing if they had anyone in the private rooms. I wonder if it also matters what proportion of people go for the tasting menu as opposed to a shorter 2-3 course a la carte: it did rather look as though a fair proportion of the people there were a bit intimidated by the menu. We still have the visit to Margot's to come, so I'll report back how we find the comparison. Thanks BTW for the pointer to the hermanos visit: I hadn't read their report so hadn't realised I was in danger of getting told off for using my camera!

I'm slightly surprised not to find a thread already existing for No. 6 Restaurant in Padstow (or did I just miss it? eGullet search doesn't like searching for 'No 6'). Judy took me for my birthday this year, and we had an excellent meal. Stars of the show were a lobster risotto and a rabbit and venison torte, but everything was nicely cooked and well presented. I've written up a more detailed description and photos on my blog. Anyway, definitely one not to miss if you are in the area.

Think up a few more of these and you could play buzzword bingo.

I just phoned Erica and I'm sure the other members of eGullet will be pleased to hear she has had a baby girl named 'Elena Faith'.

I think it is quite clear that the chefs know that the competition is to find dishes to be cooked at a banquet in June showing off the best of British seasonal cooking to top French chefs in Paris. They may not know much more of the judges' criteria than that: I was surprised that they were quite so effusive about Mark's Stargazy pie (I'm not sure how exactly that transfers to a banquet setting), but he seems to be one the the few chef's who really took on board that importance of 'British' and 'seasonal'.

Friday evening was the Ostrich's second night, and there were definite signs that they were trying to make it up as they went along. Jacky (not sure of the spelling) phoned me twice on Friday, once to confirm that they were still open, and again to say she had forgotten to mention there would be a live Jazz band. I don't know when they had thought that idea up, but evidently they hadn't managed to discuss it with the production team as the band were only allowed to play for a short period in the middle evening while (I think) the film crew took a break. The other side effect of the film crew is that the spotlights on the ceiling mean this is one restaurant where you can be guaranteed more than enough light to see the food. The other last minute innovation (and one which I think was more successful than the jazz band) were some cocktails listed as specials on the blackboard so I had a Sassy Ostrich (rum, malibu, grenadine and lemonade) and Judy had a Key West Sunset (vodka, triple sec, and orange juice). I won't go into too much detail on the food. It was mostly edible, but took a long time to arrive. A group at the next table (who had also been in on the opening night!) said that it was a distinct improvement over Saturday evening in that at least everyone got served. They filmed us during starter and mains to ask us how it was, and again as dessert was served (and I have a horrible suspicion they were busy filming in the kitchen as our dessert was being prepared). Anyway, it's the first time a waitress has told us before serving the dessert that it is being comp'ed because it has gone wrong (but then served it anyway). We struggled through about half of each of our key lime pies: Judy came up with 'gloopy' as her description during the interview section, but apart from the texture the big problem was a complete lack of any lime flavour. I think the message that comes through loud and clear both from last night and from other reality shows such as Masterchef is that amateur cooks, who may be perfectly able to produce good food just get thrown totally when put in a commercial kitchen trying to produce a string of dishes on a tight timescale.

For better or worse I think we may have booked for Friday evening. I'm not sure though because the person I talked to on the phone Saturday afternoon said that the 'owners' weren't around but would call back shortly to confirm the booking and I'm still waiting. I guess I may have wait until Thursday now to find out. I think you would have to move nearer us to have been asked (not that I'd have any complaints). If I remember correctly Erica said that all the restaurants are within about an hour of Oxford.

I wonder in that case if they chose Fairford because of the air base? Do you get a lot of Americans in Allium normally or do they tend to keep to themselves? If that is their thinking then it sounds a high risk strategy.

They stepped up the originality for the next course: one did Welsh Black Beef with ceps and the other one did Welsh Black Beef with snails.

A. No thanks. B. Might do. C. I prefer B. D. Better than lurking underneath with the trolls.

Isn't the whole point of Sat's food that it should be something you can't do at home? ← A large part, but not necessarily the whole point. Take Heston Blumenthal as an example. His food too is something you cannot do at home, but a lot of the techniques can be used or adapted. He has published recipes which (to a greater or lesser extent) are practical in the Guardian and in his two books. On one occasion in his Guardian column he published a complete restaurant dish, but that was an exception. It also involves a blowtorch, vacuum sealer and water bath (although he doesn't specify an exact temperature), but all the way through the recipe he tries to suggest ways to manage the same thing in a home environment: It may or may not be possible to follow this recipe at home, but at least it shows some signs that he has thought about how you could attempt it.

I have no problem with sticking a lump of beef in a low oven (70-80C) for several hours until the thermometer probe registers 58C. I just don't think you could get the temperature of the water bath anything like accurate enough. Oh well, lets wait and see what other recipes the chefs come up with.

Nice to see the BBC are publishing practical recipes on their website, I wonder if they even bother to read what they posted. For the ham and eggs (which at the top claims "Cooking time 30 mins to 1 hour") and the beef is similarly impractical to cook at home: although at least in that recipe they give the following helpful tips: So that'll be a £425 water bath on my birthday wishlist then (two of them if I want to do starter and main). Somehow I can't see it.

GastroChick, see this post.

The egullet events policy might make that tricky, also Allium isn't in London so that tends to dissuade a lot (not all) of the people from this forum. Joining the Peoples Front of Judea might help with the former, but you still have the latter problem. Besides, I expect that unlike with Allium the odds are very much against the temporary place being worth a long journey. I do hope though that I'm proved wrong on that count.

It sounds like it could be a tricky choice: book to visit early when it is bound to be terrible, or book for later when it could be excellent but will probably have closed. Do you know, is it the sort of reality program which is broadcast semi-live or several months later (i.e. is the TV coverage going to have an immediate impact or are most of the customers not even going to realise it is being done for a TV program)? I'm guessing the latter since it doesn't have the viewer voting element that has got so much publicity recently In case it isn't obvious, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to go along and tell whoever it is that they aren't a patch on the 'previous' people.

It is worth remembering that there are degrees of cork taint. You can get a wine which blows your head off with the musty smell, or you can get wines which just aren't quite right. I usually reckon that when I get to smell the wine I can say straight off yes or no but sometimes I'm not quite sure and if it is the last one then it is almost invariably corked. I must say that I have generally been impressed by the willingness of restaurants to change a bad bottle. I've heard of other people complaining how they have had problems getting a bottle changed but I've never encountered that.

For those who feel 10 courses isn't enough there is still the underground option. It's an indeterminate number of courses in the range of 24-30ish.

If you have a digital oven thermometer with an outside display then please tell me where you got it. I've got a probe thermometer with a display outside the oven, but I haven't seen any digital oven thermometers. My analogue thermometer seems to show my oven has no problem maintaining a temperature about 70C but I haven't tried for lower. I reckon that if you use the basic technique (brining in a mix of salt and spices then slow cooking) you can't go far wrong. I'd probably try a slightly higher temperature say the 70ish I use for things like beef combined with a shorter time (maybe 6-8 hours). It may not give an identical result but I reckon it should come out pretty nice. Not so sure about the best technique for the reheating: again maybe you'd be safest to go for a slightly higher temperature. On the other hand, you do want to be careful as the pork belly was one of the dishes which initially gave food standards inspectors concern. As the Telegraph reported: Please, if you do try it, report back how it goes.

Google is your friend. Here's the bbc page with a recording of how it tasted, and see this pdf for the complete recipe for the slow cooked pork as well as the accompanying truffle macaroni. At least, I think its the same recipe: after 24 hours brining it only calls for 36 hours cooking at 60C so I hope you have a water bath handy. Maybe this is the 'fast food' version.

What we have is a Digital Meat Thermometer from Lakeland - see here for the details - from what you have said this is exactly what you want. This is currently £12.99 and works fairly well in our experience (postage extra if the order is under £45 or find a local branch if you can). ← Just to add to that: we have two digital thermometers: one really cheap one from Nisbets with a fixed probe, and the slightly more expensive one form Lakeland with a separate oven proof probe. I've never really figured out whether it is safe to leave the battery in the Lakeland one (the display is on permanently when the battery is in), so I always remove the battery when I've finished with it. This means the Nisbets one is always a bit handier to get at if I just want to check something I'm grilling, but the Lakeland one is great for slow roasting. One other difference is that while both thermometers have an accuracy of 1C, the Nisbets one displays to 0.1C. Although the extra digit is largely spurious, it can be useful if you are cooking at a low temperature and it seems to be taking an age for the internal temperature of the joint to increase: you can get a much better idea of the rate at which the temperature is increasing if it is going up by 0.1C every 6 minutes rather than 1C every hour. (So if you see one with an oven safe probe and a 0.1C display, let me know.)

The article starts: Why is it that journalists feel compelled to do articles about people who by their own admission cannot cook attempting complex dishes? I'd say it sounds a testament to Heston that what sounds to me like a perfectly disgusting sausage recipe, when approximated by an amateur still ended up praised by the critics.

I think the one I mostly use was under £10. It has a fixed probe and has a readout to 0.1C. I also have a slightly more expensive (as in just over £10) and has a probe suitable for leaving in meat in the oven while the display sites outside the oven. Unless you want to use it in a professional kitchen environment I can't see there is any benefit in paying more than you need. There's a £6.99 one from Nisbets, or one of the £20 jobs is currently on 'buy one get one free'. If I was choosing between them I'd go for the £6.99 one from the handheld (fixed probe) section: they both quote 1degree accuracy but the cheaper one has an extra (spurious) digit of precision, which can be useful as the temperature it displays will actually change a bit more often so you can get a better idea of how quickly it is approaching its target temperature. The more expensive thermometers may offer some additional accuracy, but unless you want to really push the boundaries of safe cooking you probably don't need that. You could always cook the stuffing separately. I think it probably does want to get to a higher temperature than the bird. One of the beautiful things about cooking at such a low temperature is that you can extend the cooking time almost indefinitely without overcooking. Just turn the oven down a touch when you've nearly got to the desired temperature. The downside of course is that if you get it wrong it could easily take 12 hours instead of 8 and then you won't be too popular. Keep checking the oven thermometer and using a digital probe thermometer.

I think if you served whiskey you wouldn't be very popular: whiskey is from the US or Ireland; whisky is from Scotland. I'm not much of a whisky drinker, though I quite like Ardbeg for its very smoky flavour.

Close, but not quite. According to McGee the fat contents are: Heavy whipping cream is 38% fat, Double cream is 48% fat or more. I expect for Cranachan you could just substitute heavy cream although it might not have quite the same consistency. According to wikipedia, originally the recipe would have replaced the cream partly or wholly with crowdie (a soft cream cheese). So on that basis you could maybe justify adding some mascarpone if you wanted to enrich the dish a bit.