JudyB

So where did you go in the end? I hope that you hadn't planned on going to The Goose... (For anyone who hasn't noticed see:Walkout at the Goose)

Now closed to be refurbished as a gastropub. There does seem to be a pattern here (again from the Caterer article): As suggested in the Didcot thread The Goose was a place people would go out of their way to visit, but I can't see a gastropub selling "basic pub grub" getting the same attention (apart from the unlucky people who haven't seen threads like this first).

From your comments it sounds like you saw just one episode per week in previous series, with the "normal" restaurant operation alternating with the challenges? In the UK we got two episodes per week (Wednesday and Thursday) for the first two series and many people here commented that they felt the last series was much poorer with just a single episode per week. There has been a lot of speculation here about how the contestants were chosen, with the general suspicion being that looking good for reality TV was much more important than any actual ability. As you say, the level of incompetence in this series was appalling. There are also those who are threatening to boycott Raymond Blanc's restaurants in future as a result of watching this latest series, although to be honest I am not convinced that many of them would even have visited his brasseries normally, and certainly not Le Manoir. Personally I just see this as a bad reality TV programme and we will almost certainly to go to Le Manoir again at some point soon-ish (as it is about 8 years since our last, and only, visit).

I'd go along with that, although we haven't been there recently ourselves. We used to live in Didcot (it's the station which is Didcot Parkway) and to be honest I wouldn't recommend going there for lunch. There are various pubs in nearby villages which are OK, but most of the better options (apart from The Goose) are in the Oxford direction. If you're feeling hungry (they don't do "dainty") there is The Mole Inn (which has a Bib Gourmand) in Toot Baldon - about 12 miles away. Another place which is good (and has a Michelin star), but further afield is The Nut Tree at Murcott, north of Oxford - the chef is Mike North, who was at The Goose a few years back. If you do choose to go there, do make sure that you check out the route carefully first since it goes down some extremely "rural" roads!

Unfortunately, unless you re-plan your trip to later in the year, I think you will have wait until 2011 - El Bulli doesn't open until mid-June this year.

If you are close enough then you could try the Trattoria at Fifteen London. If you aren't in the immediate area the nearest underground station is Old Street. Although the menu does include the "Full Monty", they also have a range of smoothies, pastries, muesli etc for a lighter breakfast. I went there several times when I was staying at an appalling hotel nearby for a course. I have to admit that I was skeptical when Duncan suggested this to me, but it was a very pleasant start to the day and certainly much nicer than the hotel would have been (and about half the price).

Amazon thinks 20th Jan: Great Britain and Ireland 2010 Annual Guide

Isn't the problem for Nathan Outlaw that the new guide is published on 20th January, but his new restaurant in Rock doesn't seem to be open until 12th February? (Based on his website here). I would expect the restaurant in Fowey to lose its star since he has left, but if the new place isn't open yet I don't see that it can be included, unless the "Belgian" precedent mentioned earlier in this thread is applied?

Wherever you plan to go, do check in advance that they are open. For example, I know that Hibiscus is closed from 24th December to Monday 4th January (inclusive).

Nathan Outlaw was given one star this year and marked as a "rising two-star", so three would have been very optimistic. However, despite the excellent meal we had there earlier this year, I imagine that his move back to Rock will result in the Marina Villa in Fowey losing its star completely and the new place won't be open in time for the 2010 guide.

According to next week's Radio Times James Nathan is now working in Rick Stein's Seafood restaurant.

The quality is certainly very variable. We were also wondering this week to what extent they "seed" the contestants since some of the heats are quite tight while in others they seem to be fighting over who will get thrown out. We just watched last night's quarter finals and the most striking comment from the critics was when Charles Campion pointed out that this was the first time that any Masterchef contestant had completely failed to deliver a course. In addition to one completely failing with his dessert the Irish chef (David?), who went through to the semis, failed to cook half of his main and the main part of his dessert. I assume that the judges felt that overall David was better than the other two, but even so the failure to deliver was surprising.

The Sky News website reports that Keith Floyd will be cremated in a banana leaf coffin: Floyd To Be Cremated In Banana Leaves . (As reported by the Guardian Word of Mouth blog)

They are starting to roll it out to more restaurants, see here: What I do wonder about is whether or not this is deliberately timed to coincide with the update on Channel 4:

According to the Radio Times website the banquet will be shown on Tuesday 16th June from 8:00pm - 9:00pm (on BBC2). Reports elsewhere (including Caterer Search) say that the banquet itself was last night (6th June).

One option is to simply drive to the general area for Cote du Rhone Villages or into Chateauneuf du Papes and you will find vineyards and Cave Cooperatives round just about every corner. If you can I would certainly suggest visiting Chateauneuf for lunch if nothing else. More specifically we tend to go back to Chateau Pesquie whenever we are in the area - they have a good range of reds as well as some good rose and an interesting Viognier. As others have said the Cave Cooperatives in most places are good for tasting a range of wines - including Beaumes de Venise, Rasteau and Gigondas. If you haven't tried it before then do try the sweet Rasteau wines (red and white).

Unfortunately no longer. A quick search gives the following information: See here for more details including the link to the INF28 information. You need to look carefully at the full information for "INF28" as it is fairly complex but it looks like it is fairly limited at present in terms of the countries which participate in this scheme.

Does anyone know when this final week was actually filmed? It was striking this evening that either the judges' tastebuds had gone on strike or most of the dishes had changed markedly since the initial heats. For example, watching it didn't appear that Tom Kitchin's haggis dish had been changed significantly, but the judges obviously didn't like it at all. To some extent this might be explained by a few months having elapsed since the heats - and therefore the seasonal nature of the ingredients was significantly different, but if not then what was happening? The comments from the other chefs seemed to indicate that many of the dishes were still very good, but apparently not in the judges' view...

I am also interested in this type of apprenticeship after I finish my bachelor's in the states (in a year and a half). I would need to be paid in order to swing such an adventure. My grandmother was an English citizen, my great-grandparents on the other side immigrated from Germany and Poland. What are my options for getting permission to work in the EU? ← I don't think that having an English grandmother is enough these days to get British citizenship. Even then it is normally a fairly slow process (unless you are the next Zola Budd ), but 1.5 years might be long enough. This is what the British Passport and Identity service says on the subject: Take a look a their website (here) for more details. That site will also have links to various other government web sites about work permits etc. In Britain at least they have been tightening up the rules for getting work permits, although (being British) I haven't looked in detail at the rules. What I do know is that you need a job to be able to get a work permit and that the employer has to be able to show that they cannot fill the post by recruiting in Britain. Even when you do have a work permit this is not a permanent right to work so if, for example, you change your employer you would need to apply for a new one. The exact rules will vary for different countries within the EU, but I think that the only way of being free to work anywhere in the EU is to get citizenship of an appropriate country. Note that some countries (including Britain) have also limited the right to work for citizens of the most recent EU members to join (due to local pressure on jobs). The rules for students are slightly different, but for that you would need to be a genuine student and I don't know if there is any way that a "trainee" type post might qualify.

I think that is a bit more than a one-time attraction. We went last September after a gap of about 3 years and it had changed quite a bit in that time, albeit with a sequence of fairly small changes. Unless it changes more quickly in the future my guess is that a two year gap is probably the minimum for it to be worth going back. As I have said before we had been hoping to go back relatively soon to have the ALC since we have never had that, but it doesn't look like we will have the chance now. I'm still hoping that something like the rumoured "historical" tasting menu might appear as an alternative to the tasting menu. The other option which used to be available was the set lunch, which was both very good value and allowed people who couldn't face (or afford) the tasting menu to get a good feel for the cooking. We took Duncan's parents there to eat that and they had a great time - and quite happily tell people that they have eaten at the Fat Duck. There is no way that we would ever have considered subjecting them to the tasting menu since they would not have been comfortable with the prospect of such a large meal.

There isn't really anything stunning to be said about this week. As Bryn Williams said after the mains last night there is nothing yet which stands out - both meals look OK and there are no obvious disasters yet. Personally I am getting very irritated with what seems like posturing by James - it seems like he has decided that Stephen is a country bumpkin who doesn't know how to cook "real" banquet-style food. What I can't decide yet is whether this is arrogance on his part, or if it indicates nervousness about what Stephen might pull off on Friday... I see that Marcus Wareing is back next week as the "mentor" for the North-West, which is a pity since with the NE heat it looked like he thought he was mainly there to stir things up...

I can see the photos OK if I wait long enough, but they do take a very long time to finish loading...

Yes, about a year ago it was reported that the ALC would be going, to be replaced by second tasting menu of "traditional" dishes. I think that the idea was that this would include the historical dishes that Heston has experimented with to a limited extent at the Hind's Head, such as "quaking pudding". If you do find out any more please can you post this in the Fat Duck thread (probably more appropriate than this one)? We had been toying with the idea of going back to try the ALC for a change, so if it is going then we might need to try and book sooner rather than later...! Edit: just looked at the Fat Duck website and it says "The A La Carte menu is available until the 30th June 2009", but it doesn't have any indication (that I can see) of what will replace it...

What we found amazing with this series in particular was that the competitors were almost queuing up to get thrown out. For example, calling a restaurant "True Provenance" and then not being able to tell people where the meat came from, or "Sorbets and Seasons" not having sorbets (or seasonal food). Sadly my impression is that being on a "reality" TV show seems to be an end in itself for some people in Britain these days. I don't know if the latest versions of "Masterchef" in the UK have made it to the US yet, but you see similar people in that. Although there are clearly some talented cooks on that, there is also an assumption that such a programme is a fast track to a successful restaurant without any recognition that running a good restaurant is very different from being an excellent cook... By comparison the "Masterchef Professional" series - with real working chefs - was much better. The chefs involved were also much more willing to take advice from Michel Roux (junior) who was one of the judges, although in at least one case it looked like the hero-worship may have had a detrimental impact on their performance.

Obviously Raymond Blanc thought that they were trainable too. I can't find a more definitive link, but it was reported on the Digital Spy forum in the uk (here) that they were to spend 3 months training at Le Manoir, although I haven't heard anything about them since. In the UK the finale of the series was broadcast in October, but the last that I heard RB was still searching with Michelle and Russell for a suitable place to open a restaurant. In the meantime they have spent the time training at both Le Manoir and at RB's "Brasserie Blanc" restaurants around the country. (We live near Oxford so the local radio and TV interview Raymond Blanc and the contestants from time to time).