MobyP

Grab a local sheep from the salt-marshes, and throw it on a large bonfire. Remove when done!

Tony I'm sure it used to be a great restaurant. I'm just also pretty sure it no longer is.

I finally ate at Michel Bras, and simply found no reason to return. In my opinion, it has become an exercise in corporate catering. A cavalcade of the same dishes, prepared almost simultaneously, brought to each table there. There was a basic sense of cloned execution which came through in the tasting. Although the conception and sourcing of the dishes might be at the highest level (with one pretty foul and one fair exception), the execution never reached the highest levels. It was, at best, acceptable - and who gives a shit about acceptable when you have a genius in the kitchen? In our room, off to the side rather than in the main room, there were two five tops, another deuce, and my table (also a deuce). As everyone had ordered the decouveture tasting menu (with what began to feel like a sort of Disney land logic), and as we were staggered to be the last table in the cycle at about 5 minutes behind the one before (a five top), we were condemned to receive the 13th and 14th repetition of each of the dishes for the whole afternoon. As a dining aesthetic, it's not more than a couple of steps above being served airline food (you see that cart rolling down the aisle? Well eventually it will get to you). The wine and water service was prompt and satisfactory at the beginning, but by half way through we had to refill our own glasses as the staff had wondered off. As far as these things go, and this isn't something that particularly bothers me, they also failed the napkin test - on both occasions - although I did get an escort for half the distance to the loos. To the food, it has all been described before, and well enough so that I'll just focus on a few dishes. First, and in order of it being served, the big failure. The seared foie was, I thought, a disaster of a dish. Alongside an acceptable portion of foie, now famously slow-seared, was a morass of accompanyments. A small pile of barley with a brunoise of pineapple, a smear of pesto on the plate, a fruit chutney, a few drops of of sweetish something (possibly a vinegar), and a small green salad. As far as I could taste, none of the elements really complemented each other. The barley was a poor idea, and the addition of pineapple didn't improve it. Having both the pesto and the chutney on the plate just made no sense to me. The foie itself is slow cooked (apparently) to produce a custardy interior, and then seared or blow-torched on the outside. Sure enough, the texture was there, but it felt dull to me. By half way through, there was nothing left to learn that you hadn't already in the first three bites (probably the reason there are so many accompaniments, in order to keep your interest). By the way, this is not to rail against complicated or savoury foie dishes. The roasted foie at the Fat Duck with crab tuile and seaweed and various other things, I thought was fantastic. And for an 'alternative' texture, more successful. The first big success was the entremets of celeriac, cut almost into a thin linguini, and served with a black truffle vinaigrette. The vegetable was cooked wonderfully, still leaving the slightest of bites, and it was delicious next to the truffle - which must have been preserved, but wasn't overdone. The second success was that we had been given the good advice to substitute the meat course for the gauloise blanche chicken. This was certainly exceptional, with far more flavour than its Bresse cousin. My only complaint is that in the cut of breast they included the tail-tip thin end, which had slightly overcooked when placed next to the thicker neck-end. This seems like a foolish mistake at such an establishment. The poaching, however, had left a wonderful flavour. The skin was perfectly crisp, salty, and delicious. The accompaniments, some small violet artichokes, was modest. The small mound of toasted sesame seeds were a very nice choice. The desserts, which should have been bacchanalian, were prudish, overly restrained (not to mention overly-conceived), and also tired in execution. If I was to return (on someone else's dime), I would definitely avoid the set menus at all cost. I think you would have to go ALC, if only to shock the brigade into cooking something that - at that moment - they don't have 15 other orders for. You know, I just don't want to pay 200 bucks for 14th portion of foie. Especially if it tastes like it.

Apricot kernal panna cotta from Le Champignon Sauvage in the UK.

HB uses gellan gum as a hydrocolloid to coat the salmon, which has much higher heat tollerances than agar.

That's somewhat in contradiction of Derek Brown's statement that it's really about what's on the plate, which he believed was demonstrated by the Fat Duck's award of its third star, when the dining room had only 2 or 3 'knives and forks'.

Adam - salut! By "last year's stocks" (re: game), you don't mean they froze all that to sell through the year? Will you be up to any Terrine/Ballotine/gallentine naughtiness? Can we convince you to bake 30 birds in a pie, and serve it with aspic?

My reservation is on the 9th. On my own. I expect the clouds to part, the angels to sing, and the pristine vegetables to nuzzle their way into my heart.

Does anyone have, or know where I can find, reliable directions to Bras? The website is appalling at the moment - almost un-navigable. All help appreciated.

Superb pics. Anyone else think his style of plating has - with a few exceptions - changed rather radically?

A very nice piece of word smithery, Andy.

Good, but not as good as it should have been. It lacked flavour, as with most UK beef. It's vital to go early. I'm usually there by 8.15, and run into exactly the same people every week (used to include JO, but no longer, I guess, since he sided with Sainsburies over the farmers). I regularly spend around £50, but about 2/3 of this tends to go on protein, and 1/3 on veg. It usually stretches to 2-3 meals. (Chicken = £10, beef and/or pork and/or fish £15-30, veg £15)

Every now and then I get the instinct to try something a bit more difficult. A few of you may remember a discussion with Vmilor in the L'Ambroisie thread about a wild duck torte that Pacauld makes (Robuchon and Chapel also had versions) for special occasions. It has perfectly cooked thigh meat along the bottom, foie gras in the centre, and pink breast meat along the top. Well, it's been driving me mad all year. This weekend I finally gave in and decided to make it myself. I had some spare puff pastry in the freezer which I'd made a few weeks back. I bought some foie gras from Landes, a barbary duck from Norfolk, and had a go. I was really happy with the result. The breast meat on the top was beautifully pink and incredibly gentle. The Foie was still wobbly in the centre. The thigh meat along the bottom was a fraction over-cooked, but nothing my wife would kick me out of bed over. I heard Pacauld talking about using a farce to bind the central meats with, but as I didn't have his recipe, I used a classical à gratin farce of livers, and pork. It worked well, but next time I would lighten the flavour. Possibly add some panade, or more foie. Anyway, it was absolutely delicious. Here are the picks. Before going into the oven. After coming out. And cutting it open...

Walking with Jonathan, I found one of the most extraordinary pieces of sirloin I've ever seen in the UK (all credit to Matt Grant who turned me onto the Northfield Farm stall). It's long horn steer, aged 6 weeks. You can't see, but it's approximately 4-4 1/2 inches thick. Interestingly, although the market in general has become insultingly expensive (especially the fish and veg), this worked out to £15 pounds, which, when I think about it, was between 1/2 and 1/3 of the price it would have cost in the States. Otherwise, although I go around 40 times a year, I buy less each week. I'm incredibly depressed by the state of affairs, generally.

I don't understand this use of brining. Why not just not overcook the bird? The French have been doiing it for centuries. I understand the generally low (to abysmal) quality of supermarket birds in the US (god knows I had to buy enough of them), but it seems unecessary to me. Why deal with all of that denaturation and extra saline - not to mention the effect on the sediment if you want to make a proper jus - if you don't have to?

Wasn't this the place opened by the Aussie chap Tetsuya, but I heard he had sold his interest and moved on (or some variation). Food looks good though.

Syllogisms aside, it is no more true of MG, than it was true of Careme, or Escoffier, or Nouvelle. Or indeed, it is just as true of MG as it was of Careme et al.

I disagree with your characterisation if of my characterisation. I didn't posit the result of the lamb as a qualitative perfection, just that the result was sublime. I don't suggest that this is the only way to cook lamb (in fact, I came across a recipe yesterday whereby you hang the leg from a piece of string tied above the fireplace, and start it revolving for a couple of hours as the heat from the fire slowly roasts it - it sounded absolutely superb). The effect of fire, or flame, or hot metal on meat is dear to my heart. The effect of uneven cooking is, in the right context, exactly what I want (for instance, seared fish, or seared foie gras). I don't suggest for a second that sous vide (as opposed to MG, which I keep suggesting are two entirely separate things, even if they do overlap on occasion) is better than roasting, or poaching, or any other cooking method. And I'm unsure who it is who has claimed the monopoly of objective perfection that you claim MG proponents are guilty of. As you say, if you have an end result in mind, you can design the method around that desired result. All I meant was that to achieve the textural result closest to the best pork belly that I have had, which happened to be at the FD and ADNY, sous vide was I believe required. Even with confit, prepared by a fine chef, where both the collagen and fat were perfectly gelatinised, the meat had over-cooked, leaving it stringy. I am not even - and you may find this hard to believe - a proselytist for MG, as far as I know. The reason you and I keep butting heads is that in my opinion you keep mischaracterising what molecular gastronomy IS.

That sounds like some appalling meal. But why such a high score? Do they get 50 points for letting you in the door? I'm sorry also you didn't manage a reservation at L'Ambroisie. A spectacular restaurant, imo.

I realise my opinion might not count for much within this context, but I've actually done a rather - possibly pathologically - large amount of experimentation with pork bellies, am a much above average home cook, and have also tasted several versions at several different restaurants. First, having spent many months in order to source the best bellies possible, I have subjected them to slow roasting (4 - 6 hours), very slow roasting (24 - 30 hours), fast roasting (1 - 2 hours), short, medium and long braising (2, 4, 6 hours), and confit'ing (4 and 36 hours), and with none could I control the precise textures of meat, collagen and fat as well as those I've had cooked sous-vide both at Ducasse and Blumenthal. The reason, essentially, is that to roast or braise is also to subject the meat to diifferential temperatures and oxidation, both of which cause a warping of the flesh, and causes the fat/flesh/collagen to cook a different rates. Confit'ing solves this to some degree (depriving access to oxygen), but temperature control is problematic, and generally harder to control. If you're ever in Pimlico, they used to confit the belly at the Ebury (I think for 24-30 hours). Occasionally it was superb. The last two times have been slightly over-cooked, however. By the way, sous vide is not MG, per se. It was invented in the Troisgros kitchens in the 70's as a way of controlling the fat lossed in foie gras terrines, and then widely picked up by other French chefs. The Roux brothers had a sous vide company in the late 70's, and many chefs, from Robuchon and Loiseau downwards, have or have had retail lines in French markets. The problem of perception comes into play - and people tend to think of it as 'boil in a bag.' Also, no chef worth his or her salt (including Blumenthal) believes sous vide to be a holy grail, applicable to every protein. It does tend to be useful with higher collagen contents, simply for the temperature control it offers. But I've had fish prepared sous-vide (by a very well-known nouvelle chef) that was terribly over-cooked. I've also had it done 'as meant' at the FD. In my opinion, in both cases, the delicateness of the flesh wasn't done any favours by the sous-vide process. As far as slow cooking, one of the best legs of lamb I've ever had was from following Jack Lang's recipe in his egci course (scroll down). It's not the miserable, oxidised grey flesh that passes for popular in this country, but it was sublime.

I've read through this thread (and I may have missed it), but nowhere can I find anything on Shola's background. Where did he learn to cook? Has he ever had his own restaurant? How did he finance the SK?

It would be interesting to see if the husbandry is similar to the Bresse birds, which are raised relatively 'intensively,' especially in their last few weeks where they're encouraged to gorge on corn and milk. This gives their livers the most fantastic texture, taste and colour, but has a certain European view of animal welfare which I'm not sure would be appreciated in the high-end US market. Thanks for posting the above menu, although I have to say I find the language somewhat inscrutable. It feels translated to me, rather than composed in English.

My uncle asked me to cater his 65th bday for 14. It was a good day. The food wasn't stunningly original, but it went down well. Unfortunately I didn't have a chance to photograph the main dish, a rack of salt marsh lamb with provencal veg and jus, or the dessert (which didn't go to plan anyway). But here are a few of the others. salmon with red onion echire craime fraiche and russian caviar warm lobster salad on avocado, with a citronette, pangratato, and pistachios (adapted from a manresa dish) macaroons...

Steven/Ellen - surely you must have eaten here since the new chef arrived? Might we be so bold as to enquire...?

That's a bit judgenmental of you, isn't it Andy?