ginger chef

we are open on wednesday, thursday for lunch next week. simon elephant restaurant

they all look great , thanks for the help, will post closer to my time of departure to see if any other recommendations come forth. cheers guys

thanks for the great response will be looking at making some reservations this week . if any new stars come into town in the mean while keep me informed. thanks again. simon

hello, travelling to dallas for one week in april and looking for top end restaurants serving modern cuisine along the likes of keller etc. i have read about lolas and aurora but can find no websites also about the mansion on turtle creek. is there any other places highly recommended. also what is the dress code in the u.s for lunch and dinner. your help would be greatly appreciated

ate at sant celoni last week, by far the most consistent meal i had of the three in madrid. flavours very good and service excellent it was more of a 2 star experience than its neighbour. but the styles of the two are very different, sant celoni was more french classical, working on good sauces and accurate cooking, while la broche was a bit gimmicky and faultered at main course. the casino was entertaining but service was weak and in a very ugly room. el bulli through and through but nothing new mainly his older stuff but for people who havent had an el bulli experience it is a good taster. the desserts though were excellent.

cheers bapi, we re open on monday 17th, will look forward to welcoming you down, kids are more than welcome, start them young i say.

thanks guys, i will be eating at the casino for my lunch and shall report back on all three. is there any specialist chef/book shops in the centre of madrid that are worth a trip.

thanks bux and rogelio. unless i can persuade the other half to leave madrid for the day i wont be able to get to coque this time but now i know of it i am certainly interested. the casino interests me as i missed out on reservations this year at bulli but this is ferrans madrid outlet i have read. thanks for the suit advice i normally wear a suit in michelin restaurants but after being in donostia and barcelona i felt a bit out of place being the only one in a tie. so thanks for the pre warning. i saw that coque won restaurant of the year last year about this time , who is up for it this year by any chance. regards simon

thankyou, i cant seem to find info on where it is. some guides ay humanes but when i search there nothing comes up. how far from central madrid. what about the casino is this a possibility.

i am looking for another top class restaurant in madrid to dine in for lunch on a wednesday in january. i have already booked sant celoni and la broche and i would be looking for something along the same lines in inventiveness and modern style. any help would be grateful. simon

andy, sorry for the slow reply, christmas and all the new staff strarting havent had much chance to get on line. . alls going well and i will have a new menu all set up and running in the new year after our break. as you said i bought my team down from cheltenham and my partner katy who runs the front. menu will be based around local produce and what torquay and surrounding areas clients are acustomed to with a few more racey dishes to test the water. january is a quiet time down on the riviera so there are a few promotions flying around to keep us busy but this time will help us to get up to pace and consistency levels now i only have a dining room to cater for. regards simon

Oh, sorry. He said above that he was looking for Michelin-rated restaurants. I assumed that meant stars. Clearly, I am confused. *edited* to say yeah, just ignore me now. I AM confused. ←

thanks gidon, what other places do you recommend. we are all chefs and we would like to eat michelin rated restaurants but not to far out of the central area. is vermeer still worth a visit. oh we are also eating on a monday if that causes a problem or not. we want more modern than classical this time around.

sorry vermeer

looking at eating with a few friends at veneer in amsterdam for lunch does anybody have any inside info on dress code, prices etc

i worked with chef turner as an apprentice at hanbury manor and he has been a great help and friend to me since. from what i can tell most of his team from browns are with him now and his level of staff turnover is relatively low. he is a great trainer of chefs and spends alot of his time one on one with all levels of the brigade.

this is not back tracking but i have no beef at all with mb and i have never caused any problems here. git can be taken in many contexts, silly git ,lucky git ,stupid git ,you name it. yes i am a stagiare here and i am working my nuts off but i dont really see the problem, i have never said git in this forum and if you look through it you have no means of knowing what is being implied. i think martin is a good chef, good person, his kitchen is a nightmare and is hard work. i have staged in many michelin starred restaurants and some have been amazing and some have been hell. so i think at the end of this you have got totally the wrong end of the stick . slagging him off is a very strong way of putting this and if i was going to slag any one off i would probably not use a forum like this i have balls enough to tell some one i am not happy and i honestly dont care who it is. sorry for upsetting anyone and good bye. i will finish my stage in silence. john tseng i totally agree

lml sorry if you think I am being offensive to my mentor. I have undoubtly learned a lot from working here and, yes, some items will be adapted to my own style, but at the end of the day, I don't see you here and I could quite honestly say that if you were, git would only be the start of the name calling. Only having fun, lighten up. ginger (git) chef.

the last one

had a magnificent meal here last month really given the full tour of michel guerrards repertoire. it was a welcome relief from to much messing around on the plate in spain and the saucing was second to none. if you say is it worth the three stars now. i say yes if it is consistent as it was in 1979 why change. the waterside and bocuse are all in the same style and they are consistent. they have found there formula and are sticking to it and if the results are consistent its not going to loose anything. the servise was typically french , good, relaxed and a little bit snobby. the whole area was beautiful and i dining alone was made to feel very comfortable. it was one of the best meals i have had

sorry about that i am on the anchovy salad . infact thats all i have done for four weeks. and the dish has changed three times. i am eating on wednesday i will see from the other side of the hot plate. really looking forward to it..................

i have just had a look at girl cooks comments on another thread but i think she may be working in a different kitchen to me because i dont see any of that. yes the pastry is more welcoming and the sous chef more human. all the stages are close they are in this together. incidentally five will be working at my restaurant when i return . the accomadation as i have said would almost get lenny henry in to do a new live aid if he didnt know it was spain. girl cook is very enthusiastic at work and so are so many of the others but i dont see what i am getting out of this . i am seeing nice food and the ideas are great but we want to be involved there are alot of young chefs here who are chomping at the bit and are being knocked down every time. one sous chef here hasnt made eye contact with me yet even though i say good morning and hold my hand out to shake. the food out of work has been a saviour for me and the cook books in san sebastian. as far sa i know girl cook has only eaten at akelare as yet so i dont know how she can comment on other restaurants in the area.this is not being nasty but look at the reaction i got when i said i had a badf meal at akelare and from what i can gather robert has had one at martins which i am yet to eat at but my suggestion would be to eat a la carte in small portions rather than the tasting menu. everyone is bored with plating this 99 percent of people have this and it becomes like a factory line in the kitchen. the carte especially the fish is what i came to see.

if work was a problem i would not be there now but i am treated slightly different .there is alot of shouting(no problem) there are alot of hours of work (no problem) but there is no respect in the kitchen. not for martin but for his paid staff. there are four chef de parties and four sous chefs who i can say quite honestly do nothing all day. this leaves the stages to run the kitchen functionally with no brief or direction apart from when something goes wrong . then all hell breaks loose. i find it hard to work in an unorganised scenario like this and i think the problem lies with the amount of free staff walking through the door and allowing the paid staff do nothing. at the moment there is a bit of a panic on because most stages are going back to school and this leaves very few stages except those here for two or three weeks. the accomadation is the worst i have ever experienced and we get alot of staff from south america who are down there for months. this makes them very depressed and can only be bad for there perception of this trade. i know if i was a college boy and i came here for three months i would be a post man now. if you are given respect and shown you can do the job by leading from the front the rest will follow, but unfortunately here it is not the case. i have been here 5 weeks now and have yet to be given a job that is in the least bit skillful. i am not allowed to touch the fish , meat , pastry. i am allowed prep but no cooking and the prep is simple. plating is my main job and every plate that goes out the door is done by a stage.

harsh would be the politically correct way of saying it. as i am not a politician i would say it is an eye opener and i feel for anyone who enters these kitchens for a long period. it is very much a kitchen on false pretenses.and whoever goes to stage ensure you have your own accomadation in and around lasarte do not stay in the restaurant. the kitchen brigade has dropped by 45 percent in the last four weeks we now have only 24 chefs. for 40 covers !!!! oh and the 800 people banquets we do on saturdays when we are supposedly fully booked.

unfortunately i have had not one conversation with a member of the front of house as they are not approachable and look down on all the stages. there is an air of snobbery from the waiters and the chefs have to carry the trays to the restaurant door and wait for a waiter to come through. why did you have a problem. i dont know what goes on out front but i would be very interested to know. this place is definetly different to what i expected but thats another story.