ginger chef

robert sorry we didnt meet up, waiting staff wouldnt pass a message on to you to visit the kitchen. i would be very intersted to know what you thought of martins from a customer view.

sorry guys just what i thought of the meal. it was the same as the persons before i just didnt have my menu in the internet cafe with me. but i am afraid to say i will stick with my views and say it was bad. i have been across the border but that should be on the french pages but i can say i had one of the most perfectly cooked and tastiest meals in my life at michel guerard. all though classical the roots the dishes tasted of what the ingredients were. i dont under estimate michelin at all and if they are looking at new style and they are now moving into ethnic restaurants more i would say it was different maybe i was just not eating with an open mind and eating as a chef. i have done bulli. i can report this but i will need my menu. i also have photos again of every dish. as to say martins kitchens are traditional are in some ways true. his food reflects his basque heritage and something he is very proud of. but in other ways it is a bit on the edge. but more than not he is safe with his cooking and what he understands and is comfortable with. i do find his food a little short of skill and i havent seen alot that has blown me away. but his ideas are good and i am learning alot all the time. apart from not speaking a word of spanish apart from the bad ones which only chefs seem to pick up first. once again sorry for the negative report but its just my view and shouldnt be taken to heart in the end of the day hes the one with two stars not me. maybe i am jealous. no i'm not it was bad

the guide is the one you mention and from the chefs i work with this is the one they follow.but i will look at the other one also. i dont believe the restaurants should be demoted of their stars i was just expecting alot more consistency through the meals.

i will start with akelare. akelare has two stars which in terms of great britain ranks alongside le manoir, gavroche ,champignon sauvage. but i had been told that this place was on the brink of three so i was quite excited about eating there. i ate with a felow chef from a famous restaurant in chicago and we both had alternative tasting menus my meal and his started with a trio of amuses , being a pea soup, a jelly of ham with capsicum crisps and a piece of hake with breadcrumbs. these all were ok but the ham mousse was basically just whipped cream with diced iberico through it . first course for me was foie gras sandwich which came out as a triangle piece of terrine sandwhiched between two pieces of meringue which had been set with gelatine and accompanied by a foie gras soup. the sandwich was good but the meringue got very sickly after a while and the soup for me was not needed and just seemed to be an after thought it was basically chicken stock with blended foie gras . very greasy and very salty. my friend had a shellfish soup which came to the table and the witer poured something on it and some sort of chemical reaction went off and it fizzed up which was quite impressive but it immediately disappered and left a salty clear fish stock with clams, mussels, percebes and razor clams in it. my next course was tempura of lettuce and tiger prawns and my friend had the same as his dish was one he could not eat due to an allergy. this dish came out in a bowl and was basically what it said lettuce deep fried with two tiger prawns and some vinaigrette which had turned 50 percent of the salad soggy. the prawn also had its dirt track still in and this i believe is one thing that top end restaurants should take care of. next course was a veal terrine for me and red mullet for him. my terrine was pressed tongue with a piece of crackling and stock which unfortunately was totally undercooked the terrine was impossible to cut and the tongue was un peeled and still hairy in places i left this dish. the red mullet was a fillet of mullet on a bed of tomatoe sauce and that was it. the mullet was badly prepared and not trimmed before cooking and he removed three bones and quite a few scales from his fish. next we both ahd a sorbet course which was a basil , rosemary and tarragon sorbets all served as granites or scoops and one on a stick. these were acceptable but i found as a refresher these flavours were all to strong and the granite had partly melted before getting to the table and as it was tarragon it had tainted the flavours of all the others. main course for me was pigeon with germinated beans. nothing to saty really its exactly what it was. my friend had veal with a chicken stock and fruits. this was disgusting the veal had been rolled in what i can only think was charcoal or maybe cooked in a dirty pan but it was really bad and the fruits were dried fruit and soaked in the stock. very very bad. dessert next and i had pineapple and coconut parcels which were nice and refreshing but again the coconut ice cream was almost a suce before it had reached the table. my friend had rhubarb soup with chocolate. this came to the table in a square bowl and was covered with a crunchy topping like a brulee and then the soup was underneath. there was a little ravioli on top of this crunch. this beat the veal in flavour as it really was bad and the chocolate and rhubarb were totally working against each other. our final dessert was a citrus box with strawberry sorbet. this was presented nicely and was a box made of the same nougatine as the rhubarb topping .this was built around a soft lemon sponge and the sorbet was next to it. ok but not mind blowing. so that was the food. the service was pleasant and good apart from asking the sommelier to choose a wine for us to match the dishes and he chose one he recommended for all of the dishes and then half way through the bottle he came over and apologised that he had given us the table next to us their wine which was 40 euros more. overall i personally feel that he was trying to hard with his dishes and forgetting people have to eat them. the flavours should really be looked at and two stars is very very generous . or maybe spain is getting to much hype . the setting of akelare was beautiful and this is a location that says threee stars all over it but not on the day i ate. i have photos of all the dishes on disc if someone can tell me how to post them i will put them on. and you can make your own decision. i also have photos of mugaritz,zuberoa and arzak.

so far i have eaten at zuberoa, mugaritz, kursaal, akelare, and arzak . so if you want my point of view kursaal had nothing to prove and apart from an excellent meal at mugaritz all the others are lucky to have michelin stars. kursaal was 48 euros for a 7 course tasting menu where arzak was 110 and kursaal was by far more interesting, tasty and presented with a passion that the chef wants to achieve something not that he is sitting back and just letting people come i n due to his reputation. definetly do the grupo martin. i go to guggenheim next week which is rated higher in the spanish guides than some two stars. incidentally mugaritz is rated the same as martin berasategui in spains major guide and the two are only beaten by bulli. i can give a full menu breakdown of all places if needed.

i saw your reservation in mbs book the other day. hope you have a good meal and look forward to your thoughts.

thanks that sounds right up my street, i am trying to get to see both the three star and the tapas/brasserie side as i have to serve both styles of restaurant when i return to the uk. any other ideas no matter how off the wall would be greatly received.

would like to know if anyone has been for lunch(cant make dinner) at michel guerards recently as i would like to get there but dont want to travel if its past its best. they do a set lunch only, also is this a good show of what they can do. any other suggestions, possibly toulouse .

i stayed at tour rose and if my room was anything to go by 24 hours in the boys room would be like solitary confinement. i didnt eat at cour des loges because as you said the vegetables were at the forefront of the menu and in someways i wasnt sure if it was a veggi menu. just didnt appeal to me . then i heard it was one of the best in town. but hadnt got a star. auberge de lille was my best meal in lyon followed by chapel just out of town

andy, nice write up thankyou, i totally agree with the likeness of the brill and the pigeon but what can i say i like foie gras. on a serious note the waiters are trained to know the ingredients of each dish and if this happens they usually should mention to the diner and offer an alternative. we dont mention the word foie gras on the description of the pigeon so it is a bit of an extra we did at one point use the liver and leg meat in a samosa but pigeon liver didnt appeal to the customers and was normally pushed aside. if i do recall though your table pre ordered at one of your coffee breaks so i am gathering there was no waiter to go through the menu . but still no excuse. dessert side is a little suprising i feel all our desserts are quite accesible in a market where most people dont actually get that far and we tend to offer dishes that are recognisable and add a twist that is nt mentioned. they are safe is what i am trying to say. pastry chefs are a rare and expensive breed so most kitchens i know dont actually employ one and the main kitchen actually produce the desserts. the music has gone. we lost this the day after you came (thank goodness) it was like being trapped on hold for the rest of your life . is their any decent background music out there. the waiters do tend to disappear at times but we usually only have one on duty and if coffees or liquers are needed they have to go to the brasserie. overall thankyou for the positive feed back it has been taken in but you did mention the large beds in the rooms what i can recall is you didnt actually sleep in yours or was that another conference i was thinking of.

not a problem, all is coming together well now got my reservations in at zuberoa, akelare, arzak, mugaritz,panier fleuri ,urepel and fagollaga just to start me off. having regular emails from a chef also stage at mb and all looks good. not long now.

still waiting for a reply, i'm already packed and standing at the door with my passport

i,m waiting for a reply as i am able to go.

went 10 days ago dont know if it was him or chris staines, where has chris staines gone. lunch was very good value just feel thet are trying to hard with the luxury ingredients. only six people for lunch though.

my food has evolved year in year out, i have travelled the world due to competitions at one point i visited and competed in 9 countries in four months, i have gotten to eat in the best restaurants , meet the best chefs and gain respect from my peers. the one problem i have faced which is down to my own doing is that i have progressed quite quickly as a young chef and been in a semi media spotlight which has given people the impression that i am better than i actually am, i have been offered jobs that i couldnt do with my skill level and generally looked on as older than i actually am( even though the caterer think i am 38) . i had a lot of jealousy when i became a head chef at 22 , people in my brigade were older and most resented this. i also feel the oppurtunity i was given to become head chef came to soon and i hadnt learnt enough in junior positions especially kitchen management ( i was still a little shit) but once i was inthe position it was of my own making and i stuck to it and this is now my fourth head chefs job and biggest challenge yet and i feel even though at times i slip a little and become one of the lads , i am now alot more respected in the kitchen. on the food side the competitions have given me ideas and chefs from allover the world to converse with and swap and change ideas. my food has grown with me and i am pleased with what is being produced but it will and shall get better.

the dish was better than expected i was personally expecting a fish dish(some sort of souffle which is always a nightmare in ovens you dont know) meat was a bonus. we got given a 3kg best end of veal, 1 litre of basic stock, 10 new potatoes, 6 baby carrots, 2 baby gems, 500g girolles, 2 shallots, 100g rice, flour, cheese, a truffle, salt , pepper, butter, onion, clove, thyme, watercress, . the dish was to be served as read sliced on the bone with soubise sauce and truffle interleaving each slice and then covered and glazed with soubise and mornay , vegetables of our descretion. 2 hours to cook a 3 kg piece of veal. we were not realy allowed to ask questions regarding the dish but i did ask victor cesaranni if the veal had to be cooked through and he nodded. so i gathered from this it was to be pot roasted. firstly i chimed the saddle and chopped all the trimmings and browned them off as quick as possible added the stock and then sealed the meat off with as much colour as possible. deglased the pan and poured the juices in with the stock , placed in the veal and whacked it in the oven. made my soubise which i had never made before and then made the cheese sauce which i havent made since staff food days. then on to my vegetables. i boiled the potatoes in their skins and then cut them in half scored them and sauted them in chopped thyme and salt, i just sugared the carrots as they were young i let their flavour do the talking, i sauted the lettuce and watercress with shallot and the remaining truffle and a few girolles and sauted the other girolles and mixed with a little thyme. by this point my veal was medium so i removed it from the stock and reduced my stock down in three different pans . i removed the meat from the bone and put the bone back in the oven to cook it through, i sliced and grilled the remaining veal and then assembled it as they had asked . it looked like road kill and as i was first to serve i had no one else to copy so out it went. nathan outlaw who was working next to me served next and his was totally different he served his rice as a garnish and served his veal pink, so did a few others i saw go past. after we werent given a brief on what they were lookig for and only the guy from claridges said he had done it before. but i was obviously the closest dont know how. all the judges were there and also some of the previous scholars,andre, sat, steve drake and andrew fairlie. to be honest the only chefs to walk round were michel roux and michel junior and the others stayed out of the way. we competed in the kitchens of foliage and were given commis to wash our pans from chris staines team which was a nice touch.

had a visit yesterday, if it happens it happens . not going to bust my balls. the restaurant does well and the brasserie is full lunch and dinner. thats more important . michelin dont pay the wages

hi samantha, long term plans, like most aspiring chefs is for their own establishment but with current climate , i am very happy were i am , i have a good hard working dedicated team and i feel very comfortable when i am away from the kitchen that everything is being adhered to. i have a lot of things going on outside of work which most chefs might say would be away from what i am doing but at the end of the day i need to earn money and i dont want to wilt away at the stoves when i am 50 . i have the next 3 to 4 years to see if i have what it takes to be a well respaected chef not a superstar but someone who is someone in the industry not just for winning competitions , that is my hobby (and pays for holidays) but someone who can cut it on the stoves. i know i can i just need the rest of the country to see beyond the ccompetitions

The roux scholarship was a major challenge and was a competition i was sweating over entering , like i said i was happy to reach the final ( in the semis you could cook a dish of your own interpretation) due to the vast array of prizes and the great show they put on. so when it came to the final i just wanted to feel comfortable with what i was cooking as there was no way i could learn the whole reportoire in two weeks. My classical knowledge is slightly blinkered. what i have cooked as a young chef might have been given a modern name on the menu and then someone has said "oh thats so and so from escoffier" which in a way it was, just written differently. At the swallow in bristol where i worked when i won the youth skills we had a lobster sauce on the menu and this was the only description i had of it. then in the year i was in the final of the roux in 2001 we had to make a sauce nantua which totally lost me until i read the recipe and realised it was basically the lobster sauce. so in a way i had an indirect classical knowledge. but i have done stages at the connaught and claridges and i have seen the use of proper classical menus and they totally lost me. it is a shame but it is also quite hard for me to go back and re learn the whole reportoire. In the youth skills we had mystery boxes on a daily basis over three days on day one we had to prepare our stocks for day two. day two consisted of : a fish terrine for twelve people with one portion plated with three garnishes (i did a terrine of salmon mousse with monkfish fillet through the centre wrapped in spinach served with langoustine tails and fennel ceviche and a mayo made from the langoustine shells) a salad of asparagus for four people( i made a warm asparagus mousse with smoked chicken, salad laves and a pine nut salad) a bavarois for six people ( i made a vanilla bavarois topped with a strawberry jelly and served with a lemon sorbet and strawberry coulis and spun sugar) a choux pastry dessert for six people ( i made apple beinets with a caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream Day three was a mystery box four course menu which had to include a consomme. I made : a tian of marinated and smoked salmon topped with creme friche and a suace of saffron and dill consomme of beef and madiera with summervegetables roast supreme of duckling on chive pomme puree , a sausage made from the leg meat and a cumin braised cabbage and honey jus baked ouef a la neige with strawberry coulis centre and fresh berries day four was a set menu done in your own style : starter was a seafoof ravioli. i made two raviolis one being spinach pasta filled with langoustine and fennel bound in a salmon mousse the other being saffron pasta filled with lobster mousseline, these were placed on carroy spaghetti and served with beurre blanc and a buttered soy sauce. main was lamb rack, dauphonoise potatoes and turned vegetables. I made a herb crust and placed that on the lamb ,then i made an apple and mint dauphonoise in a rosti tray and placed the lamb on top with a selection of turned vegetables. dessert was a fruit tart. I made individual tarts filled with grand marnier creme pat and then topped with sliced fruit, place a ball of lemon sorbet on top and a sugar spring. Each day was four hours long with no prior mis en place except for day one and you could only use the ingredients given to you. The whole trip was a real ball breaker, and i was in lyon the home of gastronomy and getting verbal all day from the french students who were visiting. at one point i had security guards around my station it was that bad.

marlene, it depends on what sort of competition you enter, some are set classes such as fish, game,pasta etc these competitions you are given a schedule before you enter and this will give you full details of the class , such as time ,ingredients allowed and portions to be served, other competitions could be mystery box where you turn up on the day with your equipment and half an hour before the start you are given a list of ingredients to write and prepare your menu from. this is the one i prefer as it has no preparation and everyone is in the same boat and we can see who can cook . alot of chefs are very limited on there pastry experience and this is one section i particularly enjoy and normally is the way of turning the judges to your overall skill level. when i train my commis chefs they may practice the dish in competition circumstances 7 or 8 times before they have got it right but then it could all go wrong on the day in seconds

macrosan, to be honest the food in the restaurant always goes out better than in competitions due to the fact you are in a familiar working enviroment with familiar equipment more staff and more time to present and change your dishes, in competitiions the food is always presented as well but slight changes happen such as not always having enough time to rest the meat not being able to add a certain ingredient that might finish it off and the main problem of if you screw something up you cant yell at a commis to fetch some more you do without. i would agree that the intensity in certain competitions is more than at work but this depends on practice and if all is going well , i am very relaxed in competitions and also at work ,its a calming influence that goes through the whole kitchen. being relaxed also acts as a bit of an advantage in competitions espaecially when other competitors are watching you and you can see them getting very frustrated and you are just plodding along.but alot of chefs dont agree with competitions and dont alow or enter their chefs as they are worried of the effect it would have on their reputation. some of the best competitiion chefs are contract caterers and dont necessarily cook that type of food at all. i actively encourage all my staff to enter

the hotel website is www.cotswoldhouse.com which has menus it should be updated with photos of kitchen and food early next week and you can read about the scholarship on www.rouxscholarship

at home not much cooking goes on really, wrong hours to start cooking when i get in and days off tend to be away from home,. i absolutely love scallops and pork belly and i usually order foie gras of some description when i am out. at home i admit i am a bit of a slob but i have some great restaurants to eat at in cheltenham, le champignon sauvage is 5 minute walk away and lunch is a steal. had lunch at foliage last week and dinner at vatra and hakkasan, going to the fat duck on friday with a few of my team. eating out as you all know is most chefs release.

che like i said the dishes i do are usualy on the a la carte or we offer them as a special and explain to the customer what they are for and ask if we can have comments, this usually works well as the customer feels paart of the process. sometimes when we have a regular in we will send the dish out free and go and have a sit down with them and see what perspective they have. alot of the time it is for friends who come to dine and as chefs do throw in an extra course. another thing i tend to do is look at the judges and previous judges and see what style and background they are from. you are more likely to win with a pork belly dish with gayler judging than if you have some celebrity from big brother. one thing i teach all my chefs is make sure you are first to serve this not only gives the judges a bench mark to work on it also ensures they have a clean palate and most importantly it scares the hell out of the other competitors.

i treat all competitions equally as i want to win them. the scholarship is a different set up as much as you are told what to cook half an hour before you start and it tends to be a classic dish with garnish for six covers on a silver flat. i have hardly any knowledge of classical cuisine and to be given a recipe i can hardly pronounce is always a challenge. i entered the scholarship two years ago and got to the final when steve drake won it and i have never competed so badly in all my life . but i came away with a lot of prizes (for losing) and it didn't really feel that bad. when i entered this year i was again going for just a final place as its a great night out and there a lot of contacts to be made. i never thought i would win and even more i was the only winner, this year there was no second place awarded. pressure for the competition was never really in my mind, i just didnt want to come away with every judge thinking i was useless so i went for taste totally even if i couldnt really understand the dish.