Matthew Grant

Where have you seen this? Its certinly not that comon among the better restaurants in London.

I've got a copy of the book now (I paid for it through Amazon before anybody asks) and there are lots of recipes from the restaurant, I'm not sure whether all of them have appeared on the menu at one pont or another. Whilst I haven't actually cooked form the book it has plenty of easily prepared dishes that are in keeping with the style of the restaurant and would provide some nice dinner party dishes, there is a good selection of vegetable dishes and salads (something I think Anthony does very well) and favourite desserts such as the Illes Flottante and Cheesecake are also there. A good counterpoint to the Fat Duck cookbook recently released! Today's Special

September review in the Observer

Plenty of links to False morels claiming toxicity (the two I posted are examples)

Fantastic!

What about false morels? I kow that some chefs (e.g. Ducasse) might use them but their is some debate as to whether they are actually safe to eat. Gyromitra esculenta False Morel

Pumpkin stuffed with Morcilla, pine nutes and apple, apple sauce and cabbage (a complete ripoff of a tapas I had in San Sebastian) Pheasant with Salmi sauce and vegetables Mopped up the sauce with home made sourdough

My one experience of the India club was enough to last me a lifetime, I know that the Majumdars love this place but I had one of the absolute worst Indian meals I have eaten in this country and that includes all the typical high street suspects, there were no redeeming features that I can remember.

Setting food aside, romantic is not a word I would use to describe the Capital, more akin to a nice corridor with table and chairs

Splash the cash a little and hop on the train to Louis XV, the best value lunch I know.

I've only had a brief look through it but it does contain interpretations of recipes from the restaurant and has some nice ideas using more affordable cuts which is in keeping with the style of the restaurants.

Perhaps you'd care to expand on your needs so that you can get relevant advice?

I love watching the kitchen at the Anchor and Hope, two people working there proverbials off and turning out decent food to boot.

Roger I was simply taking you to task because you said that people that like Pizza Express don't care about food. I care about food and I also think that Pizza Express is probably the best chain restaurant I know (not that I frequent many). I'm also well able to tell the difference between Arbutus and El Bulli having eaten at both. Curiously I don't think that I am an exception to the rule judging by some of the other posts here

My names Matthew, I care about food, I like Pizza Express, I like Arbutus, I don't like El Bulli.

Gordon Ramsay, Joel Robuchon...anybody who's served a chocolate coulant for dessert, that guy in Australia who ripped of Alinea dishes presentation and all. There must be hundreds.

Abac was good. It is a beautiful room, I imagine it would be very nice at lunchtime with the sun coming through the curtains but at night it was lovely. I love those lights. Crab tartare with avocado and mushrooms was exquisitely fresh. Scallops with a potato Blinis was very good if only for the beautiful scallops topped with pepper (espelette?). The portion looked very large due to the scallops being sliced, I would have thought that they ere cut into three pieces but apparently they managed five slices from every scallop, The blinis didn't really work coming across more like a heavy omelette. We shared a middle course of Macaroni, with Lobster Bolognese. What a great dish, a beautiful rich ragu stuffed into the pasta. topped with small slices of Lobster and a foamed bisque sauce. A real luxury tasting dish that IMO wouldn't have been out of place in a 3 star restaurant. Main courses were perhaps less successful . I had the suckling pig with Mango tatin. The pork was lovely but the tatin did little to elevate it. Milk fed lamb appeared to be rolled shoulder that had been cooked sous-vide. I just don't get cooking a dish like shoulder sous-vide, what is the point? The fat hadn't broken down enough and paired with a vanilla sauce and chicory just didn't work at all though Rachel conceded that this is down to her taste (and mine). The restaurant did query why it had been left and offered to replace it but Rachel declined. Coffee baba to finish was very good, not overly sweet and pleasantly light. Excellent service and Xavier Pellicer was very friendly when he came to chat at the end of the evening.

Dos Palillos was fantastic, this should be a must on a visit to Barcelona. Great clean tastes and good produce. Superb razor clams with Thai red curry kaffir lime and long leaf coriander , Aubergine tempura, japo burger (a mini burger, lovely sweet and sour veg as a dressing), Shitake mushrooms had been lightly battered and fried caps and were finished with a little yuzo. I forget everything we ate but remember also good gyoza, gambas, Vietnamese spring rolls and two fabulous desserts. Mango Flan was basically a creme Catalan flavoured with Mango Puree and an almond sponge cake made us laugh out loud it was so light (piped from a whipped cream canister and microwaved for 30 seconds). Overall great and sensible use of Asian flavours. Make sure you book in advance, we only just sneaked in to the back room. Albert Raurich was an excellent host and happy to recommend dishes once we had finished our first wave.

Hisop didn't really do it for me, the dishes seemed a little thrown together. E.g. the Foie dish came with chocolate, espresso, liquorice stick and grapes, unfortunately the grapes just weren't sweet enough to balance the dish properly it was also lacking in salt. The monkfish with chanterelles, marrow fat atop a bed of unnecessary spinach was a little bland some of which was probably down to the seasoning and some down to some dull fish. Sadly the Prune and Armagnac ice cream that came with the lamb cutlets and sweetbreads would have been nice with the Foie, this dish was a a touch lukewarm. Desserts were more successful with a take on a mojito and another chocolate dessert with chocolate stuff and goats milk stuff being a nice way to finish the meal. Overall it was Good value though, the tasting menu cost less than ordering three courses, the wine pairings added only another €12 each and I'd probably give it another go if I lived here. There were only two other tables occupied on Thursday night.

I made a dish like that and I didn't even know I'd done it.

The more I watch this the more I think you might be right Gary. Michelin is mentioned every other sentence, nobody wants the top rating in any other guide book, the voiceover constantly mentions Michelin stars, every restaurant visited, mentioned has Michelin stars, don't get me wrong I stil think it has relevance as a guide but this is almost like an advert, I'd be curious to know if any marketing people have been involved in the making of this programme?

Good meal at the Anchor and Hope on Saturday, griddled spring onions with Romesco sauce to start followed by and excellent rib of beef (Herefordshire), very nicely cooked with good Bearnaise. Chips were a bit average though. Damson Bakewell tart was lovely to finish.

I agree with that, my point was that they were blinded by Michelin but only to the point that they wanted one star and lacked the ambition to get three. I'd respect somebody that came on and said "Fuck Michelin stars, I'm going to rewrite the rulebook with regard to good cooking"

Unfortunately this is true, unfortunately everybody (have you seen Professional Masterchef) aspires to earning "a michelin star", nobody seems to ctually aspire to earning three (putting financial considertaions aside), which seems very sad for UK food

Do you mean leek, or is the food highly diuretic? ← Well I pissed myself laughing when I heard the idea?