Matthew Grant

.....but they are cooking the well known 'welsh chinese' fusion. ← Yes, when I'm away for long periods I often get food cravings and the first thing I ask for when I get home is Welsh/Chinese Fusion. Stir fried lamb and leak, Lamb and leak hotpot (chinese style), Lamb and Leak Congee, Lamb and Leak pancake rolls. God how I miss them.

I'm realising more and more that its not worth eating out in London on a Saturday due to chefs (deservedly) taking the night off, I wonder if its the same here?

I went on Saturday night and while nothing was actively bad I certainly wouldn't go running back. Three course ALC is something like £44, the summer truffle supplement is now £12 which really is taking the piss considering how cheap and tasteless they are. Another special of Fillet of Aberdeen Angus with Foie gras and summer truffle carried, according to the Maitre D' a "very reasonable supplement of £15", I wish I had pointed out to him that this was a supplement of 33% - not so reasonable sounding now eh? As it was our dining partners fancied the tasting menu. Duck egg risotto was a little salty but carried the aforementioned summer truffles at no supplement and no flavour. I subbed in a "home smoked" salmon dish that proved the proverb wrong by being all smoke without fire. A glass dome topping the salmon filled with smoke that disappeared in a few seconds once lifted and left a piece of salmon that had apparently only been exposed to the smoke in the dome. It was overwhelmed by a vinegary dressing on the small salad. Cobnut soup with Scottish lobster was nutty but inappropriate for the lobster which was fridge cold and rather than warm up in the soup had the effect of making the soup cold. Roast duck Foie Gras, rhubarb compote elderflower milk soup was a little sickly, and I thought it could have done with some salt. Cornish Mackerel, cucumber, dill was the best dish of the night by some margin, perfectly cooked mackerel, crispy skin, barely cooked flesh served with slices of cucumber and a foam. New season lamb was meant to be served with smoked aubergine of which there was no sign and why it was served in a paper bag I've no idea as I couldn't for the life of me work out why needed to be cooked in a bag? Tamworth Suckling pig, summer carrots, garden peas and smoked ham was two thin slices of overcooked suckling pig, some nice crackling and in my case a single carrot (though one of our friends had 3 or 4), and smoked ham. (looking at Moby's pictures of this dish was I just unlucky or was he lucky?) Brown bread parfait with spiced Mayan chocolate was completely blah. Overall food aimed at getting a Michelin star and not much else.

At least they aren't cooking "Contemporary Indian Cuisine" which seems to be the case in around 99% of the new local Indian restaurants.

Maybe we need a repechage round

As far as I can find it ain't cheap, your best bet is ebay, alternatively try Clifton Foods and barter with them.

They were the best chefs I had seen last night and I thought that each of them could have won some of the other heats. Interesting that they specified that one of them was an events chef so presumably the others are restaurant chefs?

Or you could join one of the coach parties that visit for lunch.

I'll second that, I've been twice and neither occasion has wowed me, indeed the last time I went the chips were positively awful.

Sorry, I forgot it was a branding, I knew it involved a knife of some kind If he has toned things down I might have to try and get back there myself.

In a nutshell Wareing cooks very good French influenced food and is a talented chef supposedly constrained by working for Gordon Ramsay, we'll see if this is true once he goes it alone, I believe he can get three stars. Aikens is the enfant terrible of British cooking famous for stabbing a chef in his brigade before disappearing and working for Andrew Lloyd Weber as his private chef. Now he owns a restaurant where each dish takes a gazillion ingredients and he throws them at the plate after cooking (well that's how it looked to me anyway).

How about a series focusing on a different chef each week, a trip around the worlds gastronomic destinations, one hour each show a little of their background, the restaurant, explaining their style and then having them cook two or three dishes, not something simple that you can make with supermarket ingredients costing under £5. No "if you haven't got truffles just leave them out", I want "take a 1lb lobe of foie gras and poach it in fat taken from a virgins thighs" type stuff, the things that are not possible to make at home unless you're backed by a sovereign wealth fund and have a personal staff of 10.

Oh God! Is this really the future of British cooking, is this what the "foodie revolution" has produced? A bunch of TV chef wannabe's who aspire to earning one Michelin star and a string of restaurants. A load of chefs who seemingly can't follow a set of instructions or grill a piece of fish? Embarassing is all I can say, the voiceover really needs to calm it down a bit and next year how about simply televising the Roux scholarship so that we can actually see some professional chefs cooking decent food. As mentioned upthread and by myself elsewhere on this site, why can't we have a TV programme that really does show a decent standard of cooking, not necessarily something everybody can cook at home but something that people might actually watch and simply enjoy because of the skill that has gone into producing it. The amateur masterchef has alluded to the 3* restaurants being some of the best in the world isn't there anyway that we could have a series showing those chefs in action? Is anybody working on these TV shows reading these boards because I would love to know the answer?

I Hope your still waiting when I get there at the beginning of October

Agreed. Apart from a couple the standard's been dire. No wonder it's such hard work getting a decent restaurant meal in this country. ← Absolutely Scott, according to the fucking annoying voice over lady "Cooking doesn't get better than this". If that's the case I'm not eating out again. The public deserves better. Do producers ever consult with food lovers when they are developing these programmes? Notice how one of the biggest honours they give a dish is that they would pay for it. I should hope so! They are professional chefs!

That fucking voiceover drives me mad as well. They are not "exceptional young chefs".

For a delicious meal you could go to the River Cafe. It satisfies both the "delicious" and the "Italian" criteria whilst also meeting "the ingredient driven" specification In addition you're quite likely to find yourself dining next to an A list celeb which may impress your young victim.

Did I hear correctly that tonight is the final? At least the contestants tonight seemed alittle more able but seriously, things like the chicken, forgetting the fact that it was raw how about browning it a little? Some of the contestants are no better than the amateurs. Is Greg Wallace pregnant?

I saw my first full episode last night, I was shocked at how poor the plating was especially from the guy who had been a chef for 8 years and was interested in the artistic side of things. Presumably the CV's contain names such as the Happy Eater and Dave's Caff

I've only been to Assaggi once and couldn't believe the hype. Ordinary ingredients and ordinary cooking.

I'd be curious to know as I would have thought a years worth of chicken production would be worth more than a years worth of turkey production.

I don't mean to sound cynical but if they are so great why do they only grow them at Easter?

Why does nobody mention The River Cafe when talking about Italian food, it may be expensive but it has, IMO, some of the best ingredients in London, simple food well done, surely what Italian food is about.

The River Cafe should be opening again next month.

Went for Sunday lunch this weekend. This is a no choice affair, three cold starters and a traditional roast beef dinner bought out at 14:00. We arrived at 13:00 for a couple of drinks beforehand and were the first people there but only by a few minutes. I love the room and the atmosphere was friendly if a little quiet, service was friendly and easy going. Smoked Salmon Pate was smooth and possibly not fishy enough, the smoke was a little overpowering. Rabbit brawn with peas and pea shoots was a little flavourless perhaps requiring a little more seasoning (a problem we wouldn't have later). A plate of 5 oysters were good, no idea which varieties they were and I need to eat more oysters before I can comment with any degree of authority. One smaller oyster was particularly briny and very nice. The main courses were bought to the larger tables first on platters and the beef was looking very nicely cooked, unfortunately tables of two were served last and already plated up. The gravy was salty and over reduced with little to distinguish it. Potatoes were a bit of an abomination, very salty and is it possible they were deep fried, they were so even in colour that I fear they were The beef was OK, a little overcooked by the time we got it but still a little pink in the middle, they was nothing particularly special about it and I felt that it could have been hung for longer. Yorkshires were fine and it was accompanied by more peas, carrots and an unidentified green (black cabbage?). For Dessert I actually had a forgettable cheese, well it would have been forgettable if it wasn't so bloody big. There was a nice chutney with it. Amadei chocolate mousse, was chocolate mousse. Overall I had a lovely afternoon but more to do with the company (my other half) than the food which in hindsight was overpriced at £34.50.