Matthew Grant

I appreciate that its meant to be a fun concept and I love champagne and hot dogs, I'm just not sure I'd want them at the same time.

I'm just trying to get my head around a champagne that is supposed to match blue cheese, celery and spicy sauce, that seems very gimmicky, i wonder whether the name came first?

I'm shocked at how soon some of these restaurants were serving Grouse. The first shoot of the season was on Monday 13th and some places had them ready to serve on the 14th!?!? For me one day isn't long enough. I did have Grouse at Arbutus, it was served with wild blueberries and its offal on toast. It was very good not the strongest grouse I've had but nice enough (the offal was especially good), the wild blueberries were a first for me and they worked well.

http://www.squaremeal.co.uk/feature/starter-10-interview-mikael/14131

In my experience chefs in the public eye are unlikely to slate a meal by another chef in the public eye, this is understandable. I also think its fair to say that chefs often look for different things in a meal, especially from a technical perspective. From this we can deduce that John Campbell might be right or he might be wrong :-)

I liked the Deus, I've had it a couple of times since but when drinking it never feels like a beer, not sure if thats a good thing or not.

Don't bother with Adrias beer if you see it, Its not bad but not worth the premium and why should it be any good? A bit like paying £200 for a meal cooked by a brewer at Timothy Taylor's.

With regard to Dabbous i keep hearing this 2013 rumour yet they only take reservations 8 weeks in advance - how does that work or is it just more clever marketing?

Good luck finding anyone who agrees with either of those statements! Well, I could make a start with the jury of the World's 50 Best! You might want to talk to some Jury members to see the rules behind voting.

If its the best food your after look no further than Hedone.

For anybody that did get a table its worth noting that travel will be a nightmare - this is slap bang in the middle of the Olympics.

O'Sheas Butchers in Knightsbridge (run by Jacks brother). Co-incidently that's what I had for dinner last night: Served with lightly spiced carrots, kale and a garnish/condiment thing made of plum, ginger and a red wine vinegar reduction. Really good pork, excellent marbling. Expensive but worth it, as good as the stuff Jack used to get (probably the same supplier)

I agree, i can accept it as a 2 star but needs to do a lot more ( especially with regard to ingredient quality) to get 3 stars imo. Service is excellent.

Reasonable value but really nothing special imo

I hate to be the one to tell you this but it's Comte not Compte. If you ever find yourself In Alsace, Bernard Antony should be a "must do" a non descript village with very little other than His shop. Having said that there have been rumblings that the quality has been falling , I believe a couple of places have stopped using him. I suspect this may be to do with the increased abailability, he used to be very particular about who he sent his cheese to. The 4 year old Comte was very special, I haven't had it in a while but I would hazard a guess that with it available so many places that it is probably a younger cheese, still good but not his very best.

Why would you feel the need to book under a different name? Are you writing about food professionally now?

We've already had dot compositions, I'm just racking my brain trying to remember where

Yep, it seems that Malouf was recruited extremely quickly considering he was already running a restaurant in Oz

Mine is hanging indoors, fairly cool but not especially so. I can't really do much during the height of summer but this time of year is OK, have you got a small utility room or anything? Worth a go, especially when cheeks are so cheap (£2 each at GP).

Go to a western venue and ask them for a dinner for 60, see what the price is and then tell them its a wedding and see if it changes

Trencherman I was only talking to somebody yesterday about exactly that! Aikens was one of the most original chefs when he opened Restaurant Tom Aikens, it may not all have been to my taste but he was at least different to everyone else.

I've only ever seen fresh or smoked cheeks in the GP, never a straight cure?

I can't get onto Natoora website at the moment but I believe their Guanciale is from Antica Macelleria Falorni, if so it is really excellent. The lardo from that butchers is also excellent. If you ever find yourself in Greve it is a must visit butchers. http://www.falorni.it/IT/it_home.php Have you ever tried making it yourself? It's about the easiest piece of charcuterie to prepare that you'll come across, I've got one curing at the moment

I'm taking that last comment back, apparently his book was first published in 1999!

Bit of a bloody cheek naming his book the same as Claudia Rodens book!