Matthew Grant

I would have thought that the "foodies" that would be drawn to the show would be in the hundreds of thousands at best. I bet that Ainsley Harriot would be a more popular draw with the regular public but he wouldn't provide enough friction to make the format work. I think we should start a campaign to get marco back in the kitchen. I'd love to see him come back and get three stars.

But don't they watch because its a celebrity chef as well? Ramsay, Novelli, Rhodes - they weren't exactly new names to the public, they already had a certain appeal beyond foodies, maybe only to non foodies? . Marco guarantees people with an interest in food and not a lot else (I would of thought).

There were so many great lines in that one programme I can't remember them all Unfortunately you are right that he is the one chef most of us want to see cook. It's also unfortunate that the majority of the country don't have a clue who he is so won't give a monkey's about the cooking aspect. Why on earth would they know him? How on earth would the general public know who he is, a man who left the kitchen several years ago and cooked at a level that most people haven't experienced even since then, a time when the food revolution in the country (I use the term firmly with my tongue in my cheek) really took off. No appearances on Saturday morning kitchen, rescuing inner city rebels from a life of crime, no cooking as much as humanely possible in 15 minutes or travelling around outer Mongolia extolling the virtues of slow cooked Yak. IMO ITV really took a risk using him instead of one of the other rent a mob chefs.

That was a great response to the person that criticised the pigs trotter "Pigs trotter chicken and egg - that's just wierd". No sir, that is a classic dish, one which I'm pretty certain Marco used to credit Koffman with on his menu. Incidentally, I notice that somebody sold a copy of a menu from the oak room on ebay recently for £12.50. You can see that clip (as well as the whole show) here

Oooh! 30 Black and white 35 full colour photos - is that the same as the original release? Shame it's not in hardback.

The way the guy was left speechless was just fantastic, completely took the wind out of his sails. Great TV.

Why were you disappointed? Marco's reputation preceded him and he certainly lived up to it. I thought he was pretty inspiring and terrifying at the same time. i too hope that we get to see some more food though. As for the sous chefs, yeah they got the arse but maybe we need to see the whole sequence rather than the edits to understand why, it must be pretty frustrating trying to run a kitchen with a complete brigade of novices knowing that you are going to get hit with close to 80 covers in a couple of hours.

Another very good meal at the Sportsman on Saturday. We hadn’t pre ordered the tasting menu so manfully worked our way through the Ham, bread and 3 starters. The ham seemed to have improved since the first time I was there, good farmyard flavours and a touch salty. Good bread and butter as previously. Salmagundi was fabulous, the home grown vegetables were really good quality, peas and broad beans really standing out, you could really see the Michel Bras influence in this dish. Smoked mackerel with a crab apple jelly worked really well, the sweet jelly marrying with the beautiful smoked fish, I’m not sure if they are smoking it themselves? The Crab risotto is really dark and has excellent deep flavours as previously described, I’d forgotten how good it is. Brill with cepes highlighted very good fish and lovely buttery cepes which unfortunately (or fortunately) came from France, Roast chicken with cepes was a large breast of decent but not outstanding chicken but the dish itself, simple as it was, worked well. Strawberry ice-cream, churned to order had great texture. My dessert was three different elements, a strawberry ice lolly with cake milk, raspberry milkshake and the junket as previously described by Moby. A top notch restaurant in a casual setting. Not even a borderline one star, I can’t believe it hasn’t got one already, surely this year?

I've no ide how they hang it, i was just trying to demonstrate that 3 weeks is nothing special these days. I've no doubt that Broad Stripes would be better than Tesco. Another thing I don't like is giving their beef a brandname

Good meal here last night. I'd have liked the charcuterie to be a little thicker and hand carved but no great loss. Reasonable croquetas, which in the London scheme of things ranks them pretty highly. Spinach Raviolis with cabrales sauce had good flavour without the cheese becoming too overbearing, on the other hand Gambas Al Ajillo could, IMO, have done with more garlic, the prawns themselves were good. A bowl of Padron peppers and a plate of Chorizo cooked in cider rounded off the starters, the sauce heavily reduced and sweet. A main course of suckling pig was good, apparently fresh pig, not frozen, cooked well, crispy on the outside melting in the middle and suitably fatty, the way it should be. Solomillo de buey had good flavour nd a nice charred exterior but was a little tough though this might be expected, I believe it was using Ox, as was the entrecote enjoyed by another in our group. The Iberico pork was a little disappointing and lacking in flavour. A shared plate of Patatas bravas was merely OK, I don't know if I've ever had a plate, even in Spain, that ever leads me to believe that they can be anything more than an average accompaniment. A cheesecake dessert was unfortunately marred by pieces of gelatine. Overall a decent meal and despite its tucked away location I'll happily be back again!

Do the winners actually get to keep the same restaurant they were running? If so were you prepared to leave Erika?

In the baking section of your local supermarket!

I've had Dexter hung for 6 weeks - best piece of beef I have had, I would disagree that 3 weeks is ever enough to get the best out of a piece of beef. Even Tescos hang all there beef for 3 weeks now with the finest range being hung for 28 days (No idea what it tastes like)! I'm not doubting that the beef here is better but I think more clarity is needed. At the moment it looks like any number of online retailers.

They are vague on hang times and breeds used aren't they?Poultry is simlarly vague Breakfast even more so: Reading that last paragraph it could be coming from Tesco (I'm not suggesting for one moment that it does). When I'm buying good meat I want to know what breed I'm getting and how long it has been hung for (as well as a longer hang time than 3 to 4 weeks for beef). Nice discount though.

Is there a nicer place to have a Sunday lunch in London than under the trees next to the small garden at The River Café? I doubt it and if there is I doubt that it has anywhere near the standard of ingredients. 6 large plump Scottish langoustines, split and cooked in the wood roasted oven came with wild oregano, chilli, lemon and olvie oil. Fantastic langoustines, really good quality and relatively good value (£14.50 for a solitary Langoustine - hang your head in shame Barrafina). Simplicity and perfection on a plate that had me digging the last of the meat from every claw and I now have hands full of holes for my troubles. The Ravioli was perhaps cooked a few seconds too long but certainly not enough to spoil the stuffing made with River Café herbs and buffalo ricotta with golden marjoram butter and pecorino stagionato. Rachel took a second antipasti, a really good salad of summer leaves and flowers with raw yellow and green courgettes, toasted pine nuts and parmesan. The courgettes were beautiful, small and thinly shaved they really shone in the dish. I nearly wilted and ordered the Turbot again but called the waiter back and ordered the chargrilled leg of lamb instead, 4 decent chunks of leg marinated in garlic and rosemary and cooked medium with a nice charred outside. A salsa rosso piccante added a nice spicy bite. Red, golden and stripy beets and Italian spinach completed the ensemble. Rachel had tagliatelle with Scottish girolles, garlic, fresh tomato, parsley and parmesan. Finished with Pannacotta with fresh raspberries and grappa, and Almond , Lemon and ricotta cake. Asked for half portions of the caramel ice cream and blackberry sorbet and were given scoops with each dessert for no extra charge. The Pannacotta wasn’t quite as wobbly as it has been in the past but is still the best I have tasted in the UK, the raspberries were a little hit and miss. Ice creams and sorbets at the RC are always a strong point IMO. Overall another great meal defined by simple cooking and great ingredients, made all the nicer by the charming staff and the beautiful weather.

Has nobody been eating here? I returned to the Hinds Head yesterday, it was only my second visit, maybe I should have reread my previous review “Not really worth a special trip” would have saved me some money and a whole heap of disappointment. Tea smoked Salmon was decent enough, delicately smoked and served with good soda bread. Tomato, red pepper and goats cheese was pretty darn awful, the onion and peper barely identifiable, the puff pastry distinctly average and to make matters worse the base was heavy, not cooked properly from having the onions cooked on top, presumably from the beginning of the baking process. Main courses were pretty dire. The roast lamb could have pretty much been any £7.50 pub lunch aside from a decent enough gravy (more of a sauce) and reasonable quality lamb. The leg and been boned and rolled and was cooked through. The potatoes were an abomination, they looked like they had been deep fried, however I think its more likely that they had been reheated and left sitting around in an oven to keep them warm for service. They were horribly dark in colour and crisp all the way through, no identifiable fluffy white potato at all. Green beans, roast carrots and cauliflower finished off the plate. For £15.50 I expect better. Oxtail and kidney pudding was again spoiled by what I think was undercooked pastry. It had a skin on the outside it and the base had the texture of undercooked pasta. The filling itself was decent enough but what’s the point of a pudding if the pudding element isn’t good.. A side order of Triple cooked chips at £4.50 was again poor. A fair amount of the bowl given over to broken crispy bits, the type of thing the chip shop can manage cooking them just once. The intact chips had a hard, almost chewy exterior and a not particularly fluffy interior. Another side of broccoli with anchovies was good. Service was also pretty shoddy, around 30 minutes passed between starters being cleared and main course arriving, other tables had main courses being brought out while they were still on starters and a request for tomato sauce to go with the chips was brought out once they finished eating. When paying I told the Maitre D’ of the problems with our meal and he advised that he would tell the chef. Apparently it was the regular kitchen team which surprised me. So £65 including 4 pints of lager shandy, not good value for money at all, overall I’d have to adjust my previous assertion that it wasn’t worth a special trip and advise to avoid at all costs. Does anybody know what HB’s roll is in this place now?

£15.50 would be good value anywhere no? Incidentally, plum tomatoes not peppers and Borlotti not canellini

I wa there last Saturday and from what I could see every table was taken. Jabugo Ham (Joselito) with coco de paimpol beans was simple but higlighted good quality ingredients, A starter size portion of the risotto was once again perfectly cooked Al dente rice with girolles and caprini cheese. It's been commented on elsewhere but the corn beef has a problem- its too bloody big Once I'd finished my own starter I hd to help finish my Mum's which didn't help when we were comp'd the smooked eel with fig puree, the first tie I had tried the eel dish and it was excellent, we also received the Terrine of foie gras with sweet and sour cherries, once again. Higlight of the mains was a fillet of halibut with razor clams and Langoustine s with crushed ratte potatoes. The plum tart came with the aforementioned basil and mascarpone ice cream and I forget what everybody else ordered (by that time I was too full to actually notice) Progressing rather nicely IMO, excellent service and a great room (still)

http://sayellfoods.com/ They don't list small quantities on the website but I believe they used to do smaller amount than a whole leg.

Great Post! I'm sure one of the owners here might point out some flaws but from a consumers perspective it is right on the money.

From what I've heard there is no publicised number and reservations are not being taken just yet, they haven't got a firm opening date (though a few lucky people who were/are friends of the restaurant may get priority). I'm not sure that work has even started on the site.

I agree no more than a solitary star IMO. Then again maybe it's something to do with the air in Croydon, it must affect our tastebuds adversely

They tend to be around 3 times the retail price, £12 marked u pto £55 seems well over the top but I wouldn't be surprised if there were a lot more examples of this around London.

Funny enough I was thinking about how much oven space the Chicken must take up, it must be a bind. I'm curious as to what makes it such hard work though? Did they really only do 10 chickens on Saturday night - I'm sure I could see three in the space of 5 tables! Hopefully the service will pick up a bit, serving the chicken on the table before I've even had a chance to finish our starters was still a little out of order, especially as I had asked them not to earlier in the day.

A good dinner at Le Petite Maison last night although service and dessert left a lot to be desired so I’ll get those gripes out of the way first. I had asked that the Poulet noir with Foie Gras be kept aside in for me and during the day I had a call suggesting that they could have it on the table at 10pm, I asked them to hold back on that as I wasn’t booked in until 21:30, they obviously didn’t listen because the chicken turned up on my table at 22:10 while we were still eating starters, which surprised us as they had advised us when we were having our order taken that the chicken would take an hour and we would have 30 minutes to wait after our starters. Subsequently we were having our first glass of a wine which was unsuitable for the chicken so the end result is that they lost out on me ordering a £47 bottle of wine to go with the chicken. It took a good 15 – 20 minutes before somebody took our order and the tables are ridiculously close together requiring the table next to you to move in order for you to get in. I should also mention the wine list with very little choice under £40 Right, gripes over, the Aubergine with Mozzarella and Shrimp was good, lovely shrimp, very well cooked, the Courgette flowers were encolsed in a beautifully light batter with onion rings and sage leaves with anchovies. The Chicken arrived complete with black legs, portioned in a wooden bowl along with the juices and, in my case, a relatively small piece of foie that hadn’t been deveined, otherwise it was nicely cooked. The Chicken itself was very good, nicely browned, and well rested. There really isn’t much more you can say about a roast chicken, it was very good though. The accompanying Dauphinoise were merely ok and I thought a little fatty though Rachel disagreed. I should mention at this point the excellent baguette which can be put to good use mopping up the juices. For some reason they seemed reluctant to reveal the source of the bread. For Dessert we shared a dark Chocolate tart with Orange cream which seemed neither dark enough or worthy of being called a tart the pastry was so poor. Limp, pale pastry which was quite an achievement as it was rolled so thin it should have been crisp in the oven within 5 minutes. A disappointing end to a good meal. Really simple but well executed cooking. I hope they manage to keep it up and sort out the minor issues that can spoil a meal like this.