Matthew Grant

Did you have the tasting menu or ALC? Half a Scallop in a tasting menu is simply mean.

Did that article come with "Advertising Promotion" printed at the top of the page?

If by recently you mean within the last month and a day yes - see above

At at the other end of the scale comes Maschler, soon to be seen sqauring up to the young pretender to the crown

Can anybody tell me where the €600 pasta dish with white truffle is served in London?

I can see the headlines now:

I too look forward to seeing Marco in the kitchen but I'm not sure that he is likely to exhibit a greater sense of humour than Ramsay in the kitchen, if anything he had a more fearsome reputation than Ramsay

I was going to suggest a boat and a net

The other thing that bothers me is that they really don't show any of the cooking. When she prepped the beef with JT in his "cookery school" they showed her putting oil on the beef and the next shot was of it being plated up, what happened in between?

That sounds much better, I reckon my other half would like it now

Maybe Jay "MPW" Rayner can enlighten us on the judging process, perhaps the other 2 had worked in kitchens for "10 years between them" as kitchen porters or something?

From Jay's Article: Judging from his appearance on Cooking It last night Jay really has been "Marcoed" to the point of trying to look like him. I haven't seen you for a while, I didn't recognise you, it makes you look a lot younger!

Ah! my cross post with Jay actually made sense!

The Man With the Dough

After so long out the kitchen his feet will ache so I doubt he'll make it to the end

I saw an article recently (I forget where) that briefly specualted on his financial situation, apparently actually trying to find out how many restuarants he owns is not easy and the The Sunday Times rich list removed him from the list as they were unable to trace any significant assets. He would only say that he had "an interest" in restaurants when quizzed and said that he sometimes lent his name to them to help out friends.

I don't know whether to jump for joy or cry! Where do I apply?

I had a meal here earlier in the year, I can't remember precise details but that the small starters were better than the mains. Lovely room as well.

I really think I'm missing the point of St John. I'm not a huge offal fan and I think I'd probably get more pleasure out of cooking any of today's main courses myself using some top notch meat or fish than spending £22.50 on a Venison chop with red cabbage.

see the thread on Pearl (a couple below).

I've been to Bonds a grand total of...twice. Arbutus a little more but I bet not as many times as some people on this board. It is shocking but on the whole the type of cuisine at St John, doesn't necessarily interest me. However, I will try and rectify this shortly provided you get yourself along to Racine.

YKL, first thing I said at the end was that I didn't believe it either. All the mistakes she made were a dead giveaway, one of the judges had to come and assist her when she nearly set a pan of oil on fire, she walked out in tears, burnt her peppers so she couldn't use them (why didn't she just quickly fry up another batch, would have taken seconds to chop and fry) and yet she was the best one, incredible. How about some programmes that show some more advanced cooking, I guess that would have too limited an audience

It lacked a lot - for instance It showed him describing how to descale a fish but didn't actually show it. It really didn't show her transformation form nobody to somebody very well at all, it simply showed him putting a dish together, her copying it with mistakes and the next thing you know she is fooling 3 judges. The definitions and tips flashing up on screen seemed like an embarassing afterthought e.g "Blanching is a chefs term for boiling somehitng then putting it in cold water" Not really a cooking programme IMO. Do you think it was designed to promote his cooking school that they kept referring to? Cooking It

That's nothing, I've never been to St.John for anything other than a bar snack (I'm going to book that now as well)

This thread has made me think about booking again! Thanks!