Matthew Grant

Am I right in thinking that you would rather not have heard about this gathering of influential chefs and restaurateurs? Personally, being a massive fan of eating out I would be mighty disappointed if I ony heard whispers on the grapevine ("Pssst....did you hear Keller and Adria were in town last night, don't tell anybody else though, the general public will be furious"). Or are you saying that Restaurant magazine should never have organised it as it has no worth? Either argument I think is silly, this is of interest to anybody who has an appreciation of eating out. Of course this is a huge publicity coup but I can't imagine many restaurant fans that wouldn't want to read about it.

The judges were quite an International crowd but admittedly there was quite a heavy lean towards British based critics. I'd like to back Andy up, this was an amazing gathering of people, I can't think of too many events where this number of top chefs/ representatives of retaurants would turn up without any sort of VIP treatment. However much we argue (and clearly we will), these awards appear to be genuinely sort after. Why else would people fly in from all around the world, I noticed a slight look of disappointment on Tetsuya's face when he came in at 37, presumably he had flown in from Sydney. We all know Ferran Adria is a private man, he turned up, collected his award and personally said nothing. Lots of the international restaurants had sent along contingents and the cheered when their names came up. Thomas Keller, travelled all the way from the Napa valley for 2 minutes on stage and a nice little trophy, all for some awards ceremony that means nothing? This must mean something to them for them to have travelled this far?

We all know that this is not a list of the best food. Basically 300 food critics nominated their top 5 restaurants and thenthe votes were counted, I'm sure Thom will correct me if I'm wrong. In the case of Nobu, chefs with multiple restaurants did not have them all added up together, only the restaurant with the highest number of votes was shown. we all have restaurants that we love but don't necessarily serve the best food don't we? Other chefs present included Ramond Blanc and a particular highlight of the evening was when J-C Novelli looked blankly at Andy when he went to remind him of the stage he did with him several years ago! Still, Raymond Blanc must have thought we were important, he came up to shake our hands as he was leaving Locatelli told me that my favourite dish of last year was nothing to do with him "eets all to do with ze quality of ze ingredients, nothing to do weeth ze chefs". He was very short (in stature not temper).

Carnivore is am amazing restaurant and would recommend it to anybody visiting Nairobi. I was chatting to Gerson M. Misumi (the general manager) last night and he promised me a special meal next time I came. Presumably this entails the same meal (bearing in mind it is as much as you can eat) I had before but with extra baked potatoes

Jay, you missed out the words 'too much' before the word 'champagne'. I feel ill

I can't help but gloat, I was at the awards last night and there was an amazing collection of chefs on display : Ferran Adria, Thomas Keller, Fergus Henderson, Giorgio Locatelli, Angela Hartnett, Mark Askew, Shaun Hill, Gordon Ramsay, Michael Caines, Tetsuya Wakuda to name a few I think a full write up is going to be forthcoming from another Egullet member so I won't go into too much detail except to say thatJay Rayner is much taller than I imagined

This is a new one on me. What on earth is woof ? My dog is getting worried and won't come into the kitchen Everybody knows what woof is! What on earth is tatare sauce?

Thanks for the info Steve. Its nothng I've seen or tasted before (although I'm sure somebody somewhere has done this), I was just running through possibilities for Raspberry desserts and thought of mousse and wanted to make it a little different. I really don't want to buy a paint sprayer so I'm left with your second option with soft chocolate although for a first try I might be tempted to cover it in chocolate whilst frozen and forego the shine. Any other suggestions for Raspberry desserts? I am an able cook but please remember that desserts are not my forte (except for pannacotta, sorbets, coulis, souffle and ice cream and probably a few other things that I forget) This pastry board is a whole different world!

I've noticed Fish portions getting very small in restaurants recently, expecially cod. I can only presume that he increasing price of good cod is making it too expensive to serve in an average size portion. Even my local Fish and Chip shop is serving increasingly small cod instead of hiking up its prices.

To rich, good looking asians who get all the best lasses S I noticed a typo in your post Simon, that obviously should have read lassis

Ahhhhh! Great Idea with the frozen coulis John. Miss J I imagine he freezes it in batches and then scoops it into balls before coating in chocolate (please correct me if I'm wrong Jon) Thanks for the tempering, for some bizarre reason I didn't think to search here. I'm not normally visiting this forum, Desserts and Pastry are my culinary weakness so perhaps I should spend some more time here! So much useful information!

Macrosan is right Thom. In our neck of the woods, we can leave our doors unlocked when we go out, the streets are paved with gold, The police know everybody by name and the community spirit shines through, one step over the River and it all changes, the sun hides behind the clouds, people live in fear of East End Gangs roaming the streets and holding up banks, and the restaurants serve small lamb chops.

3 stage question: Anybody got a raspberry mousse recipe. (I can manage this) How would I go about coating my raspberry mousse in a Chocolate coating? (I imagine I can manage this if I've got the equipment) How do I make the chocolate coating shine (I might be struggling here, I think its something to do with temperature of the chocolate when it is melted but what sort of mixture will I need to use)

I'm pretty sure it was my imagination - it just looked like a Custard (which of course a Sabayon is) and was fae too thick and cloying for the dish. It sounded such a great idea. but looked like it needed a swiss roll underneath it instead of Landes Chicken

Bux, I thought I was imagining the sweetness due to its colouring (very yellow) and general texture but now you've got me wondering whether it could have come from a sweet wine. Jonathan, both Resto Des Artes and Le Petit Fouet seemed very flexible on their times, LPF served people well past 14:30 without complaint. I can see that Le Mas Candille is trying but maybe it was trying too hard. I definitely wouldn't rule out another visit and I do think it would be lovely when the sun waa going down a little later, unfortunately it was dark when we arrived and the dining room seemed quite cramped without the terrace in operation. As previously mentioned starters and Desserts were superb. Have the desserts always been so pretty?

I recently returned from a week in Mougins and had some good meals, notably at La Terrasse (sp.?). Be warned with the prices though, I had Langoustines from the Gastronomic menu as a starter and was more than a little shocked to find them costing 42Euros when I go tthe bill, they were superb but there was only 4 of them! The Charolais beef was good but I think Charolais is a little overrated, beef better than this can be found in England as well. I forget the names of all the restaurants, there is a place selling Raviolis (Jonathan will be able to enlighten us) where I had a beautiful veal chop but the highlight was my girlfriends Raviolis which were advertised as being Morel but by our reckoning came with Morel, some truffle and a Foie Gras cream sauce as well - over indulgent but very good. For more basic meals we found Le Petit Fouet and Restaurant Des Artes to be very good and reasonably priced. The owners of both were very friendly. We also tried Le Mas Candille but unfortunately this restaurant fell short on several levels, service was less than friendly from the Maitre D' alsthough a younger waiter who had only started the day before answered our questions without any problems. I also didn't like the dining room, at these prices I expeted something more than wicker furniture, the room would be much nicer during the summer when the doors could be opened onto the terrace. My starter of Pigeon with Spring vegetables was an excellent start, however, a main of Chicken with truffles and a truffle Sabayon for two people was very disappointing and cost 80 Euros. It was cooked in a pigs bladder and carved (poorly) at the table. The blunt knife tore the breast making it unattractive and the vegetables were left simmering in the sauce while the Maitre D' was carving and this made them overcooked. The chicken had good flavour but was also a little dry. The truffle sabayon was a bad match, it really was like Sabayon, so much so that I could almost detect a sweetness to it, far too thick and custard like for the dish. Dessert was far more of a success, Passion fruit Souffle was beautiful and served with a Passion fruit cream on the side. Other desserts coming from the kitchen looked wonderful.

Front page of the website button furthest on the right

Could we move this thread to the General Board so that it gets a wider audience?

I've only got 4 nights in Barcelona next month and I'm already thinking that we're going to have to return to try the places that we can't get to first time around. I will try and visit Oriol Balaguer and I've got a reservation at Comerc 24. Barcelona definitely seems to be 'where its at'.

I wouldn't let anybody near my kitchen, let alone host their party in my house. Iif you ain't got the space, you can't have a party

That website is fantastic and I can't even read Spanish

Fat Guy, I'll be in Laguiole next month and I don't want my food and board paid for (although if you insist) . All I require is for you to buy a second set of knives as a thank you to me for getting yours Bux, are there good discounts on seconds?

I think most top end restaurants deal direct rather than with a market , sometimes they even use a specific fisherman and ensure that they get deliveries daily. The Waterside Inn certainly does this, I know that the Fat Duck deals specifically with a family that only deals Scallops though I can't be certain that they get them delivered daily.

I always thought that Mondays was the worst day to buy fish, hence most fish and chip shops are shut on a Monday. As an aside, in the Marche Forville in Cannes last week, I saw fish that was quite literally flapping on the ice it was so fresh. On a down note I saw them selling Monkfish no bigger than 4 inches amongst other very small specimens.

Surely this is akin to saying that once a chef has cooked one good meal, the rest of them must be good as well? I have eaten at restaurants and had great meals only for the next one to be at best mediocre or poor with no change of chef or location. We all have off days/weeks, maybe Maschler and Gill were unlucky to eat at Pharmacy when Hywel Jones was having an off day, maybe they turned up when he had taken the service off? I certainly don't doubt Maschlers integrity.