John Whiting

"Chef"? I laughed. That's good enough for me. As for food-based comedies, there was a single episode of "Rumpole of the Bailey", by John Mortimer, in which the great P.J. Cavanaugh played a pretentious, egotistical Irish/French chef with delusions of grandeur. It was magnificent and accurate in detail -- not surprising when Anton Mosimann's name appeared at the end as Technical Adviser.

So far as regional food at the sub-Michelin-star level is concerned, the Logis association of hotels strongly encourages -- I think even requires -- that its members' kitchens include a Menu du Terroir. It's not uniformly successful of course, but I've eaten very well, very interestingly and very reasonably on a number of occasions by ordering it. In fact, in an unfamiliar area without a guide book, and wanting a satisfying unextravagent meal, I'd happily stop at the first Logis hotel I came to and order the terroir menu.

How does one reconcile this with Ducasse's instructions never to turn the meat over with a fork because the hole will leak out more of the natural juices?

Thank you, Nick. It was almost as good as going back again myself. Yes, the staff *is* huge. The last time I had a figure, Alice's "family" numbered somewhere around a hundred and fifteen or twenty. (A Michelin 3* scrapes by with a mere fifty or so.) If you go back and edit your report, you might want to change Shattuck Street to Stattuck Avenue.

This would be particularly useful with those oatmeals which are coarse ground rather than mashed into flakes and which normally require overnight soaking and then slow cooking. The flavors in these oatmeals are way beyond the blandness of ordinary porridge oats.Edit: Here's a curious bit of information I picked up at the Oxford [Food] Symposium this weekend. Oats, unlike other grains, inhibit the absorption of dietary fat. At least one paper on the Scottish diet has suggested that the quantum leap in Scottish ill health related to massive fried food consumption has been caused by the fact that the Scots no longer start their day with porridge!

Mine as well. Whatever the outcome I'll probably be dead.

Would that it were that simple. Let me repeat again the wise words of Brillat-Saverin: "Obesity is the result of the learned ability to eat when one is not hungry." It is certainly not hunger that leads one to finish off the contents of a pot that was intended to serve two meals, or empty a box of chocolates at one sitting. At times there comes an irresistible urge to just keep on eating. I know -- I've experienced it. And when the urge is upon you, the food need not even be particularly good.Overcoming hunger? That's only half the battle.

Even eGulleteers exhibit a certain discipline. Our Fat Guy, though he conscientiously works at it, could nevertheless pass on the streets of Miami for an emaciated figure from an Oxfam poster. But real obesity on a cosmic scale occurs when a developing country strikes it rich like the Nauru with their guano harvests. Ot visit any one of a number of Native American reservations, particularly those who have been allowed to establish casinos. Read Atlantic's classic study of New World Syndrome: http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/06/shell-p1.htm

So far as the facts are concerned, Charles has got it right. Twenty years ago I lost about forty pounds and got down to a 28in waist following a totally conventional diet -- balance of proteins, carbs, fibre etc. but in extreme moderation. Back then the only motive I needed was vanity -- I just looked a hell of a lot better. Also I wasn't such a dedicated foodie, so it was easy to go without. The pleasure of looking in the mirror (not all the time ) outweighed the pleasure of a bit more food. Now, when beauty is no longer a consideration , I need another motive (such as living longer in a condition in which I don't wish I were dead) coupled with a diet which is a positive pleasure rather than just a means to an end. If the long-term fat doesn't shift, then I'll fast a day a week to help it along. Anything rather than count calories (which for me makes eating about as much fun as making love against a stop watch). I suspect that Weight Watchers works if one is a social type who welcomes or even requires social reenforcement. Fine. Excess eating, like alcoholism, tends to be a private vice and going public can help. But it's just not my scene.

I'm scared of the pure Atkins diet -- any regime that takes you off fresh fruits and veggies and then sells you dietary supplements to make up for their absence is highly suspicious. And more than one doctor I trust has told me that a prolonged very high fat diet of the sort that Atkins endorses is a pretty sure way to ruin your kidneys. The human body just isn't equipped to deal with extreme levels of saturated fat. Nor did our primitive ancestors have it available to them except in short spurts -- the animals they hunted were mostly as lean as themselves. (Don't know about the Inuits; that's another matter.) I'm also careful to get lots of omega-3 oils to help the fat processing -- sardines in my salads several times a week. Fortunately I like them: my diet is based entirely on foods I actually enjoy, though some more than others. As for carbs, the really dangerous ones are the processed ones: sugar, refined flour, polished rice etc. Anyone on a normal weight-maintenance diet who ate wholemeal bread, brown rice, wholemeal pasta etc. wouldn't be doing themselves any harm. Even Poilane's pain levain, though white, is made with unbleached stoneground flour. It certainly won't kill you. I find that the biggest advantage of the no-carb rule is psychological: most of the snacks that it's so easy to pick up from fast-food joints between meals are refined carbohydrate-based, and so cutting them out removes a lot of just-this-once temptation. You can always drop into a grocery store and pick up a hunk of cheese, but you can get through just so much without any bread to dilute it. I only plan to stay religiously on this diet until I've lost about thirty pounds, which will probably take me about a year. I don't necessarily stick with it when I eat out, but that doesn't happen all that often. This weekend I'll be at the Oxford Symposium, with lots of good food floating about. I'll weigh myself before I go and if I've put any on I'll fast until I'm back to where I was. Fortunately I can do that without any particular discomfort. The bottom line is: If it weren't easy, and even fun, I wouldn't do it!

A mortar and pestle take you into a different time scale where you do a job until it's done, without looking at your watch. You pay attention to what you're doing, stop and scrape bits back into the hollow that have crept up the side, feel the texture with your fingers. The final result has not had violence done to it -- it has been slowly worked to the perfect state for its purpose and has not passed beyond into anonymous powder or sludge. To paraphrase John Cage on the subject of Tibetan chant: if you're bored, maybe you haven't been doing it long enough.

When I buy Poilane in London I go to the bakery at Victoria and pay around six pounds for a loaf which I cut into quarters and freeze. (If I've lots of freezer space at the moment I may buy two.) That's about one pound fifty sterling for a pound of bread, a couple of slices of which fill you up more completely than twice that quantity of Mother's Shame. Is that expensive? Only if you're a painoholic.

Andy, useful information is useful whereever it comes from. Cabrales posts her meticulously detailed reports directly on the threads. If she had a web site and posted a URL, would we consider it "utterly vulgar"?

There's local and there's local. After all, he's not importing his oysters from the Il de Re. Who knows what seasonal or temporary availability may dictate? I don't suppose he's pressing his EVOO from locally grown olives either.

In fact, at his Guild of Food Writers demo Shaun remarked in passing that he had told Heston about these seminars and suggested he fill the vacancy when he (Shaun) was unable to attend.

My butcher tells me that it's illegal for him to sell unbleached tripe in this country. Is this true? If so, how does this affect your importing it?

A blender works much better than a food processor for this because it achieves a much finer blend. However it can be hard to get it started in a blender. I find that it's worth the extra washing up to start it in a food processor and then transfer the rough paste to a blender. If one doesn't have a blender, it's worth having two metal blades for the food processor, one of which is kept very sharp for those tasks that must be as finely blended as possible. The blades get dull very quickly -- think of what a beating they're getting compared to a knife. The suggestion of freezing the pesto without the parmesan is a very good one. Also the suggestion of roasted walnuts. If you're making a lot, pine nuts are ferociously expensive, especially in London. Suvir has got it right -- good Indian and also Mexican cooks know that nuts and seeds and spices pan-roasted separately before combining make all the difference! Edit: Here's a tip for blender mixtures that hang up and won't get moving properly. I put the blender on a surface where I can look down into it, take the center plug out of the cover, and run the blender at low speed while inserting the wooden shaft of a long slender artist's brush down the side to near the bottom and slowly moving it around the outside of the glass jug. It gradually brings the parts that aren't moving in towards the blade. If you make a mistake and come in contact with the whirling blade, it's only light wood and no damage is done.

Gavin - Living in the UK, have you tried the Wine Society? Since they are not bound to be "profitable" in the usual way, their buyers are free to pursue their predilections without reference to volume sales. Accordingly, they stock more German wines, especially the traditional, than fashion would dictate. They have an extended list of the products of the great estates which are not included in their regular catalog, available (to members) on request.

I hope that you did indeed paraphrase!

A magnificent occasion such as Suvir described can sometimes be approached by a single multitalented person. Nichola Fletcher is a fine designing jeweler, a distinguished food historian, an excellent chef and, with her husband, joint owner of a high-quality venison farm north of Edinburgh. For the millennium she conjured up a menu the mere imagining of which was a noteworth accomplishment. In the event, reality even exceeded fantasy: http://www.gfw.co.uk/stirwords/words0200nf.html

Having more time (out) on my hands, I enjoy the "audience participation" of the Time Out approach, which requires prospective diners to examine the evidence and reach their own conclusions. Short lists of the "best" may be useful, but they are often opinionated or simply wrong. For me, Time Out comes close in print to a conversation with a trusted authority. They can be more useful and less annoying than a full-length review in a newspaper, which has increasingly become merely a vehicle for the critic's self-aggrandisement.

I recommend replacing the duck fat with goose fat. *Everything* tastes better with goose fat!

It's a cleft stick. I swore off emoticons a while back, but when everyone is using them, their absence makes every droll remark appear literal. It's become an integral part of dot.commerce.

Where to? It's everywhere! There's no place to hide!

I quite agree with Margaret. It's the corkscrew I carry with me in my "life-support system". I got mine as a generous giveaway at a Wine From Spain dinner several years ago.