The French Laundry – Knightsbridge

[Matthew Grant]

That brine is exactly the same as the brine he uses for his Lemon fried chicken recipe.

[Sidney]

Anyone who pays that price for a bit of chicken is off their head - fools and their money are soon parted!

[Matthew Grant]

What price? I'm not defending TFL@Harrods prices but that dish is something Keller servers at Bouchon.

Incidentally, IMO, top quality chicken is worth as much as any other meat, especially when cooked well. The thing that would concern me about Kellers recipe is that it is cooked to 73 degrees, fine for the legs but well overcooked for the breast.

Edited October 8, 2011 by Matthew Grant (log)

[marcusjames]

I have to say Keller was a delight on Saturday Kitchen today. You do sometimes forget to separate the business from the personal (although I still think the Harrods pricing was/is a joke), but what a lovely chap.

[howardlong]

Some pics from Friday lunchtime. My favourites were:

1. "S'Mores" dessert with 40 yo Taylors Tawny Port

2. "Oysters and Pearls"

3. "Calotte de Boeuf" (although even for me ever so slightly too salty)

4. "Chowder"

Not shown are the 2002 Dom Perignon that we had at the bar, or the 2002 Laurent Perrier Millisime that was presented with the first few courses.

I would have preferred a greater selection of wines to better match the courses, but the quality of what we had was superb.

My favourite wine without a doubt was the M 2006, a monster Cab at 16.9% abv.

Service was good, but not up to Le Gavroche standards! As a quick example, cloches were removed in a totally uncoordinated manner, which was strange because there were enough waiting staff present ready at the table to perform such a task.

They brought over 22 staff for the pop up, some from other restaurants like Per Se. There were a lot of Kevins. One, a Scouser, was from Per Se, he was really very knowledgeable and quite fun, the other Kevin I think was one of their chief honchos FoH, and was very American, you know, he'd been to the cosmetic dentist rather more than was really necessary.

Cheers, Howard

Edited October 10, 2011 by howardlong (log)

[david goodfellow]

Thanks for that Howard, been waiting for your report.

Dare I ask what the price of the wine package was?

[howardlong]

Thanks for that Howard, been waiting for your report.

Dare I ask what the price of the wine package was?

I did have a bit of sticker shock that's for sure: I was happy to keep on the NV Moet to start with, but the OH already had her eyes set on the DP.

Booze was £237 each plus the drinks at the bar (my bill shows DPs at £17/glass, the only thing that could be deemed to be quite reasonable). Bill total was £568pp. Luckily I was quite rosy cheeked and numb by the time the bill came.

I forgot to see Keller on Saturday Kitchen, I'll have to jump on iPlayer assuming it's on there. He seemed a pretty nice guy, and was more than happy to chew the cud with us in the kitchen: we didn't ask for the kitchen visit, it was offered.

The event was held adjacent to the Georgian Restaurant if you know that, on the fourth floor, although I wasn't told that beforehand. Unhelpfully I was told to go to "Door 5". I have lived in and around Knightsbridge now for over 20 years and I had no idea where "Door 5" was. Even worse, when I found it, it turned out to be on exactly the opposite side of the building. Go figure.

It appeared that they pretty much had taken over the kitchen for the event.

Still, I now have the T shirt, or at least the OH has an apron (£60, ouch).

Howard

Edited October 10, 2011 by howardlong (log)

[david goodfellow]

Ye gods Howard, you don't mind spending on your wine, do you.

If I were a restaurant owner you could eat for free at my place

Me thinks Sat Bains has shot himself in the foot somewhat

[nikkib]

I had the M at per se as one of my matches too, our Sommelier was amazing - we told him to go as far off the beaten tracks and be as experimental as he wanted, I have never drank so much in my life but it was definitely worth it!

[Man]

Well with your choice of drinks you certainly brought the issue of food price into perspective!

But at least this time you saved on the single-diner penalty charge.