Sketch

[Kikujiro]

Sketch is reviewed by Guy D. in this weeks Time O.

Is Sketch worth it? This depends on how rich you are. If you think nothing of blowing £100 per head at somewhere like Gordon Ramsay, then I'd say, yes; although this is even dearer, it's one of the most interesting meals you'll ever have.

Oddly, their estimate for upstairs is £260 for two inc. wine and service. Based on previous posts and the Telegraph review this sounds at the very low end.

Some carte prices cited. Starters: 'vegetables, £32'; 'Crab, £30' [inc pig's ear]. Mains turbot £55, partridge £58. They didn't order puds either, apparently because they were 'too full'. GD, is your job.

Edited December 10, 2002 by Kikujiro (log)

[macrosan]

Steve, I really don't understand what you're saying here.

It has nothing to do with the importance of dining in the U.K. ....If it spurs other top chefs to open in London, it will change that city's dining scene forever.

Of course it has everything to do with the importance of dining in the UK. It certainly has zero to do with dining in Beijing or San Fancisco.

Gary is self-evidently right. A new restaurant opening in London is only the "most important ever to open in the UK" if it is more important to the UK than previous restaurants that opened in London Sketch is most extraordinary for its prices, and that has been what much of the discussion has been about. We have no idea yet whether this place will earn Michelin crowns, or whether the food will stand up to gourmet examination. The mere fact that it is sponsored by Gagnaire is not (yet) of importance.

I agree with Gary's assessment that any of the chain of haute cuisine chefs who started to open genuinely high quality restaurants in the 1980s in the UK will prove to have been more important to the development of cuisine in the UK than almost any to come.

[Gary Marshall]

steve

I hear where you're coming from but there's a big difference between 'is' the most important etc, etc and 'could turn out to be'.

I hope you're right and london does become the capital of haute cuisine, save me a lot of money on eurostar fares

[Steve Plotnicki]

Sometimes I wonder how the English happened to have invented the language.

I am using "opening" in a particular way. I am not using it to mean ever opened for business. I am using it specifically to refer to the period of time that would be described by the trade and the press as the restaurant opening. That entails anything from press dinners to the initial reviews from the important publications which will all come down within the first few weeks of the restaurant opening. The future of Sketch will be materially impacted by how it opens. And there is no other restaurant I know of in London that ever had such an important opening. But of course that doesn't mean it will be the most important restaurant in the history of the U.K. ever to have opened.

[Gavin Jones]

This restaurant from a food perspective is the most important restaurant to ever open in London.

I am stupidly misreading the above then.

Edited December 10, 2002 by Gavin Jones (log)

[Steve Plotnicki]

You presumably disassociate yourself from the author of the above.

No it's the same thing I just said except I have clarified it for anyone who didn't understand. I have no way of knowing what is going to happen to Sketch. If you asked me to bet on it I would say that it won't last for long in its current incarnation and Gagnaire will end up disassociating himself from the restaurant and it will become more of a private club then a restaurant. But that has nothing to do with its opening if you look at the opening as a defined thing.

I can say the same thing about Robuchon's new restaurant in Paris. One could say that it is the most important restaurant to open in Paris in the last 20 years. Not because it is necessarily going to work, but based on what Robuchon said the format of the restaurant will be, it holds the potential to change the dining in scene in Paris.

[Wilfrid]

Might I proffer the following modest proposition? It's the first restaurant ever to be opened in London by a chef with a three star restaurant elsewhere.

I think that's right. The Roux brothers, Marco, Nico, and I believe Koffman too, all earnt three stars at some point, but none of them entered the London restaurant scene as a three star chef.

The slight downside to that is, of course, that Gagnaire's main restaurant isn't Sketch. But it's clearly a very important opening. Shall we pass the hat around and send someone to report?

[Gavin Jones]

Gary Marshall proffered Spoon (An Alain Ducasse Restaurant).

[Wilfrid]

Technical quibble.

[Gary Marshall]

But i am right

........although i forgot to mention the fucking loud bar

[Steve Plotnicki]

Wilfrid - Three stars is one aspect. None of the chefs you mentioned have ever achieved the same amount of reverence among chefs and diners as Gagnaire. It's an entirely different category of chef. We are talking about someone who is considered by many to be the greatest chef in the world. Any restaurant he opens providing it is haute cuisine, is a more important opening then any restaurant Roux, Ladenis, MPW etc. could ever open. There are only a handful of chefs that fall into this category with Adria and Bras being two that quickly come to mind.

Edited December 10, 2002 by Steve Plotnicki (log)

[Wilfrid]

Steve, I was sort of agreeing with you...

[Steve Plotnicki]

I was looking for less ambiguity .

[Paul Bell]

I may very well regret this but, does Gagnaire attract so much reverence among chefs and diners? On his own terms three starts etc yes but to me and others Alain Ducasse (of a few years ago) and Guy Savoy seem more significant (which may not be the most appropriate word) and seem to gain more recognitions as the best chefs in Paris (I am leaving aside the world at present) . (This is merely a question as I have never eaten at Gagnaire I do not know the answer).

Secondly Gagnaire opening in London may be significant but to most people in England he is considerably less significant than the Roux brothers, Ramsay etc. Or even Gary Rhodes.

Or for that matter Jamie Oliver (oops here we go again)

Paul

[Andy Lynes]

So few people will have heard of Gagnaire in this country that his pulling power is going to be limited to, well, everyone that posts on this board probably.

[Steve Plotnicki]

So few people will have heard of Gagnaire in this country that his pulling power is going to be limited to, well, everyone that posts on this board probably.

Andy - And that is why the thrust of the article should have been about him coming to London and spending most of the article explaining who he is and what he means to the world of cooking.

Paul - You can credibly say that Ducasse is as or more significant but not Guy Savoy. Gagnaire's reputation is among the elite of the three star crew. Ducasse, Bras, Veyrat, Adria & Gagngaire who I would nominate to be in the top echelon of three star chefs.

[Gary Marshall]

. As far as I am aware, MPW's abilities as a chef were held in the highest regard by his peers, one of the reasons he was awarded "chef of the decade" by the AA guide as voted by a large panel of professional chefs.

i'm pretty sure he was also the youngest chef to ever be awarded 3 stars anywhere.

much must rank him quite highly somewhere historically!

[macrosan]

Sometimes I wonder how the English happened to have invented the language.

I am using "opening" in a particular way. I am not using it to mean ever opened for business. I am using it specifically to refer to the period of time that would be described by the trade and the press as the restaurant opening.

Oh, I can't resist this Sorry, Steve, I know I'm a bad person

[Steve Plotnicki]

Macro - What are you talking about.

Gary - Sorry. Many people consider Gagnaire the greatest chef in the world. MPW never had that kind of respect among diners and his peers. You're talking about the difference between the Rolling Stones and Oasis.

[Gavin Jones]

Very positive reviews in Time Out & Metro, this morning.

(Though only for the fine dining option - not the rest of the complex).

[macrosan]

Macro - What are you talking about.

Steve, I just love the way you mock us for (as you rightly say) inventing the language, then proceed to use it in a highly idiosyncratic way which borrows nothing from its original invention This was the first time I've seen you confess to that.

[Paul Bell]

Many people consider Gagnaire the greatest chef in the world

Who are they? He maybe but I am not aware of that many people saying that he is. Gary Rhodes thinks that Guy Savoy is, If you said that many people thought that Adria was the greatest chef, that would seem plausible as his name regularly appears in such concersations whereas Gagnaire iis often mentioned in conjunction with a number of other French three star chefs.

If he is that good, why? I can't get a feel for his food it appears to be a cross-beiween the molecyular stuff of Adria. Heston Blumenthal etc, and more classical French cooking, or am I way off here?

Paul

[Andy Lynes]

Gary - Sorry. Many people consider Gagnaire the greatest chef in the world. MPW never had that kind of respect among diners and his peers. You're talking about the difference between the Rolling Stones and Oasis.

I would have said Beatles/Status Quo and Oasis as Liam thinks he's John Lennon and Noel thinks he's Rick Parfitt. There's nothing really very Stones-like about Oasis. You want Primal Scream circa "Rocks Off" for that comparision.

[Steve Plotnicki]

I'm really not saying something that unusual. Let's see if we can use it in a sentence. Now class.

The West End is going to open fifteen shows this season but the most important opening of the season is Andrew Lloyd Weber's New Delhi Dreams.

New Delhi Dreams had a great opening last night as all the stars came out.

Despite the great fanfare around it's opening, New Delhi Dreams is closing tonight after having poor box office for the last 6 months.

There has never been as much anticipation for a show to open as Stephen Sonndheim's Sweeney Todd. The operatic story of a London Barber who slits people throats who then end up in pies is the most important opening of a show on Broadway since the opening of West Side Story.

Maybe you want to rethink your last statement?

Edited December 11, 2002 by Steve Plotnicki (log)

[macrosan]

Good effort