UK Media Round Up

[Suzi Edwards]

First up, the restaurants:

Giles Coren Loves Rules but Slays Throgmortons and is well worth reading just for the description of the grouse.

AA Gill deconstructs The Pig's Ear

Terry Durack falls in love with The Real Eating Company in Hove

Tracy MacLeod loves Amaya in Knightsbridge. It's Indian food for ladies who lunch, but don't let that put you off.

VPL outdoes himself by starting his review talking about a joint. How shocking. He also review's Jamie Oliver's place, Fifteen

Jay Rayner has a terrior-able time at Chez Kristof

Jan Moir gives The Box Tree Restaurant a good review, despite being served some unsucessful dishes.

Here are the recipes from Fi:

braised red cabbage from the Glasgow Herald. Yes! I'm taking us north of the border. Next week's guest publication will be the Moniaive Announcer.

From the Guardian, more recipes from the new Moro cookbook

Mark Hix is pie-eyed

Nigel Slater's simple fish dishes

Further pumpkin recipes from Tom Norrington-Davies

Take three ingredients to get... potted crab with ginger

Essex birds have the best breasts! Gordon Ramsay says so so it must be true. Of course, he's talking about Label Anglais chickens

three from Jill Dupleix

Xanthe Clay's apple tart

Sri Lanka-inspired recipes from Tamasin Day-Lewis

and from this month's Waitrose Food Illustrated, seasonal recipes from Sybil Kapoor. Includes scallop, watercress + leek salad and Edwardian pumpkin pie

[MobyP]

Essex birds have the best breasts!  Gordon Ramsay says so so it must be true.  Of course, he's talking about Label Anglais chickens

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I just love the way he leaps heroically on someone else's bandwagon and grabs the bloody reigns!

[Suzi Edwards]

Fi's outdone herself with "weapons of mash destruction" in this week's roundup.

From the new edition of Waitrose Food Illustrated, Sybil Kapoor's seasonal recipes include pineapple flambe, spicy cheese scones, and cinnamon creme caramel with clementine salad

Weapons of mash destruction - Mark Hix picks the best (and wurst) sausages around

an offally big adventure - Clare Rudebeck serves variety meat to her guests and gauges their reactions

He's on fire! Gordon Ramsay gives us recipes for Bonfire Night

three from Jill Dupleix

Wine and dine - Joanna Simon cooks with booze. Sometimes she even puts it in the food. :pathetically old gag:

From the Sunday Times Style section, Take Three Ingredients gives you "a dessert rich in betacarotene, minerals and vitamin C, with no fat or added sugar". I would add 'nor flavour, nor fun' - cherry + papaya couscous

Not strictly a recipe, but from last week's Telegraph an article on organic food - is it really worth the money?

Xanthe Clay gives us gratins

Venison steaks with marsala + juniper; chicken liver pilaf; apple brown betty from Tamasin Day-Lewis

Hurrah, it's Matthew Fort's lunchbox!

Heston Blumenthal's potted (shrimp) history

In the sloe lane - comparative tasting of sloe gins

Nigel Slater's beautiful game

And finally, from Scotland's Sunday Post ("quite simply, Sunday isn't Sunday without The Sunday Post"),

stuffed courgettes and Italian lemon sponge

[jayrayner]

Far be it from me to redeem anybody, but I do so hate you all being without a link.

So, this week's adventure in California, in which I manage a mere 26 courses. Enjoy it here though not half as much as I did.

[Suzi Edwards]

Apologies possums for the dearth of media links recently. However, normal service is resumed today...

First off, Fi rounds up the recipes...

Mark Hix gets his roots done - includes mutton + root veg broth and scallops w Jerusalem artichokes + bacon

Donna Kebab - interview + recipes from Donna Hay's new book, The Instant Cook

Supper from the storecupboard courtesy of Gordon Ramsay

Thre-e-e from Jill Dupleix - quite liking the sound of salmon, bacon + wilted sprout tops

It's Canape-tastic!

Spam, spam, spam, spam! The Telegraph has lost its mind.

Real food suppliers + suggestions for appetizers from Tamasin Day-Lewis

Matthew Fort cooks for Thanksgiving

It's not often we get 'The Fat Duck' and 'turkey dinosaur shapes' in the same paragraph - but The Guardian has managed it. Mmmm - m-m-methyl-cellulose!

Nigel Slater's chicken pie

[MobyP]

I had the great pleasure of eating at Riva on a night A A Gill was there - and the food was very poor indeed - followed by a glowing revue by himself about how marvellous it is. If he was eating the same dishes I was - and we ordered a good portion of the menu - then take heart, dear readers. He obviously lost his tongue to a dalmation on crack.

[Andy Lynes]

I ate at the Cotton House in Manchester recently and had one of the worst meals of recent memory. I had the haddock chowder, which was nothing more than a thin toxic yellow broth with a ton of frozen peas in it. Terrible.

[Suzi Edwards]

First up VPL finds little to write home about in Kenneth Williams' favourite restaurant Biagi's in W1 while Jay Rayner makes the startling discovery that £45 is not £23.50 when he visits Thyme in Covent Garden He enjoys it, but Fay Maschler has a very different view of Thyme in the Evening Standard.

Terry Durak wonders if Anthony Flinn is the saviour of British cooking at Anthony's in Leeds You can talk about this review here No review from Tracy MacLeod, but I though you might enjoy this article about water in recompense.

As predicted by Andy "Mystic Meg" Lynes, Oliver Peyton reviews The Real Eating Co in Hove but there's no review from AA Gill this week.

Finally, Jan Moir finds little to praise at Pomino and Osteria dell'Arancio two new Italians in London.

On the recipe front Fi has some good news for us...it's at the bottom.

First past the roast - Mark Hix's winter warmers

Gordon Ramsay on 12-step programme! How to be organized for Christmas

Thr-e-e-e from Jill Dupleix

Xanthe Clay makes mince pies

Matthew Fort cooks birthday dinner for his 16-year old - duck salad, roast pork, blackberry + apple crumble

Vegging out with Nigel Slater

And finally, rejoice! Pizza is good for you - official!

[Suzi Edwards]

Clearly I haven't been eating enough pizza, I've been ill all week so sorry for the delay on the roundup. Normal service will be resumed on Monday.

First up, Fi's recipes;

Proof in the pudding - Mark Hix uses up liqueurs

Get soupercalifragilistic with Gordon!

Thre-e-e from Jill Dupleix

No links to the Sunday Times I'm afraid, they're a week out of date.

Bellinis from Xanthe Clay

Matthew Fort is Cap'n Birdseye - how to survive the festive kitchen

Roll up, roll up - alternative festive puddings from Nigel Slater

And finally, here is the main link to The Observer Food Monthly. Includes the great Christmas taste test with Angela Hartnett; and, surprise surprise! a misprint from the Grauniad? Whatever next!

And now the restaurants:

Jay Rayner eats on the GNER Restaurant Car Now you can eat Anchor and Hope food on your way to Anthony's. No review from VPL this week. Sadly.

Terry Durack goes to Floridita in W1 the restaurant formerly known as Mezzo.

Tracey MacLeod enjoys The Hind's Head in Bray but shock! horror! the roast potatoes aren't up to much.

Giles Coren sees a tastevin in action at Mirabelle in the Grand Hotel in Eastbourne

AA Gill hates Thyme but Jan Moir loves JoJo's in Whitstable

Right, I'm off to watch Little Britain.

[Suzi Edwards]

From now on, I'm going to post the restaurant reviews and Fi will post the recipes. Enjoy!

VPL has some oat cuisine at the Quince and Medlar in Cumbria Have any of our Northern locals been here?

Jay Rayner questions in the economics in play at The Brindisa Tapas Bar

Terry Durack makes me determined to move to Marylebone with his review of Fishworks But is the Ginger Pig really open on a Sunday morning?

Richard Johnson enjoys Osteria Dell'Arancio but I have to question £12 for a "tallegio fondue with a thick layer of white truffle" How can they sell it so cheaply? *grabs coat, runs to SW10*

Giles Coren has had a busman's holiday and is going to be reporting from our Northern counties for a bit. This week he reports on a good pub lunch at Oddfellows in the Boat in Litchfield and a nice dinner at the Lakeview Restaurant in Cumbria Next week: L'Enclume I reckon. Damn him.

Shock, Horror, AA Gill in wholly interesting review of Amaya For once you don't have to just read the last paragraph.

Jan Moir slays W'Sens on Waterloo Place

[curlywurlyfi]

and lo, the recipes.

Heston Blumenthal talks turkey

Matthew Fort is a little sheepish and cooks up a mutton fest!

It'll be roast pork with onion + marsala gravy chez Slater for Christmas this year (though he does talk about turkey sandwiches with watercress + crispy bacon - mmmmmm)

Tom Norrington-Davies cooks a Delia Christmas

Spice up your life! Mark Hix gives us saffron custard tarts, duck + pomegranate stew, pumpkin + ginger soup, Christmas cookies

Wake up with Gordon Ramsay! Hangover cures

Three from Jill Dupleix

Take three ingredients to get baguette with cranberry + brie. I can't believe they are insulting us with a recipe for this.

Local Heroes - Tom Conran + Mark Broadbent cook with local ingredients (smoked haddock rarebit with red chard, bacon + cockles, mmmm again)

And finally, I know none of the eGullet community need this, but here are some foods to make you beautiful! Ciao (chow?), belli!

[nicola]

Terry Durack makes me determined to move to Marylebone with his review of Fishworks But is the Ginger Pig really open on a Sunday morning?

(Hope this works as I've never used the quote functionality before!)

Yes the Ginger Pig is open in Marylebone on a Sunday morning. I presume this is because of the farmers' market which is also on then in the nearby car park.

Edited December 14, 2004 by nicola (log)

[Suzi Edwards]

Thanks for the quick response Nicola.

*calls removal men*

[Suzi Edwards]

I have a smorgasboard for you this week, starting with Giles Coren's review of L'Enclume in Cartmel. No mention of Rumblies Pies though Graham! You can discuss this review here.

Tracy MacLeod finds a new star in ChinatownThe Chinese Experience on Shaftesbury Avenue

while her colleague Terry Durak demotes Thyme from 17 points to 14.

No review from Victor, instead Matthew Fort did The Guardian's round up of the year in food. Jay Rayner visits Conran's Paternoster Chophouse and it's clear that he consistenly has poor experiences in today's batch of British restaurants.

AA Gill's on a roll at the moment. For the second week running he has written a review that you might actually want to read. Bravo! This week he's musing on restaurant's run by anorexics, Indian food and Bluebird Restaurant

Finally Jan Moir visits The Star at Harome and makes me wonder why does it seem that some of the best food in the UK is being cooked outside of London? You can discuss that concept here.

[Suzi Edwards]

It's a slim week for the Media Round Up, only Jay Rayner has kept fighting the good fight with this review of Amaya in Knightsbridge from The Observer

[jayrayner]

It's a slim week for the Media Round Up, only Jay Rayner has kept fighting the good fight with this review of Amaya in Knightsbridge from The Observer

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I'm a trooper me, and don't you forget it.

Either that or I haven't got a life.

[silverbrow]

A quick memory test. I think that Thomas Keller did a series of recipes from the Bouchon cookbook in the Times Saturday magazine a couple of months ago. However, I've been totally unable to find either my copy or see any reference to it in this thread. Can anyone remember what I'm talking about. Specifically I was after his recipe for potted salmon.

Thanks

[Suzi Edwards]

And they're off.

First up, Victor Lewis Smith ruminates on the fact that "he who eats alone, chokes alone" when he visits Arkle in ChesterThe review's a bit like culinary "Where's Wally" as he sums up by saying that this is "breathtakingly imaginative and innovative cuisine" yet appears to have eaten a veloute, some foie, some truffles and some monkfish. Oh, and that pinnacle of avant-garde desserts, an assiette de chocolate.

Nothing from The Observer this week (but if I'm wrong I'm sure Jay will send us a link.

Don't all rush at once to Manta an Ayurvedic restaurant in the City. Richard Johnson found it bland but writes the number one thing I never thought I'd read in a restaurant review; "It's not fair to judge a meal like this on taste alone" Right.

Giles Coren continues his Northern tour with the best steak he's ever had at The Drunken Duck in Cumbria AA Gill has created a rather self indulgent "quiz" for us to enjoy.

That's all for this week!

(edit because Gary was right and I was wrong)

Edited January 7, 2005 by tarka (log)

[Andy Lynes]

Its a shame Matthew Nornam's reviews fromn the Sunday telegraph aren't on line. Last week he gave 11 out of 10 to Amaya, an up market Indian restaurant in Knightsbridge. I'd have loved to understand his reasoninf for that.

[culinary bear]

I read VPL's Arkle review with interest.

Does the man have a clue? Seriously, he writes decently in Private Eye, but he writes about the Arkle as if a particularly toothsome female pastry chef offered to wank him off between courses.

I mean, I know that the Liverpool area (the highest-rosetted restaurant within a 20 mile radius of liverpool, including the city itself, has one rosette... one...) is as devoid of good places to eat as the moon, and has as much atmosphere, culinarily, at least (nods in the direction of Boris). One must go further afield.

"Breathtakingly imaginative and innovative cuisine?"... no.

Basics done well with a bit of a polish? yes.

no more.

Edited January 7, 2005 by culinary bear (log)

[Gary Marshall]

sorry to be pedantic, coren was at the drunken duck in cumbria, see i told you how hard it is to get your bearings in the lakes

cheers

gary

[Mrs Woman]

I read VPL's Arkle review with interest. 

I mean, I know that the Liverpool area (the highest-rosetted restaurant within a 20 mile radius of liverpool, including the city itself, has one rosette...

no more.

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Culinary bear, are you saying that Chester is in the Liverpool 'area'??? I ain't a scouser! Yes I know they are quite close but so is Liverpool to manchester and I wouldn't dare say they're in the same area

[goes off in a regionally affronted huff]

Is it not as good as VLS says then? I had hoped the bloke was going to take me for my birthday.

Edited January 7, 2005 by Mrs Woman (log)

[culinary bear]

Culinary bear, are you saying that Chester is in the Liverpool 'area'??? I ain't a scouser! Yes I know they are quite close but so is Liverpool to manchester and I wouldn't dare say they're in the same area

No, but Liverpool is the largest nearby city to Chester and I was highlighting the fact that should you wanted a starred meal in Liverpool then Chester would be one of your natural options.

eh la? :)

[Gary Marshall]

Culinary bear, are you saying that Chester is in the Liverpool 'area'??? I ain't a scouser! Yes I know they are quite close but so is Liverpool to manchester and I wouldn't dare say they're in the same area

No, but Liverpool is the largest nearby city to Chester and I was highlighting the fact that should you wanted a starred meal in Liverpool then Chester would be one of your natural options.

eh la? :)

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i knew what you meant.

stange that such a city hasn't caught the dining bug, few new names making it into guides but nothing like the growth that manchester or leeds has seen. Although all plauged by sub-standard paul heathcote operations.

as a student in the 'pool alouette on lark lane was the best place, reserved for someone else paying and est,est,est in the albert docks, pre- take over when it was, if nothing else a fun place to go.

cheers

gary

[Suzi Edwards]

Does the man have a clue?  Seriously, he writes decently in Private Eye, but he writes about the Arkle as if a particularly toothsome female pastry chef offered to wank him off between courses.

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You mean that doesn't happen as a matter of course to restaurant reviewers?

*cancels place on upcoming food writing course*