With provenance being all the rage amongst chefs these days, this week the Daily Telegraph’s Jasper Gerard is disappointed that Martin Wishart, who has won plaudits galore at his flagship restaurant in Leith, Edinburgh, takes a different stance and buys in produce from further afield for his second restaurant at Loch Lomond, near Glasgow.  

“Wishart is the most prominent chef cooking in Scotland today and I wonder why he doesn’t use those native ingredients to create a genuinely Scottish cuisine,” he muses. Gerard does recognise, however, that Wishart is a seriously talented chef who is cooking some classy food in what is “a sumptuous cruise liner of a restaurant”. 

At the other end of the spectrum, for Giles Coren of The Times, the Riverford Field Kitchen has got it absolutely right.  Better known as the largest vegetable box provider in the UK, Riverford also run a restaurant in the midst of their farm in Buckfastleigh, Devon, serving produce from the surrounding fields.  As well as applauding the fact that this, as a result, is probably the most sustainable restaurant in the country, Coren also enjoys what he describes as “the lunch of his life” with five veggie dishes, second helpings of pudding and barely a scrap of meat.

In other reviews, Sir Terence Conran is praised in The Guardian for putting some of the mediocre ventures of his past behind him and improving on the brilliance of his youth deep into his 70s by opening Lutyens on London’s Fleet Street.  Critic Matthew Norman describes the restaurant as a grand bistro on the bustling Parisian model which concentrates on gutsy, classic dishes.  “Apart from replacing the Goldman Sachs bankers with hacks more concerned with nicking blank receipts than the menu, I can't see much room for improvement,” he enthuses.

Lisa Markwell of The Independent on Sunday has an equally fabulous time at Waldo’s at Cliveden in Taplow, Berkshire, where Chris Horridge was ensconced as head chef nine months ago.  The three-dimensional cooking -  where flavour, presentation and nutrition are equally important and which Horridge made famous previously at the Bath Priory – proves an astounding success, according to Markwell.

A typical dish of grouse with braised chicory, raspberry and almond purées is enough to confirm to her that Horridge is a seriously brilliant chef.

Read the reviews in full here >>

By Emily Manson

E-mail your comments to Emily Manson here.

If you have something to say on this story or anything else join the debate at Table Talk - Caterer's new networking forum. Go to www.caterersearch.com/tabletalk

Caterersearch.com jobs
Looking for a new job? Find your next restaurant job here with Caterersearch.com jobs