The Editor's Hospitality Blog

John Campbell took me on a tour of his impressive kitchen within the Vineyard at Stockcross, the other day. John's cooking, which won him a well-deserved second Michelin star earlier this year, is based squarely upon the sous vide method. It's a method he promotes with an evangelist's zeal.

I love John's boundless energy and infectious passion for food. As we talked, he grabbed a marker pen off a passing chef and began to sketch out his blueprint for preparing perfectly-cooked cuts of meat on a nearby fridge door, like a white-coated Rolf Harris. I only hope the ink wasn't permanent ...

Of course, sous vide is nothing new, but it's the way John has built the hotel's entire food offering around it that is really interesting. John talks about 'de-risking' the business of serving food, and certainly there's a discernable calmness and order to his kitchen. Already, many eminent chefs are sending scouts down to the Vinyard to witness his system, first-hand.

Incidentally, my lunch at the Vineyard was phenomenal, and threw up some interesting taste combinations, such as lemon curd and scallops.

I'm just back from a magnificent, ten-course tasting menu prepared by two Michelin-starred chef John Campbell and his brigade at the Vineyard in Stockcross - ooh, get me!

The dinner was part of the hotel's 2007 Chef's Table festival, during which John and five invited chefs are preparing tasting menus that reflect their differing cooking styles. Other nights are being taken care of by Phil Howard of The Square, Brett Graham of the Ledbury, Nobu's Mark Edwards, Angela Hartnett of the Connaught (pictured) and David Thompson of Thai restaurant, Nahm.

Chefs' Table is an inspired idea. For guests, it offers a chance to enjoy Michelin-starred food out of London. (To ensure they feel part of the occasion and get a real sense of the chefs serving them, plasma screen televisions in the dining room relay a live feed from the kitchen.) For the hotel, it's a great way to raise profile and boost occupancy levels. And for staff, it offers an exciting break from the norm, and a chance to work with eminent chefs. Tales were circulating, last night, of commis chefs stopping to video goings-on in the kitchen, on their phones.

Of course, having a two Michelin-starred chef like John in the kitchen makes it that much easier for the Vineyard to attract big names totheir festival. Still, maybe you could consider some similar kind of initiative to drive footfall in your restaurant?

John' s menu in full

Local wild harvest
Feves, bacon, mushrooms, crayfish

terrine of suckling pig
Piccalili flavours

Organic salmon
Foie gras, red cabbage, apple

Sheepdrove organic chicken
Sweetcorn, wild watercress

Veal
Rump, sweetbreads, cheek

Beetroot ravioli
English goat's cheese, summer squash

Cream cheese
Carrot and orange

Cucumber
Mango and lime

Highclose red berries
White chocolate, olive oil and balsamic

Banana and passion fruit
Raisin panna cotta

Last night, superchef Alain Ducasse, the man with the most Michelin stars in the world, hosted a star-studded dinner at his new restaurant at London's Dorchester Hotel before it opens to the public tonight.

Welcoming us, Monsieur Ducasse promised not to serve frogs' legs, if guests promised not to mention the rugby world cup.

The table plan read like a who's-who of the UK dining scene: Mark Hix, Tom Aikens, Marcus Wareing, Raymond Blanc, Philip Howard, Michel Roux jnr, Gary Rhodes, Giorgio Locatelli, Henri Brosi, John Campbell, Theo Randall, Sir Terence Conran and many others came to meet the great man and sample his food. At the end of the meal, all of them lined up like kids outside a sweetshop, to view the magnificent kitchen Monsieur Ducasse has had put in at the restaurant.

The sight of so many top-drawer chefs in one room prompted the Vineyard's John Campbell to tell me: "if a bomb drops on the Dorchester now, you'll have nothing to write about anymore in the Caterer!" I replied that it would leave UK foodies dining on beans on toast from then on.

Christopher Cowdray wouldn't have been at all pleased to see a bomb land on us. Christopher is the CEO of the Dorchester Collection. As our seared scallops course arrived, Christopher pointed out to me the amoeba-thin shaving of dried tuna that topped the dish, and which moved like a flickering flame in the heat rising off the scallop below. Stunning.