March 2011 Archives

Iconic US chef Thomas Keller yesterday became a chevalier (knight) in the French Legion of Honour, the highest decoration in France at a ceremony held at his restaurant Per Se in New York. I caught up with the multi-Michelin-starred chef

You are only the third American - and the first man - after Julia Child and Alice Waters - to be accepted into the French Legion of Honour. How do you feel?
It's a great honour to have the recognition from the French Government and a dream beyond anything I have ever had. I'm also very proud to be the first [American] man (laughs).

How did this come about?
You have to be nominated by someone and Daniel Boulud nominated me. I also had written support from chefs like Alice Waters and Jacques Pépin and [wine writer] Robert Parker. I also had to write a letter supporting my nomination, which then went to French president Nicolas Sarkozy who reviews and decides who is accepted into the Legion of Honour.

Tell us about the award ceremony.
Once you are notified you then get to decide where you want to have your ceremony and who you want to bestow the medal on you. Paul Bocuse was visiting the United States so I asked him to do it at my restaurant Per Se in New York. The French Ambassador to the USA was also there to speak for the French Government as was Pépin and Alain Ducasse had a message from the French Minister of Agriculture.

How much of an inspiration has Paul Bocuse been to you?
He has been a huge inspiration to so many chefs' careers, especially mine. He defines the modern chef and he brought the chef out of the kitchen everywhere around the world.

You're going to run a pop-up restaurant at London department store Harrods later this year. Tell us more.
At the moment we're still in discussions but if - and it's a big if - it goes ahead it will run for ten days in the fall. Harrods are sending some of their team over to the French Laundry to work with us this month so that they understand what we're about. There has to be a synergy between them and us.

Would you consider opening a permanent restaurant in London?
I've not really considered it so it's too early to say.

Opera Tavern, the latest restaurant venture by the Salt Yard Group, serves tapas so good you want to hijack other people's orders, says Zoe Williams.

The Sunday Telegraph's food critic is utterly impressed with the food served at the new restaurant in London's Covent Garden, sister restaurant to Dehesa and Salt Yard. "There was so much going on in every mouthful, and all the flavours were so individual, so characterful, it was like a hip-hop dance-off. Made of food," she enthuses.

Writing in the Sunday Times, AA Gill says the food at Brawn - the second outpost of the team behind Terroirs - is honest and unpretentious but at the same time lacking in originality. He comments: "It's hard to fault the essence of an honest commitment to good things in a good room, but this meat-heavy menu, with familiar dip-in dishes from summer-holiday destinations and fashionable cookbooks, with its nod to Victorian heartiness, is growing as ubiquitous as Pizza Hut."

Meanwhile The Guardian's John Lanchester finds that once you get past the terrible name of Yak Yeti Yak in Bath and the less than alluring location beneath a hair salon, you'll find some really rather wonderful Nepalese cooking.

The Independent's John Walsh is very impressed with the seasonal and locally sourced food at the Harrow at Little Bedwyn, Little Bedwyn Near Marlborough, Wiltshire, while Giles Coren enjoys the cooking at Cassis, a Provencal restaurant in Kensington and the latest venture from Marlon Abela's MARC group.

Finally The Observer's Jay Rayner says that despite its aristocratic heritage, the otherwise lovely Devonshire Arms in Beeley, Derbyshire, makes a right royal mess of dinner.

Last week, I had the pleasure of interviewing Hélène Darroze, the multi-Michelin-starred French chef who is in charge of the food and beverage operation at London's Connaught hotel and also runs her eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant in Paris.

As I mainly profile chefs, it's not often that I get to interview women and Darroze proved a very special subject indeed. Petite and feminine, she comes across as a little shy with a charming laugh that gives her a sense of innocence that's truly enchanting. When asked about something she really cares about - her cuisine, ingredients and most of all her two adopted daughters, Charlotte (four) and Quiterie (two) - she gets a little twinkle in her eye that shows just how passionate she is.

But of course, Darroze's might is not to be underestimated. She is one of Europe's most talented chefs holding her own in an industry so dominated by men. She manages to balance a successful career, running two Michelin-starred restaurants in two countries, with single parenthood, dividing her time between Paris and London, spending alternate weeks at each.

The Hélène Darroze interview will be published in Caterer and Hotelkeeper in April and will form part of our dedicated Women's Month, during which we'll be celebrating women in the hospitality industry. Here's a little sneak preview.

Tim Tolley, executive chef at Spice Market, the new London outpost by US-based French chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, is leaving the restaurant just weeks after it opened.

US-born Tolley, who returned to work with the three-Michelin-starred chef after running D&D London's Plateau for six years, helped launch the restaurant housed at the W hotel London Leicester Square. He previously worked with Vongerichten at Vong at the Berkeley where he was head chef until it closed in 2003. Former Vong and Plateau manager Bertrand Pierson will remain as general manager at Spice Market.

Commenting on his departure Tolley said: "Yes I am leaving. There's no specific reason, it just feels like the right thing to do. I have no future plans as yet but will definitely stay here in the UK."

When asked whether his departure had anything to do with the scathing review Spice Market received from the Telegraph's food critic Matthew Norman, Tolley said: "It has nothing to do with that. This decision was made some time ago.

"I still have a good relationship with Jean-Georges. I'm not sure when I will be leaving, it will be when they have found a replacement."

Spice Market opened in the 192-bedroom W Hotel London Leicester Square in February. Serving a menu inspired by South East Asian flavours, it is the sister restaurant to the original Spice Market in New York's Meatpacking District and marks Vongerichten's return to London after nearly eight years.

Leading London chefs Shane Osborn (pictured), Brett Graham and Bruno Loubet have teamed up to organise a charity dinner in aid of the Red Cross Australia and are calling on fellow chefs to get involved.

The Fire and Floods gala dinner, which will take place at the High Commission Australia House in London on 3 May, is a fundraiser for the relief and recovery effort in wake of the devastating floods and wild fires which gripped Australia last year.

The event will include a three-course dinner cooked by two-Michelin-starred Australian chefs Osborn of Pied à Terre and Graham of the Ledbury, and Loubet of Bistrot Bruno Loubet, who have each volunteered not only their time but also staff to support the event. Australian sparkling wine and a selection of red and white wines will be provided by Treasury Wines Estates to accompany the meal.

There will also be entertainment on the evening as well as a charity auction and all three chefs will auction themselves to cook a private dinner at bidding guests' homes. 

Osborn commented: "We've got Westminster Kingsway College on board but are asking other chefs in London to donate their staff - both front and back of house - to help put on the event."

Tickets for the event are £250 each or £2500 for a table of ten including a £50 raffle ticket for a luxury holiday for two to Australia. For more information and tickets see the Fire and Floods website.

Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone has been appointed as the UK ambassador for Scotch Lamb.

Quality Meat Scotland has named the UK's Bocuse d'Or contestant and head chef at the Elephant restaurant in Torquay, Devon, one of four international chef ambassadors.

The four chefs were awarded their ambassadorship in the presence of Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal at an event held at the Butchers Hall in the City of London last week.

The remaining ambassadors are Christophe Marguin for France, who is the chef proprietor of Restaurant Christophe Marguin near Lyon. He is also the president of Toques Blanches Lyonnais and Toques Blanche du Monde and worked at London's Connaught hotel and at Scotland's Inverlochy Castle in the early 1990s before returning to France to run his family's restaurant.

Meanwhile the ambassador for the Netherlands is Cees Helder, who together with his wife Cees owned and ran the Parkheuvel in Rotterdam, the first Dutch restaurant to be awarded three Michelin stars.

Pierluigi Portinari is the new Scotch Beef and Lamb ambassador for Italy, who along with his brother Nicola, runs the two-Michelin-starred Ristorante La Peca in Vicenza.

Quality Meat Scotland this year supplied Scotch lamb to the 24 finalists competing in the Bocuse d'Or in Lyon, the most prestigious culinary competition in the world.

Three-Michelin-starred US chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's new London venture Spice Market deserves to bomb, according to Matthew Norman.

The Daily Telegraph's food critic finds only grey gloop and vegetable slurry at the South East Asia-inspired restaurant housed in the W London Leicester Square.

"Awaiting us in the valley of death was steamed pollack with shiitake mushrooms and ginger, the ugliest dish I have ever seen," Norman complains. "Mounds of drab white fish were adorned with a hideous grey-green spring onion and tarragon gloop, while the mushrooms were as stone cold as the fish."

Writing in The Independent, Tracey MacLeod finds something disorientating about Nopi, the new all-day brasserie from Yotam Ottolenghi, with its unfamiliar ingredients, unpredictable meal structure and unclassifiable décor.

She says: "That disorientation intensified after a visit to the loos, a nightclub-style hall of mirrors which makes it hard to avoid catching unexpected views of yourself mid-act. I'll do anything for lunch, but I won't do that."

Meanwhile the Sunday Telegraph's Zoe Williams finds the food at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal a bit unsurprising but adds that even when playing it safe the chef still manages to spellbind.

The Observer's Jay Rayner says Vietnamese eatery Café East is the best kind of cheap restaurant while The Independent's Lisa Markwell finds Meateasy so trendy it hurts but adds that it does serve the very best of fast food.

Finally writing in The Guardian, John Lanchester enjoys the Iberico pork at Opera Tavern, the latest venture from tapas specialists Salt Yard Group.

What was your best subject at school?
English
 
What was your first job in catering?
Grill chef, the Rock Garden
 
What's your favourite hotel?
The Park hotel, Kenmare
 
What is your favourite drink?
I could just manage a glass of Clos St Hune Riesling, 1983...
 
What is your favourite food/cuisine?
Today, white truffles on fonduta
 
Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Okra and truffle oil
 
Are there any foods/ingredients that you refuse to cook with?
Who's paying?
 
What flavour combinations do you detest?
Too numerous to mention but chocolate and Marmite comes pretty high
 
What do you always carry with you?
My freedom pass
 
What daily newspaper/website do you read?
Cricinfo
 
Which person in catering have you most admired?
Jesus Christ (5,000 covers with five loaves and two fish)

Marco Pierre White has no shame. After fronting a high profile ad campaign for Knorr stock cubes (surely any self-respecting chef would make his own stock?!?), the erstwhile three-Michelin-starred chef has now sold out completely.

He has agreed to appear in a £10m ad campaign for Norfolk-based turkey brand Bernard Matthews - the company responsible for bringing the world products such as the notorious Turkey Twizzler.

Entitled 'Marco Meets', the TV ad sees MPW tucking into turkey with EastEnders star and Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp, who can't believe that turkey isn't just for Christmas. But MPW comes to the rescue explaining that turkey is indeed "great all year round" and, of course, "never dry if cooked properly".

Bernard Matthews Farms marketing controller, Raj Sahota, is super excited about the collaboration: "We love the ads and think they highlight just how passionate Marco is about turkey and will show consumers why they should put turkey at the top of their shopping list."

Rene Redzepi's Noma has maintained its two-Michelin-star status after the French guide decided not to promote the world-famous restaurant in Copenhagen to three stars.

Noma, which was last year named the world's best restaurant, had been widely tipped to gain its third star in this year's guide to the Main Cities of Europe.

Meanwhile Michelin has awarded restaurants in Budapest, Helsinki and Stockholm with new stars in the 2011 guide, which covers 44 cities in 20 countries.

The company has awarded Onyx in the Hungarian capital with a star, a move the group says reflects the rapid growth in gourmet restaurants in Budapest. Onyx, which is only the second establishment in the city to gain a star, serves a modern menu overseen by executive chef Szabina Szulló.

Michelin also awarded a star to Olo in Helsinki, Finland, as well as to Thörnströms Kök in Gothenburg, Sweden, both of which are modern Nordic restaurants.

The 2011 Main Cities of Europe guide, which concludes Michelin's European coverage for this year, lists a total of 1,771 restaurants. It includes 15 three-star establishments, 58 two-starred places, six of which are new, and 284 one-star restaurants of which 39 are new.

Alan Murchison's 10 in 8 Fine Dining Group's latest venture, Restaurant Angelique in Dartmouth, Devon has been recognised as a rising star in this year's Trencherman's restaurant guide.

Now in its 19th year, the Trencherman's Guide lists restaurants across the South West of England, only including establishments achieving consistently high ratings across other guides such as Michelin, the Good Food Guide and the AA Restaurant Guide.

The Trencherman's Guide features a total of 101 restaurants in the area as well as for the first time, listing 25 rising stars. Among these is Restaurant Angelique housed in John Burton Race's former Michelin-starred New Angel, which the company took over last year and reopened in January.

Other rising stars include the Peter de Savary owned luxury hotel the Cary Arms in Torquay, Devon, as well as the Riverford Field Kitchen, where one multi-dish set menu is served to the whole restaurant, family-style on to each table.

The 2011/2012 Trencherman's Guide is published today. Marking the launch is a five-course lunch hosted at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall, attended by some of the South West's most acclaimed chefs including Michael Caines, Nathan Outlaw and Simon Hulstone.

Restaurants don't get any better than Sat Bains' in Nottingham, according to Zoe Williams, who scores the Michelin-starred chef a perfect 10.

The Sunday Telegraph's food critic is utterly impressed by Bains, whom she describes as a huge talent. "By the time we got to the 'crossover' course (so called because it crosses you from savoury to sweet, by means of mixing feta with vanilla, a cute if abstruse idea) I was thinking, this is too perfect. There's too much perfection here for one human to comprehend," she says.

The Guardian's John Lanchester finds Heston Blumenthal's hugely talked about Dinner lives up to the hype. After initial efforts by staff to hard sell drinks in the bar, the food puts him in a much better mood. He says: " Dinner is a brilliant restaurant, one that embodies Blumenthal's mixture of deep technical craft, ingenious feeling for theatre and astute sense of how to turn a meal into a story."

Meanwhile writing in the Independent on Sunday Robert Chalmers says 60 Hope Street in Liverpool is both unique and unforgettable.

The Times' Giles Coren discovers excellent French food at Chabrot, a new bistro d'amis in Knightsbridge co-owned by chef Thierry Laborde, while writing in the Sunday Times AA Gill says Italian restaurant Five Pollen Street is a work in progress.

Finally the Observer's Jay Rayner heads to New York where he finds David Chang's latest restaurant, Má Pêche, hit and miss, especially because it has declared a pointless war on desserts.

Iconic US chef Thomas Keller is to become a chevalier (knight) in the French Legion of Honour.

Keller, who is the only US chef to run two three-Michelin-starred restaurants (the French Laundry in California and Per Se in New York), is the first American man to have been deemed worthy of the title.

He joins an elite group of culinary French ambassadors to the USA: TV cook and author Julia Child and Alice Waters, chef patron of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.

Keller was nominated by fellow three-Michelin-starred chef and friend Daniel Boulud, with written support by chefs Jacques Pépin, André Soltner and Paul Bocuse as well as wine writer Robert Parker.

Bocuse, a commodore (commander) of the Legion of Honour, will pin the rosette on his lapel at Per Se on 29 March, according to the LA Times.

The French Legion of Honour was first established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is the highest decoration in France. It is divided into five various degrees: Chevalier (Knight), Officier (Officer), Commandeur (Commander), Grand Officier (Grand Officer) and Grand Croix (Grand Cross).

The feud between Gordon Ramsay and his father-in-law and former business partner Chris Hutcheson could be reignited after Hutcheson put the Warrington pub up for sale.

Guide Girl understands that Hutcheson, former chief executive officer of Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH), has instructed property agent Restaurant Property to market the pub in London's Maida Vale, putting its freehold up for sale at an asking price of £5.5m.

However, the Warrington, which opened in February 2008, is owned 50% by Hutcheson and 50% by Ramsay outside of GRH, which means Hutcheson would need Ramsay's approval to go ahead with a sale.

GRH last year shut its Devonshire pub in Chiswick after it failed to meet trading expectations and the property is also currently up for sale through Restaurant Property. GRH still runs the Narrow in Lime House.

Michel Jnr and Albert Roux's latest restaurant venture, Roux at the Landau at London's Langham hotel, doesn't live up to the standards of service one would expect, according to Hugo Rifkind writing in The Times.

Filling in for Giles Coren, Rifkind enjoys the food at the restaurant, the first collaborative venture between the father and son team in nearly 20 years. But he finds the front of house "surprisingly weird", especially considering Roux's recent TV series, Michel Roux's Service.

He says: "The table was set for four, even though I'd called up to tell them we'd only be three, which seemed to send the waiters into an uncomprehending loop, incapable of even acknowledging our presence while we remained next to an empty chair. [...] I'm not kidding; we were honestly there for 45 minutes before we even had a drink."

Meanwhile The Guardian's John Lanchester says although right on the pulse as far as culinary trends go, the menu at North Road is hit and miss. "When Hruskova is on form, you genuinely feel you're getting a glimpse of something new. [...] The pleasures aren't obvious ones. This leaves a lot of room for underwhelmedness when it doesn't go exactly right," he says.

The Independent's John Walsh complains that the food at the restaurant at the Royal Academy seems to be an afterthought to the décor and advises the chef to visit some decent suppliers.

The Telegraph's Matthew Norman has a long, confusing meal at L'Etranger in London and vows to remain a stranger to the restaurant until Doomsday at the earliest, while The Observer's Jay Rayner says despite being run by women Opus in Birmingham is a macho restaurant lacking in guiding passion or principle.

Finally, Yotam Ottolenghi gets a more positive review from The Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell, who says the chef, author and delicatessen owner has struck gold with his new restaurant Nopi in London's Soho.

Shane Osborn, head chef and co-owner of London's Pied à Terre, is to leave the two-Michelin starred restaurant, Guide Girl can reveal.

Osborn, who has been at the helm of the Charlotte Street restaurant for more than 11 years, will leave in the summer to go travelling the world for up to nine months with his wife and two children.

He will be succeeded by his former protégé Marcus Eaves, currently head chef at Pied à Terre's Michelin-starred sister restaurant L'Autre Pied in Marylebone. Eaves will replaced by sous chef Andy McFadden, who recently joined L'Autre Pied from the three-Michelin-starred Oud Sluis in the Netherlands.

Osborn told Caterersearch it had been a tough decision to leave the restaurant and London. "I'm very sad to be walking away after 13 years but the restaurant is in very capable hands and in its best ever financial position," he said.

"The team at Pied à Terre, both front and back of house, is fantastic and there's only one person leaving and that's me. Marcus worked with me for four years; he is the crème de la crème of the young chefs who have worked in my kitchen and he has all the skills to take over from me and carry on Pied à Terre's legacy."

Pied à Terre owner David Moore thanked Osborn for his commitment to the restaurant, adding he would be sorely missed. "But this is an exciting new chapter for us and Marcus is the heir to the thrown," he said. "Shane leaves Pied à Terre after its best year ever and in a very stable and secure position."  

Osborn first joined Pied à Terre as sous chef in 1998 and was promoted to head chef after the departure of Tom Aikens in December 1999. The restaurant lost its second star in 2000, which Osborn regained in 2003 and has retained ever since.

First opened in 1991, Pied à Terre was first awarded a Michelin star in 1993, under Richard Neat, who took the kitchen on to two stars in 1996, but left the restaurant within months of receiving it. Neat's sous chef and successor, Aikens, held the two stars for a further three years.

What was your first job?
Apprentice at the five-star Inn On the Park (now the Four Seasons London Park Lane)
 
What was your first job in catering?
Preparing six crates of spinach
 
What do you normally have for breakfast?
Poached egg, chicken, pink grapefruit
 
What do you do to relax?
Read, listen to music and forage
 
Which is your favourite restaurant?
Pierre Gagnaire, Paris
 
What's your favourite hotel?
Michel Trama in Puymirol
 
What is your favourite drink?
Guinness
 
Which ingredient do you hate the most?
Kiwi fruit
 
What do you always carry with you?
My wits

Which person in catering have you most admired?
Ramon Pajares
 
Which person gave you the greatest inspiration?
Pierre Koffmann
 
Cast away on a desert island, what luxury would you take?
A Laguiole hunting knife

What daily newspaper/website do you read?
The BBC website
 
If you had not gone into catering, where do you think you would be now?
I would either have played cricket or become a money broker
 
If a film was made about your life, who would you get to play you?
With the silver hair it would have to be either Richard Gere or George Clooney
 
When and where was your last holiday?
Michel Bras, Laguiole
 
What irritates you most about the industry?
The bullshit and pomposity
 
When did you last eat a hamburger?
Two years ago at the Chunnel
 
What's your favourite film?
It's a Wonderful Life
 
What's your favourite book?
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo
 
What is your favourite prepared product?
Marmite
 
Who would be in your "fantasy" brigade?
Phil Howard, the Square; Pierre Gagnaire, Restaurant Pierre Gagnaire; Glynn Purnell, Purnell's Restaurant; Brett Graham, the Ledbury; and some of my chefs, George Blogg, Le Champignon Sauvage; Sam Miller, Noma; Clive Dixon; Gary Pearce, In de Wulf, Belgium; Lisa Allen, Northcote; Anthony Rush, private household, formally Per Se
 
If you had more time, what you do?
Paint and write more

David Everitt-Matthias is chef-proprietor of the two-Michelin-starred Le Champignon Sauvage in Cheltenham