Recently in Jason Atherton Category

Multi-Michelin-starred chefs Sat Bains, Claude Bosi and Jason Atherton (pictured) are to cook together for a Singaporean-inspired evening held at Pollen Street Social next month.

The chefs, who have five Michelin-stars between them, are coming together for the event on Sunday 26 February, following their four-day tour to Singapore, where Atherton recently opened his restaurant L'esquina.

The dinner is in collaboration with the Singapore Tourism Board as part of the Chef Exchange Programme, which aims to encourage creative ideas between chefs from different cultures.

Atherton says: "I am delighted to be hosting this evening with two extremely talented chefs; Claude Bosi from Hibiscus, London, and Sat Bains from Restaurant Sat Bains with Rooms in Nottingham. It gives me great pleasure to share Singaporean cuisine with UK consumers and I fully support what the Chef Exchange Programme is aiming to achieve."

Pollen Street Social is now accepting bookings for the event, for arrival on the Sunday evening between 6.00-8.30pm, and for parties up to a maximum of eight guests. The special tasting menu will be £85 per person, with optional wine pairing in addition.

Londoners' favourite restaurant in 2011 was Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social, according to eating out guide Square Meal which awarded its BMW Award for Restaurant of the Year to the Mayfair eatery.

The first solo venture from former Gordon Ramsay Holdings' Maze chef director Atherton, the Michelin-starred restaurant was praised for offering top quality food, good value and impeccable service.

Meanwhile, bad service is the biggest bugbear for restaurant diners in the capital, according to the 2012 Square Meal Complaints Survey.

Grumbles over poor service in restaurants amount to 45% of all complaints and way eclipse the second-largest area of upset, which is ambience and décor (19.5%), reports the survey.

The restaurant guide's annual look at the industry, based on the opinions of about 8,000 London restaurant-goers, found that rude staff, slow service and unknowledgeable staff as well as the practice of automatically adding service charge to the bill, contributed to ruining guests' dining experience.

Complains about atmosphere are up 39% from last year, with disappointing décor, lack of ambience and too much noise topping the list of grievances.

Also on the capital's list of annoyances was disappointing or overpriced food, although this has remained steady at 18.5%, with diners enjoying set menus at high end restaurants and other offers.

Roganic named best new restaurant by Square Meal >> 

Gordon Ramsay is to end his involvement in his restaurant in Dubai after more than a decade.

The celebrity chef opened Verre at the Hilton Dubai Creek hotel as his first overseas restaurant consultancy in 2001.

The restaurant, which was first headed up by Angela Hartnett and then Jason Atherton, has won numerous awards. It is currently being overseen by executive chef Scott Price who will stay at the restaurant after working with Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) since 2003.

It is unclear whether the restaurant will change its name.

A spokeswoman for GRH confirmed that the consultancy agreement between the company and Hilton was coming to an end.

"After a regular review of our commercial operations we have decided with Verre, Dubai, that the time is right to end our consultancy agreement with them.  We would like to thank the team at  Verre for the partnership, it's a superb restaurant and we wish them all the best for the future."

Stuart Gillies, managing director of GRH, added: "We have had a good look at the business and what's not working. We're now focusing on what will work pound for pound."

Jason Atherton's first solo venture, Pollen Street Social, has been named London's best new fine dining restaurant in the Time Out Eating & Drinking Awards 2011.

The restaurant in Mayfair was praised for its great innovation and brilliant execution as well as its flexible approach to dining.

Pollen Street Social beat stiff competition to win the award, including Heston Blumenthal's Dinner, Hedone in Chiswick, and Medlar on King's Road, the first restaurant from former Chez Bruce chef and manager Joe Mercer Nairne and David O'Connor.

Meanwhile Will Beckett and Huw Gott's steak restaurant Hawksmoor Seven Dials won Time Out's best new restaurant award. The Covent Garden restaurant is the second Hawksmoor after the original in Farringdon located in the former Watney Combe brewery.

Time Out's food and drink editor Guy Dimond said despite the tough economic climate 2011 had been one of the best years for new restaurant launches in London.

"With all the doom and gloom you'd think that this would have been a bad year for restaurant openings but I don't remember such a strong year in more than a decade," he said.

""The trend towards no bookings and small, sharing plates has continued and this is a reflection of the economic climate. Operators are able to get more people through the doors and small plates are a much simpler way to manage margins."  

Other winners were Massimo's Restaurant and Oyster Bar at the Corinthia Hotel, which won the best new design award for its David Collins Studio designed interiors.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Awards 2011 results:
 
Best New Bar
Worship Street Whistling Shop 
Nominees
Booking Office
Experimental Cocktail Club
Zetter Townhouse 
 
Best New Cheap Eats
Manchurian Legends
Nominees
Ariana II 
KaoSarn 

Meza  

Best New Design 
Massimo
Nominees
Nopi
Riding House Café
Spuntino
 
Best New Fine Dining
Pollen Street Social
Nominees
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
Hedone
Medlar

Best New Local Restaurant
Malina
Nominees
Brawn
Corner Room 
Kateh

Best New Restaurant
Hawksmoor Seven Dials 
Nominees
Kopapa
Morito
Spuntino

Best Park Café
Lido Café
Nominees
Fulham Palace Café
Pavilion Café 

Best Sushi Bar
Yashin
Nominees
Atari-ya
Dinings
Sushi of Shiori

Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck has retained its place as the UK's best restaurant in the Good Food Guide but other chefs including Simon Rogan, Sat Bains and Jason Atherton are starting to redefine ideas on what makes a great restaurant, according to the guide.

Blumenthal's three-Michelin-starred Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, has retained its perfect score of 10 out of 10 in the 2012 edition of the Good Food Guide, while a number of other establishments have scored an almost perfect nine out of 10.

They include Rogan's Michelin-starred L'Enclume in Cartmel, Cumbria, and Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham, which have ranked in second and third place of the guide's list of the Top 50 UK Restaurants respectively.  

Elizabeth Carter, consultant editor of the Good Food Guide, commented: "Simon Rogan is all about pushing boundaries, changing perceptions and forging links between nature and the kitchen. His cooking is a revelation from start to finish."

Rogan said he was thrilled with the result. "This means so much me and the team - coming second in the country with a 9/10 score is unbelievable," he said.

Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social in London has come in as the highest new entry in the top 10, landing in eighth place less than six months after opening. Carter described Atherton as a chef whose pace-setting invention was a triumph.
 
Meanwhile celebrity chefs continue to be recognised in the Good Food Guide's top 10, with Gordon Ramsay's flagship in London's Chelsea ranking in fourth place, Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir aux Quat'Saison in Oxfordshire in sixth place, and Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley in seventh place.

"The Good Food Guide 2012 showcases what has been a fascinating year for dining in the UK.  The dining scene across the country is vibrant, with some supremely talented chefs serving innovative food which is winning our readers' hearts - there is much to be excited about," said Carter. 

Two of London's most high profile restaurant openings - Silvena Rowe's Quince at the May Fair Hotel and Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social - don't get the warmest welcome by the critics this week.

Giles Coren discusses the moral dilemma of reviewing a restaurant owned by someone he's friendly with but says the food at Rowe's Quince is "catastrophic".

The Times critic says that because he likes Rowe, he has been nicer in his review than he would have been had he not met her but adds that he has to search for something good to say. "It truly makes my heart ache to say so, for I'm sure Silvena can cook. But there is sure as hell someone in that kitchen who can't," he says.

Meanwhile the Metro's Marina O'Loughlin says Pollen Street Social is hit and miss and finds it hard to work out what all the fuss is about. "When he's [Atherton] being straightforward his food is entirely successful. But some of the experimentation and tricksiness just grates," she says.

The Sunday Telegraph's Zoe Williams complains that from décor right down to seasoning, Provencal bistro Cassis by the Marlon Abela Restaurant Corporation seems too hung up with not causing offence to be exciting.

Writing in the Observer Jay Rayner says the Restaurant at the Royal Academy, which is run by Peyton and Byrne, manages to make dinner into a fine art, while the Independent's Tracey Macleod finds a really special restaurant in Simon Rogan's Roganic. 

Filling in for AA Gill in the Sunday Times, Rod Liddle finds rotten service and a restaurant he doesn't like at the Leconfield in Petworth, West Sussex.

In London both the Evening Standard's Fay Maschler and Time Out's Guy Dimond are impressed with the creative menus at Hedone, which Dimond describes as one of the most interesting and accomplished restaurants to have opened in the capital for a long time.

Jay Rayner has called off his search for the perfect BBQ after dining at the World's End pub in Brighton.

The "dirty food" served by chef John Hargate features "meaty" ribs which are "proper, thick cut numbers" and "properly sauced", according to The Observer's food critic. He even discovered the closest thing to a Texan delicacy: a cream cheese stuffed jalapeno wrapped in sausage meat and bacon which is "outrageously moreish".

Writing for the Daily Telegraph, Matthew Norman is equally delighted, having dined at Jason Atherton's new venture, Pollen Street Social.

The former Gordon Ramsay chef's culinary expertise creates "solid gold in the mouth" in the form of delights such as oyster ice cream, escabeche of quail and the tiramisu with hot mocha-chocolate sauce being dubbed "one of the finest puds" Norman has ever tasted.

Ambience also proved key for the critics, with the Sunday Telegraph's Zoe Williams noting the St Pancras Renaissance hotel's super-high ceilings renders the Gilbert Scott too big and airy to feel comfortable, while The Independent's John Walsh gives Pebble Beach restaurant at Barton on Sea top marks for its atmosphere.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Independent on Sunday's Amol Rajan finds the feel at Gidleigh Park "abysmal", slamming it as "staid, oppressive and stuck in the 1990s".

Back in London, the Sunday Times' AA Gill finally gets around to eating at L'Anima to find that it does food for "corporates" better than expected, while the Metro's Marina O'Loughlin says tapas bar José's real excitement comes from its daily specials board - but its tiny dining room won't please everyone.

Matthew Norman finds brutally minimalist decor but a superbly rich menu at St John Hotel, the latest venture from Trevor Gulliver and Fergus Henderson.

The Daily Telegraph's food critic praises head chef Tom Harris, who presents his menu with rustic simplicity and without a shred of fuss. "Every dish was in perfect balance, every ingredient tasted purely and vibrantly of itself, only more so," Norman enthuses.

Meanwhile, writing in The Sunday Times, AA Gill says that although its heart is most certainly in the right place, the food at the St John Hotel does not offer precise flavours.

"It's well intentioned, its heart and all its other organs are in the right places, but its seasoning isn't. The flavours are smudged and imprecise. The dishes aren't clear, or doctrinal enough. And a lot of it is decent, but righteously boring," he says.

Writing for The Guardian, John Lanchester says Jason Atherton's Pollen Street Social is fun, informal and customer-friendly. "It's the polar opposite of what we've come to expect of 'fine dining'. And it's also properly brilliant," he says.

The Times' Giles Coren enjoys immaculate service and skilful cooking at Phil Howard's two-Michelin-starred Square but adds he finds it hard to get real joy from this sort of procession.

According to Jay Rayner, writing in The Observer, Spuntino, the third venture from the team behind Polpo and Polpetto, is the capital's best Brooklyn diner, while The Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell says if you're caught in the maelstrom of Oxford Street's shopping hell, the Riding House Café offers respite.

In London, the Evening Standard's Fay Maschler says the Gilbert Scott, the new restaurant venture by Marcus Wareing at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel, is a dream ticket in need of direction, while Time Out's Guy Dimond finds it's the building that has the wow factor, not the meal.

The Metro's Marina O'Loughlin finds Yotam Ottolenghi's new Soho restaurant, Nopi is an undeniably glamorous restaurant offering wonderfully creative food which is interesting, affable and very delicious.

AA Gill says that while Jason Atherton is an inspired and sophisticated chef, the food at Pollen Street Social is not what you want to eat with friends for dinner.

Scoring the restaurant just two out of five stars, the Sunday Times food critic says former Gordon Ramsay Holdings chef Atherton offers plates suffering "from the most common defect of trendy kitchens: nobody eats them before they get to the customer".

However, he admits: "The skill and the commitment and the sophistication are all there. There needs to be a lot less cogitation and a great deal more gurgitation."

Meanwhile John Walsh, writing in The Independent, says there's a great deal to enjoy at Pollen Street Social, adding that Atherton has clearly put his heart and soul into the restaurant.

On one of his main courses he enthuses: "These were vivid and extravagant flavours I'd travel miles to experience."

The Observer's restaurant critic Jay Rayner argues Barbecoa, the meat-driven restaurant by Jamie Oliver and US barbecue enthusiast Adam Perry Lang in the City of London, is an opportunity missed.

He says: "The bizarre thing is that Barbecoa clearly could get it right because the two bits of proper ribbery on the menu are very good indeed. [...] But that was it. Just those two dishes."

The Independent on Sunday's Amol Rajan finds the food at the Curlew in Bodiam, East Sussex, is a triumph and totally deserving of its Michelin star, while the Sunday Telegraph's Zoe Williams says nothing could be more perfect that the Star Inn, Harome, Yorkshire.

Finally writing for the Sunday Herald, Joanna Blythman finds Mark Greenaway's food at the Hawke & Hunter in Edinburgh is a knock-out - scoring it a perfect 10.

James Durrant, executive chef at the Michelin-starred Maze restaurant in London, is leaving Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) after nine years with the company.

The chef's departure comes just weeks after Jason Atherton, former chef patron of the international Maze group of restaurants, announced his resignation from GRH.

A former Acorn winner, Durrant first joined GRH as a junior chef at the group's flagship three-Michelin-starred restaurant on Royal Hospital Road, before heading north to become junior sous chef at Paul Kitching's Michelin-starred Juniper in Altricham, Cheshire.

He then returned to London and GRH to work at the then Michelin-starred restaurant at Claridge's, before becoming executive chef at Maze in 2005. In this role, he helped launch the first international branch of Maze in New York, as well as Maze Grill in London.

Durrant said he was now looking forward to the next step of his career. "After an amazing five years at Maze and nine years at GRH I have decided to take some time out and I am really looking forward to the next step in my career," he said.

A spokeswoman for GRH added: "We're very sad to be saying goodbye to James, he is a fantastic young talent and we wish him all the best for the future."

Durrant's leaving marks the fourth senior chef departure from GRH in two years, with Marcus Wareing and Mark Sargeant also having left the group.

Meanwhile, Atherton, who opened Table No1 by Jason Atherton in Shanghai in May, will be launching a restaurant in London's Mayfair in the autumn rumoured to be called Pollen Street Social Jason Atherton.