Recently in Michelin-starred chefs Category

Marina O'Loughlin says Hix Belgravia, set within the Thompson hotel Belgraves, is a restaurant lacking personality - the food is good but it's served in a restaurant with no real charm.

The Metro's food critic says that of all the Hix restaurants she's eaten in, this is the one where she liked the food best. "Sadly, it's being served in a restaurant with no perceptible appeal - I can't imagine wanting to go back," she says.

The Sunday Times' AA Gill has a very good lunch at the two-Michelin-starred Ledbury where he says Chef of the Year Catey winner Brett Graham's cooking is refined and calm; it doesn't test your palate or demand attention.

While the cooking at the Granville pub in Lower Hardres in Kent may not match that at its big brother, the Sportsman, there's still a lot to recommend it, according to the Guardian's John Lanchester.

Writing for the Independent on Sunday Amol Rajan says the Blacksmith & the Toffeemaker in the City of London is a place to go for a drink, not to eat as most of the food is dire.

More enthusiastic is Giles Coren in his review in the Times of Peruvian restaurant Ceviche in Soho, which he says is brilliant because the cooking is super-confident, rare and interesting and the look of the room is great.

Finally the Telegraph's Matthew Norman is blown away by the food at Queans Restaurant in Leamington Spa, which he scores a perfect five because it would be crazy to give it anything less.

Former two-Michelin-starred chef John Campbell is to cook at the Pass restaurant at South Lodge hotel near Horsham in Sussex for three days this June.

The double Catey winner is to join his former senior chef de partie, Matt Gillan, who won a Michelin star at the Pass last October.

"John Campbell's Pop Up" will serve lunch and dinner in the Pass from 21 June to 23 June, with Campbell set to be cooking and running masterclasses every day.

Lunch with paired wine will be priced £120 and dinner with wine will be £170 including a Champagne and canapé reception, seven-course tasting menu accompanied by four selected wines and a signed copy of the menu.

Meanwhile a dinner and accommodation package will be available for £250 per person (based on two sharing) including Champagne and canapé reception, seven-course tasting menu, cookery masterclass, a copy of Campbell's book Formulas for Flavour, a bottle of his exclusive oil and a signed copy of the evening's menu. Wine is not included in the package.

To book call 01403 891711.

Daniel Humm, executive chef and co-owner of the three-Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park in New York, has been named the most outstanding chef in the USA in the country's coveted James Beard Awards.

Swiss-born Humm, who won the James Beard award for best chef in New York City in 2010, has been at the helm of Eleven Madison Park since 2006 after he was recruited to run the kitchen by restaurateur Danny Meyer.

He began his culinary training at the age of 14 as an apprentice and gained his first Michelin star at the age of 24 at Gasthaus zum Gupf in the Swiss Alps. In 2003, Humm became executive chef at Campton Place in San Francisco before moving to New York three years later to head up Eleven Madison Park.

The restaurant was awarded Michelin's top accolade last autumn, jumping from one to three stars, after which Humm and business partner Will Guidara took over the business. Humm's cooking combines classic flavour combinations with a mix of classic and modern techniques.

Meanwhile Boulevard in San Francisco picked up the James Beard Foundation's award for restaurant of the year, with Christina Tosi of David Chang's Momofuku Milk Bar in New York being named rising star chef of the year.

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, who last year opened his first European venture, Cut at the Dorchester Collection's 45 Park Lane in London, won the lifetime achievement award.

Michelin-starred chef Adam Simmonds' food may be delicious but there is a pale ghostliness about the Danesfield House dining experience, according to John Walsh.

The Independent's food critic says that although Hotel Chef of the Year Catey winner Simmonds' cooking is full of vivid flavours, its lack of colour combined with the monochrome décor and stiff service make the restaurant feel like some "absentee monarch's very pale kingdom".

Writing in the Times Giles Coren says you can eat very well at La Bodega Negra, a new Mexican from London restaurateur Will Ricker and New York nightclub operator and designer Serge Becker in Soho. But unlike its cousin in the Big Apple, the London outpost is not at all cool.

The food at Kitchen Joël Antunès is gorgeous according to Jay Rayner of the Observer, but the Mayfair prices leave a nasty aftertaste.

The Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell has a hit and miss meal with great steak and attention to provenance but much too big portions at Malmaison Manchester's spruced up brasserie, Smoak, while the Guardian's John Lanchester has lunch at celebrity farmer John Doherty's restaurant on Jimmy's Farm near Ipswich, Suffolk, and finds the food is not half bad.

In London, Andy Lynes says new Cinnamon Soho feels like a poor relation to its predecessors, the Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen in his review for the Metro, while the Evening Standard's Fay Maschler says utterly reasonable prices make Briciole the sort of place you want within walking distance of where you live.

Rene Redzepi of the world famous Noma restaurant in Copenhagen is to run a two-week pop-up at London's Claridge's hotel this summer.

The two-Michelin-starred chef, whose restaurant has twice been named the best in the world, will run A Taste of Noma at Claridge's from 28 July to 6 August in celebration of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

From the Mayfair hotel's Ballroom, Redzepi, together with his team of chefs from Noma, will offer a five-course menu of signature dishes priced £195. The menu will reflect his signature style using seasonal British ingredients.

We are excited about the opportunity to be part of the celebration of the Olympic Games in London and to work closely with the team at Claridge's. it is a different set-up from our home field, but we look forward to exploring the bounty of a different part of the world."

Claridge's general manager Thomas Kochs added: "This unique dining experience will be the first time the legendary chef will create his ground-breaking vision outside Denmark. The arrival of René and his team marks a true milestone in Claridge's culinary history, especially during such an exciting time in the capital.

"As London welcomes the best of the best from around the globe this summer, we are proud to make our contribution by bringing the world's best restaurant to Claridge's."

Noma - a combination of Nordish (Nordic) and Mad (food) - is a partnership between Danish restaurateur and TV chef Claus Meyer and Redzepi, whose career has included stints at some of the world's finest restaurants, including Thomas Keller's French Laundry in California and Ferran Adrià's El Bulli in Spain.

The menu at Noma is a "personal rendition of Nordic gourmet cuisine" - a mix of costly and everyday ingredients, unusual foraged native foods, and home-made vinegars, beers, spirits and wines. Alongside modern cooking techniques, Redzepi has also revitalised age-old, curative and non-chemical methods of cooking such as smoking, salting, pickling, drying, grilling and baking on slabs of basalt.

Luxury hotel and restaurant consortium Relais & Chateaux this week hosted its second annual Grands Chefs dinner in New York, bringing together 45 top chefs from around the world.

The event, which took place at Manhattan's Gotham Hall on Monday evening, featured chefs from 10 countries from four continents, with the UK represented by two-Michelin-starred Grands Chefs Andrew Fairlie and Claude Bosi.

Other chefs included three-Michelin-starred chefs Daniel Boulud and Jean-Georges Vongerichten from the USA, Thomas Bühner from La Vie in Germany, and Emmanuel Renaut from Flocons de Sel in France. In addition iconic French chefs Marc Meneau and Annie Féolde as well as young chefs such as César Troisgros and Christopher Kostow were also cooking.

New York marked Relais & Chateaux's second annual Grands Chefs dinner after the inaugural event held at Versailles in France last year. Next year, the dinner will take place in London.

The Grands Chefs dinner, which raised funds for New York charity Citymeals on Wheels and was sponsored by Champagne Pommery, saw the chefs paired up in teams of three cooking for 20 or 30 covers. The menus featured a first course of lobster, a second course of either scallops or sea bass, and a third of either veal or lamb.

Andrew Fairlie, chef patron of Restaurant Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles in Scotland, served seared Maine scallops with Scottish sea vegetables and seaweed broth. He was teamed up with US chef Mark Ladner from El Posto in New York, and Patrick Bertron, head chef at Le Relais Bernard Loiseau in France.

Meanwhile Claude Bosi, chef patron of Hibiscus in London, served roast tenderloin of veal with aubergine and miso caviar, roast baby gem lettuce and dried bonito. He cooked alongside Davy Tissot from Villa Florentine in France and and Stéphane Mazières Hôtel Le Toiny in Saint Barts.

Commenting on the event, Fairlie said it had been a great honour to have been involved. "Being among culinary greats such as Marc Meneau, Daniel Boulud and Thomas Keller was a fantastic and humbling experience," he said.

"While the cooking on the night was a challenge, the organisation of the event was impeccable and I had a great team in Mark and Patrick."

Fairlie added: "The room looked absolutely spectacular and I didn't realise until I got there just how big the event was going to be. It was an amazing and exhilarating experience and one of the best events of its kind that I have cooked at."

Adam Smith, premier sous chef at the Ritz in London, has been named the 2012 Roux Scholar.

Smith, who had entered the prestigious competition for the first time this year, won the title following a fierce cook-off in the kitchens of London's Westminster Kingsway College this morning.

Competitors were asked to cook turbotin jubilee, whole braised turbot with lobster mousseline, scallops and caviar, garnished with artichoke bottoms and asparagus tips and a champagne sauce, in two hours and 30 minutes.

Their culinary skills were judged by a panel of industry experts headed by scholarship founder Michel Roux, his brother Albert, son Alain and nephew Michel Jnr. The judges also included former Roux Scholars two-Michelin-starred chefs Andrew Fairlie and Sat Bains as well as David Nicholls, Gary Rhodes, Brian Turner and the BBC2 Saturday Kitchen presenter James Martin.

A 2011 Acorn winner, 24-year-old Smith is already an experienced competition chef having won a gold medal at the 2009 WorldSkills competition in Calgary and assisted both former Roux Scholars Andre Garrett and Simon Hulstone as commis chef at the 2007 and 2009 Bocuse d'Or.

In 2010 he was selected to represent the English National Culinary Team at the Culinary World Cup in Luxembourg, winning a gold medal in the Restaurant of Nations. That same year he also won the Craft Guild's Young Chef of the Year award.

As the 29th winner of the Roux Scholarship, Smith has won a three-month all expenses paid stage at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant of his choice. He has also won an expenses-paid trip to Champagne Gosset in Ay, and a trip to visit the Caffe Musetti roasting factory in Milan.

The other five finalists were:
Edward Attwell, Love's Restaurant, Birmingham
Quinton Bennett, The Arch, London
Arbinder Dugal, Le Pont De La Tour, London
Pramod Ghadge, Catlin Underwriting Agencies operated by Harbour & Jones, London
Robert Hutchins, Rudding Park Hotel, Harrogate

The AA has announced the shortlist for the 2012 Chefs' Chef of the Year award, with 15 of the UK's most celebrated chefs up for the title.

The prestigious accolade is voted for by all UK establishments holding AA Rosettes and this year's shortlist includes industry heavyweights such as Michel Roux Jnr, Sat Bains and Claude Bosi.

Other chefs nominated for the award are former Catey Chef of the Year winners Angela Hartnett, David Everitt-Matthias and Pierre Koffmann, as well as Michelin-starred chefs Jason Atherton, Daniel Clifford, Simon Rogan and Tom Kitchin. Tom Aikens, Richard Corrigan, Nigel Haworth, Michael Wignall and Jeff Bland complete this year's shortlist.

"For the AA Chefs' Chef Award a shortlist is drawn up annually of AA Rosette chefs who have made a strong impact and have positively influenced other chefs, both in the eyes of our inspectors and based on feedback we have received from the industry," said Giovanna Grossi, AA hotel services group area manager.

"They will have shown continued commitment to their profession and be worthy of recognition for their performance over the past year."

While establishments are able to add nominees to the shortlist, previous winners are of the award are excluded. Former winners include Michel Roux, Heston Blumenthal, Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Raymond Blanc, Marcus Wareing and Andrew Fairlie.

The AA's Chefs' Chef Award will be presented at the AA Hospitality Awards on 24 September at the London Hilton Park Lane.

Michelin has unveiled its 2012 guide to the Main Cities of Europe and has again denied Copenhagen's world-famous Noma a third Michelin star.

Rene Redzepi's restaurant, which has twice been named the best restaurant in the world, remains at two-star level, while four restaurants in the Danish capital celebrate their first star: Den Røde Cottage, Geranium, Grønbech & Churchill, and Relæ.

Two restaurants debuted with two stars Silvio Nickol Gourmet Restaurant in Vienna, Austria; and Maaemo, in Oslo, Norway.

The Czech capital city of Prague has two new one-star restaurants, with Alcron and Degustation Bohême Bourgeoise, while Funky Gourmet and Galazia Hytra in Athens in Greece also celebrated their first star.

The 2012 Main Cities of Europe guide, which concludes Michelin's European coverage for this year, covers 44 cities in 20 countries. It lists a total of 2,100 restaurants, including 15 three-star establishments, 74 two-starred places, 18 of which are new, and 287 one-star restaurants of which 44 are new.

Menus for British Airways customers during the Olympics and Paralympic Games - created by Michelin-starred chef Simon Hulstone with support from celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal - have been unveiled.

Hulstone's dishes have been inspired by the airline's menus dating back to 1948, the last time the Games were held in London, with the inclusion of popular ingredients from those times - such as ox cheek and fish - reinvented for today's audience.

Blumenthal mentored Hulstone, head chef at the Elephant in Torquay, Devon, through the creation of the menus, as part of the BA Great Britons Programme, which offers a global platform for up and coming British talent in food, art and film in the run up to the Games.

Hulstone has created four menus, which will be available on long-haul flights from London Heathrow from July to September in First, Club, World Traveller Plus and World Traveller cabins.

The chef will continue to work alongside Blumenthal to create a menu for the British Olympic Association's Our Greatest Team Rises ball at the Royal Albert Hall on 11 May.

SIMON HULSTONE'S OLYMPIC GAMES INSPIRED MENU

First Class

Starter
Rillette of mackerel dressed on a pickled cucumber carpaccio with sour dough croutes

Main
Potted braised beef, with a potato and horseradish topping served with hispy cabbage, baby carrots and roasted shallots with a rich jus

Dessert
Chilled chocolate fondant with a salted caramel liquid centre, caramel sauce and spun sugar topped with hazelnuts

Club

Starter
Golden beetroot, with goat's cheese and elderflower dressing

OR

Smoked salmon and Cornish crab roulade with servruga caviar gribiche sauce and summer cress salad (July)

Smoked salmon tartare with pickled cucumber ribbons radish salad and crème fraiche (August)

Gin & Tonic cured smoked salmon (September)

Main
Fish pie using sustainable sourced hake, dressed with Parmesan pomme purée and a warm tartare sauce

Dessert
Lemon curd cheesecake with raspberry and basil compote

Photograph by Tom Pilston