Recently in Michelin-starred restaurants Category

The Michelin-starred Petersham Nurseries Café in Richmond, Surrey, has denied industry rumours that head chef Skye Gyngell has left.

The restaurant and garden centre, which first opened in 2004, insisted Gyngell was on a sabbatical but would be returning.

A spokeswoman for the Petersham Nurseries Café said: "Skye is currently on a sabbatical, such as she takes every year. However, she has not left."

Gyngell has been head chef at Petersham Nurseries Café since it first opened and last year gained a Michelin star for her cooking. She has published three books and is a regular contributor to the Independent on Sunday, Vogue and Delicious.

In 2009, Petersham Nurseries was granted a mixed-use planning application, after it won a four-year dispute with Richmond Council over parking and the level of traffic around the site.

Dabbous, the first restaurant from former Texture head chef Ollie Dabbous, has wowed the London food critics, with both the Evening Standard and Time Out scoring it a perfect five.

Located in Fitzrovia, Dabbous is a joint venture between the chef and mixologist Oskar Kinberg, who previously managed the Cuckoo Club, with a menu of small plates with seasonal produce and light, clean flavours at its heart.

The Evening Standard's Fay Maschler loved her experience at the restaurant saying Dabbous really understands eating pleasure and claiming it is a restaurant that changes the game.

Meanwhile Time Out's Guy Dimond says thanks to its stark design it is not an immediately lovable restaurant, the food is as cutting-edge as you'll find anywhere.

Writing in the Sunday Times, AA Gill visits Chinatown in London's West End hoping to find a decent restaurant. But after eating at Manchurian Legends, he leaves spectacularly disappointed.

"I haven't actually been defeated by a restaurant for ages. It was spectacularly, triumphantly awful," he says.

The Observer's food critic Jay Rayner has a hit-and-miss experience at Viajante, where he says deliciousness is too often forced to give way to cleverness 

The Independent on Sunday's Lisa Markwell says Soho institution Quo Vadis, where former Blueprint Café chef Jeremy Lee has just taken over the kitchen, is a foodie favourite for a reason.

Finally the Metro's Marina O'Loughlin says the food at 34, the latest addition to the Caprice Holdings' stable, is almost excellent but adds that it is a restaurant designed for the privileged.

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 >> 

Two-Michelin-starred chef Hélène Darroze has become a chevalier (knight) in the French Legion of Honour.

The French chef, who runs her eponymous restaurant at the Connaught in London as well as a restaurant in Paris, has been awarded the honour by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The award, with its five different levels, was created in 1802 by Napoleon as an order of merit to recognise outstanding services rendered to France or a feat befitting humanity.

She is one of several chefs to have been recognised, with others including Paul Bocuse, Thomas Keller and Alice Waters.

Commenting on the award Darroze said: "I am so proud to have been given this special award. I feel honoured to join such a distinguished group of people and this recognition for chefs shows what an important role food plays in today's world.

"I could not have achieved this without such a dedicated team around me both in London and Paris."

A woman in Tokyo narrowly escaped death after eating the potentially poisonous puffer fish at a two-Michelin-starred restaurant.

The head chef at the Fugu Fukuji restaurant has been suspended following the incident, in which the woman fell ill after allegedly asking to be served the extremely toxic liver of the fish.

The diner recovered after being treated at a local hospital, but the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has temporarily withdrawn the licence of chief chef, Takeshi Yasuge, who may have his licence revoked, be fined or even jailed.

"I can't say anything else except that I am deeply sorry. I am just so sorry," the chef told JRT. "My heart is in chaos."

Eating 'fugu' puffer fish is widely viewed as the mealtime equivalent of Russian roulette. The fish contain a poison in their liver or ovaries that is 1,200 times more toxic than cyanide and kills within minutes by paralysing nerves and stopping the lungs.

Fugu chefs see themselves as an elite group - they must undergo three years of training followed by a test that just 35% pass  - and they are traditionally bound to commit ritual suicide with their fish knives if a customer dies after eating one of their meals.

In 2009, scientists managed to breed a non-lethal species of fugu. But many top fugu chefs rejected it, saying they prefer to take their chances with the potentially toxic wild fish.

Japan has confirmed its title as the world's leader of gastronomy as Michelin has awarded a total of 32 restaurants in the country with its top accolade of three stars.

Michelin today released its 2012 guide to Tokyo, promoting three new restaurants to three-stars including Sushi Yoshitake and Ryugin in Tokyo and Koan in Shonan. The Japanese capital now has 17 three-star restaurants.

After the release of its guide to western Japan last month, the country now boasts more three-Michelin-starred restaurants than France, which currently has 25.

However, the size and scale of the restaurant industry in Japan helps to partly explain its success when it comes to Michelin stars. There are around 160,000 restaurants Tokyo, compared with about 40,000 in Paris.

Michelin's 2012 Tokyo guide this year expanded its coverage to include the areas of Yokosuka, Hayama, Zushi, Fujisawa, Chigasaki, Hiratsuka, Oiso, Odawara and Yugawara.

A total of 57 restaurants gained two stars, with 13 new additions, including Korean restaurant Moranbong, which is the first in the world to achieve the award. Meanwhile 54 establishments celebrated their first star, bringing the total to 219.

Bernard Delmas, president of Nihon Michelin Tire, commented: "Thanks to our readers, we have reached the 5th anniversary of the Michelin guide in Japan. Since the first publication of the guide in 2007, we have enriched the selection by expanding the area."

He added: "We hope that readers from all over Japan and also from overseas will visit the shining stars in Tokyo Yokohama and Shonan and have a wonderful time. And we sincerely hope that we can contribute to Japan's restaurant and tourism industry by publishing this guide."

US chef Grant Achatz's Alinea has become the only three-starred restaurant in Chicago after L20 lost two stars in Michelin's second guide to the US city.

L20, whose famous chef, Laurent Gras, left the day after the restaurant gained its third star last year, has been demoted to one-star-status.

Charlie Trotter's and Ria have retained their two stars, while 18 establishments celebrated their first Michelin star.

Achatz's new restaurant Next, which has gained wide critical acclaim since opening in the spring, has failed to be recognised by Michelin. The restaurant is described as a "permanent pop-up", changing its menus entirely four times a year.

The Michelin guide Chicago 2012, which goes on sale on 16 November, features a total of 432 restaurants 45 types of cuisine, including 21 holding stars. It also lists 56 restaurants with Bib Gourmands serving two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for $40 or less.

The Chicago guide is Michelin's third US guide after New York and San Francisco and the Bay Area. Guides to Los Angeles and Las Vegas were discontinued.

Michelin has released its 2012 guide to Germany and has awarded La Vie in Osnabrück three stars and promoted a record number of 10 establishments to two-star-status.

Thomas Bühner's restaurant in the North West of Germany has won Michelin's top accolade after being tipped a rising three-star for two consecutive years.

With Nils Henkel's Gourmetrestaurant Lerbach losing its third star, Michelin's 2012 guide to Germany continues to list a total of nine three-star restaurants, more than any other European guide bar France.

Meanwhile 10 restaurants celebrated their second Michelin star. These include Lorenz Adlon and Reinstoff in the capital of Berlin; Schwingshackl Esskultur in Bernried and Kastell in Wernberg-Köblitz in Bavaria; and Rosin in Dorsten and La Vision in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The North continues to dominate the ranks of Michelin-starred restaurants in Germany, with the new guide awarding a second star to four establishments in the region: Haerlin and Jacobs Restaurant in Hamburg; Buddenbrooks in Lübeck; and La Mer in List on the island of Sylt.

A total of 23 restaurants were awarded their first stars bringing the number of one-star establishments to 208. Overall Germany now has 249 restaurants holding one or more Michelin stars.

The number of Bib Gourmands, restaurants offering good food at moderate prices, rose by 45 and now totals 431.

The 2012 Michelin guide to Germany goes on sale on 11 November.

Thomas Keller's French Laundry and the Restaurant at Meadowood in Napa Valley in northern California have remained the only restaurants to hold three stars in the Michelin guide to San Francisco, the Bay Area and Wine Country.

The 2012 edition of the famous guide has awarded two establishments in San Francisco their second stars: Asian restaurant Benu and the American eatery Saison, as well as modern French restaurant Baumé in South Bay. The Californian guide now features six two-star restaurants including David Kinch's Manresa in Los Gatos in the Santa Cruz mountains, Daniel Patterson's Coi in San Francisco, and Cyrus in Sonoma.

Meanwhile, 20 restaurants celebrated their first Michelin star, bringing the total of one-star establishments in the guide to 39.

Now in its sixth edition, the Michelin guide to San Francisco, Bay Area and Wine Country, which was released yesterday (25 October), identified 77 restaurants as Bib Gourmands (19 new) - offering two courses and a glass of wine or dessert for less than $40 (£25).

It is one of three US guides, including New York, which recently awarded two new three- and two new two-stars, as well as Chicago, which will be released next month.

Earlier this month, San Francisco began discussing implementing a mandatory 25% service charge.