Michelin star madness!

Actually Jane10 quite a few are bearded, and plaid shirts do seem to be popular!

Dem hipsters git ivrywhere! (No idea why I wrote that in a peculiar accent. Sorry!)

It was a nice gesture but I see where you're coming from. A good meal can be 'good enough' without becoming pretentious about it.
My late MIL insisted that there was nothing wrong with 'good plain cooking' but her meals looked as though she'd thrown them onto the plates from a great height. Most of us are somewhere in the middle aren't we?

In a rather posh hotel our starter was served on a bed of seaweed and appeared to be smoking (dry ice?). The waitress told us not to eat the seaweed, it was just for decoration. The few bits of fish in the middle were tiny.

We did have a meal at Raymond Blanc's Le Manoir some years ago to celebrate a really special event, the whole experience would have been fabulous, treated like royalty from the moment you left the car park, meal crafted especially for you etc. However I had been ill the week before (you have to book months in advance) and the nausea returned as we sat in the lounge waiting for our tour of the kitchen. My one fear was that if I was sick during the tour, they would have to close the kitchen! The staff were very caring, and trying to find if there was anything special they could cook for me that I could face eating, but I just couldn't face anything, such a waste - maybe one day.....

I remember my father in law, (in a very swish restaurant in Jersey) calling the waiter back after the large silver dome had been removed from the main course plate... Yes, he did require something further - the bread basket, because looking at what was on the plate, he was going to need it!

I experienced one of these a couple of years ago they are called tasting menus. Whilst on holiday with my family they took me to a Michelin starred restaurant. There was 7 courses of very small fancy foods which each dish was explained to us by the waiter. We giggled every time ( obviously not in front of waiter). We all commented we would need to stop of at the Golden Arches on the way home, however afterwards we were surprised that we were all full. The bill was in the hundreds but was definitely an experience.

Sorry but it is also about theatre, will be going twice this month to Michelin star restaurants. Love the ideas I bring back, the portions are not large but taste exquisite and I can eat every course and not feel as if I have to lie in a darkened room to recover as I often do in a cheap eatery after only one course. It is about opening ones mind as well as palate range. Like trying to understand and appreciate classical music or good jazz, neither of which I understand but am open to going to a venue and have elucidation by a charming other. Other than the chef's expertise were not the front of house staff pleasant and charming, like the maitre de looking after one of the earlier postings mother?My feet may have once been in the gutter but I can look up at the stars. On a more humane and caring level, have you ever wondered at the strictness and breadth of training the brigade of chefs have done?

Frankly, no. Its just food as far as I'm concerned.

Last year DM & I went to a local pub which had recently been refurbished. More expensive than your normal "pub grub" but the food was the best I've had in a pub for years, slightly fussy presentation but excellent tasty food. We thoroughly enjoyed it. DM who is almost 89 can be very critical & does complain if she's not happy.

I like normal food and you couldn't pay me to go to one of those pretentious places although I HAVE eaten at The Hand of Flowers pub owned by Tom Kerridge which has a Michelin star but 'normal' food.
When you see chefs on tv breathing over the plate, placing food directly on the plate with bare hands after touching their hair, placing pea-shoots with kitchen tweezers and dobs of jus, paint smears of mash and smoke under a cloche 'quelle surprise'...
Awful. Restaurant kitchens are the biggest wasters of food IMO.
It's the Emperor's New Clothes...food style.

Theatre? Yes up to a point. The food was nice in its overworked way but eg serving one tiny pat on butter on a slice of a branch of a tree? Half a Brussels sprout? One petal of a flower?
Actually the service wasn't great. We never knew what was going on or who our waiter/waitress was etc. The media chef whose place it was wasn't there that night. Can't imagine that the maitre d was either.

Carolpaint

We ARE grand...aren't we?
I do hope one enjoys one's Michelin mush this March.

Some of us have inbred taste but others might be trying too hard to aquire it.
I leave you to guess which field you appear to stand in.

Jane10

Tongue firmly in cheek?

Come on ladies 'Michelin Mush' that is nasty, so is the reference to class, why should not anyone aspire. You do not know my life or what I achieved. No wonder we are criticised for the politics of envy. Go out and enjoy life, there is only one chance.

GabriellaG actually no, this time, I posted exactly what happened and what I thought of it.

What a take-on this is. I remember winning a 'meal for 2 plus wine' at a local restaurant, which had previously been a really good country pub. The whole place was 'minimalist', all in black and white, not a flower to be seen, and after having a 3-course meal, we went home to cheese on toast - were were so hungry. Needless to say, the restaurant closed after about 2 years, and the premises is now back to being a country pub serving delicious, and filling, meals.

Jane10, if the front of house team were lacking , perhaps you could complain? A written complaint may produce a good responses? It was the phrase Michelin Mush by another poster that I thought was unnecessarily derisory.
You did not post it but the reference to inbred taste is just without any scientific foundation. It is this month I am going, it is not Grand but normal. Try another time, you may be pleasantly surprised. Le Manoir, Claridges, The Berkeley, L'Ortalan and Cliveden are all beautiful.

What an interesting variety of posts! I love fresh vegetables and fish (or meat) simply and beautifully cooked and well presented. And a well selected wine really is lovely.
Like Carolpaint I have enjoyed new experiences in some good restaurants, sometimes a revelation with an unexpected combination of flavours.
Personally I don't want to go out to get 'filled up' with a big plate of food and I find the fashion of pre-starter and pre-pudding dishes very odd.

I suppose I should mention that I have had a Michelin chef come to my flat and cook for myself and then partner. only because he was partners friend and loves cooking. It was very, very nice, and there was plenty of it, too.

One persons idea of good service is anothers nightmare ...I remember a restaurant (local and now a michelin star) where waiters stood with their backs against the wall watching "their" table .If a glass of wine neared the bottom of the glass he was over like a shot to fill it ,and he wasn't allowed to converse with the guests ..it was against the rules.My sons friend is head chef there now and the no speaking to guests rule has gone after I told him how I felt ,last time I was there, there was a lovely young waiter from Biarritz who didn't hover and was happy to chat ..what a difference it made to the atmosphere .Carolpaint surely we are all allowed our opinions about food and if someone thinks what they had was Michelin mush thats their opinion.Theres nothing special or sacred about Michelin restaurants ..its all PR .ALL chefs work long hard days and most put decent food on plates .As I have done my training I can assure you that a great deal of SNOBBERY is what makes Michelin desirable for owners AND customers

Went to a Michelin star restaurant - and was decidedly underwhelmed. Deconstructed salad and deconstructed Banoffee pie (? mush). Do we really think this is what the chef's eat.

Come on ladies, its all about individual tastes, likes and dislikes isn't it? its not about snobbery or some of the put downs here GabriellaG. I love going to fine dining restaurants, I love good food, I love Michelin. I usually go as a treat on a celebration etc . I love the theatre of the presentation of the food and the small wonderful bites of pure magic! The best ever was in Ubud in Bali...it would take too long to say how wonderful the whole experience was but Sat Bains is close! Loosen up and enjoy what ever eating experience you enjoy!!!

If only. This is making me rather