Michelin star madness!

Jane10

Tongue firmly in cheek?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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!

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.....

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.

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?

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

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

Gosh. I bet its a very therapeutic activity. I suppose it ties in with the current trend for 'authenticity'. Do the men all have beards and wear tartan shirts?!

Jane10 so many of our students are on a complete life change, we have one that was pretty high up with Apple, came for a one week course in early September, got the bug and decided to take a one year course, started first Monday in October!

We also currently have a Sicilian ex geologist, a Nigerian who has his own medical logistics business, a lovely Welsh person who completed a degree in architecture at Uni, but decided she would rather work with wood, a semi retired GP taking three months out to further his skills in what was previously just a "hobby".

Today I was showing round a chap visiting from South Africa who has just completed an Economics Degree, but wants to design and create in wood!

Interesting that he's given up on it Phoenix. Sounds like a real change if life for him.

One of our current students (for those who may not know, I am an administrator at a fine furniture making school) was executive head chef at one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants, and he was talking about the Michelin star system the other day.

Apparently they measure different things once you have your first star, I will check it out with him and report back!

As JollyG says, the Burns lunch was lovely. I enjoyed it all especially Cascat's delicious miniature cheese scones and chorizo palmiers.

A friend of DD's was taken too Hester Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck. They had the tasting menu.

On the way home they stopped off for fish and chips because, although they had many courses, all were no more than a mouthful and they were still hungry.

I like good food well presented but hated nouvelle cuisine when it was the fashion.Food is my hobby ,I even went back to college in my 30's to get my City and Guilds and loved every minute .I do complain if something isn't right which my OH would just accept but if you're paying a fair amount of hard earned cash for a plate of food it SHOULD be right .Luckily we live in an area where there's an abundance of good restaurants where the price isn't extortionate .

I like my food served on a plate, nicely cooked, and with large portions, for a reasonable price.

Remember the King with no clothes!

I too was priviledged to sup OG beautiful wine, It was. superb, as were the glasses and salver with with which she presented.

The food all provided was as proscribed, Burns Supper, but a lunch.

My fave is Scallops which barely reach the pan, should eat them raw cevice style AKA S America, the lemon juice does the job

Harrigran, your post reminds me of the time my elderly mother asked the maitre d to point the way to the lavatory. He gallantly offered his arm and escorted her to a nearby doorway which he opened with a flourish to expose the staircase leading to the facilities. She looked directly into his eyes and in a very imperious tone said "Sir, by the time I reach the top of those stairs I will have wet myself."
He then kindly led her to another loo much farther away but on the same level, with a huge grin on his face. On subsequent visits he treated her like royalty.