Nice people thread part 5 - nicely does it

lostinrates

purch wrote: »

I think that paying the huge premium to eat in a Restaurant with a famous chef's name attached, but where he/she doesn't do the cooking is a bit of a waste.

Ramsay has his name attached to so many nowadays, but he hardly ever does 'service' is any of them.

I ate a couple of times at L'Aubergine back in the early 90's when he was still an up and comer, and the food was amazin' , he came out to chat to us on the second occasion, and was just as bullish as he is now only slightly less obnoxious.

Had a major row with Marco Pierre White around about the same time just after he opened his gaff at the Hyde Park Hotel, the maitre 'd asked us what he thought of a dish, and we told him the truth......cue wild man storming out of kitchen and having a rant :mad:

......we ended up buying a bottle of Paradis and he joined us later to finish it off.

I think you are paying for the person's name..inevitably, thats the market rules, innit? But also for the menu and the training behind that. I had a client when i was a clerk who was from fifteen,, and saw first hand how the training there was changing a young mans life.

zagubov

Wheezy wrote: »

Whenever there's a NP meet-up, you guys can sit at the big table and eat quorn, lentils and hummus.
I'll be sitting at the kiddies table with davesnave, zagubov, sss555s and chewie and we'll eat nice juicy steak.

Sounds fine by me! Thought I was a fussy eater until I read these posts. cinnamon, yes, mushrooms yes, all meats except liver.
Pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat me first.:D

lostinrates

I'm not a fussy eater. I will eat food i dislike to be polite, but i don't cook food at home that none of us like, what is the point?! I like a wide range of food. I don't like greasy food....not meat bones or skin. But i do like crackling and i like the meat from around chops. Ribs, wings, drumsticks etc make me shuuder. But niether do i tolerate waste...its a luxury many don't have really, and if its an animal i feel beholden to use it well. If we do have stuff on the bone at home...dh sometimes cuts the meat off it for me. I like thai food, but it doesn't like me, i am always sick afterwards for some reason. I don't much like aniseed tastes, nut i have grown to like and appreciate that tNg in tarrgon and i work constantly on liking fennel more.....i i,e fennel and orange salad. I don't like bitter veg, like grilled chocory, or very dry bitter salads. I do not like tomatos with fish or chicken. I dislike fish stews, or chowders, or bisques usually, and i hate fish on the bone.

So, although i will eat what i am offered and appreciate it, i have likes, but not actual fussiness. Tbh i find fussiness over food deeply unsexy and slighty over priviledged. I would probably struggle goven eel, which dh likes. I have managed turtle, which was imo vile.


I love cinnomon, with sweet or savoury dishes....morth african/arabic style food is probably my very favorite of all. For similar reasons i really am very interested in medieval food and menus, where that sort of fruity meaty sweetly spiced food was not unfamiliar.

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

Sounds fine by me! Thought I was a fussy eater until I read these posts. cinnamon, yes, mushrooms yes, all meats except liver.
Pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat me first.:D

By my last post, i will sit where i am put and eat whiat i am given. I may or may not enjoy it, but noone would know if i dislike it i hope.

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

Sounds fine by me! Thought I was a fussy eater until I read these posts. cinnamon, yes, mushrooms yes, all meats except liver.
Pretty much eat anything that doesn't eat me first.:D

I like liver. I didn't like it casseroled though really, i like it flash sauteed and oniony. I love chicken liver with marsala or some shallots and a whiper of cream on toast, i like calves liver. I like lambs liver but not as much as calf or chicken liver.

chewmylegoff

Wheezy wrote: »

Whenever there's a NP meet-up, you guys can sit at the big table and eat quorn, lentils and hummus.
I'll be sitting at the kiddies table with davesnave, zagubov, sss555s and chewie and we'll eat nice juicy steak.

i want chicken nuggets, fish-fingers or sausages and chips.

Wheezy_2

lostinrates wrote: »

By my last post, i will sit where i am put and eat whiat i am given. I may or may not enjoy it, but noone would know if i dislike it i hope.

You will be in the garden playing badminton with Ljubljana.

chewmylegoff

lemonjelly wrote: »

Well, yes, & no.
I still prioritise in a way, in example, I baulked at £85 for the reformed police gigs.

But even if I did forego other pleasures to be able to afford 2 tasting menu's a year, that still (imo of course) doesn't make it reasonably priced. Indeed, if you're having to forego other things, then surely it is a luxury!

I don't go to big sporting events. When I go to the football, it is usually because a friend with a season ticket can't make it, & doesn't want their ticket to go to waste. Big names at the theatre? How about Tennant & Stewart in Hamlet. £14 at the RSC. This isn't high expenditure.

I don't earn enough, & do not have the kind of riches to pay £100+ for a meal. I've never been in a position to argue that £100+ for a meal is reasonably priced. Indeed, I wouldn't even allow someone else to pay £100+ for a meal for me!:eek:

TBH it's not the £100+ per head meals (although you rarely get to that sort of cost on the food alone) that are the problem. not that I hobnob around michelin star restaurants on a regular basis at all, but on the rare occasions that i do, i think that what you get is actually quite good in terms of value for money compared to what you get when you pay, say £50/head.

i have been to so many places and paid £50/60 a head incl. wine and got food which is so inferior compared to what you can cook yourself and/or what you can get in the pub for a tenner, that I have stopped going to places like that if I can possible avoid it!

i'd rather pay £100/head and go for dinner twice a year than pay £50/head and go for dinner four times. when you go somewhere 'top end' you get food that it would be very difficult to replicate yourself, which is not true of the next band down. the only drawback (aside from the wallet-damage) to "fancy" places for me is the style of service - the waiters bother you a lot, and keep interfering with the wine and your napkin, and it irritates me quite a bit. in some places they hide the wine somewhere away from your table so that only they can pour it, which gets right up my nose.

affordability is a different question i think. something can be excellent value for money whilst still being so expensive that it is completely unattainable.

i don't think i'd sacrifice much to be able to go to a fancy dinner though. there are loads of other things i would rather have than truffle shavings on top of my food, like lager, and a tv licence.

lostinrates

chewmylegoff wrote: »

TBH it's not the £100+ per head meals (although you rarely get to that sort of cost on the food alone) that are the problem. not that I hobnob around michelin star restaurants on a regular basis at all, but on the rare occasions that i do, i think that what you get is actually quite good in terms of value for money compared to what you get when you pay, say £50/head.

i have been to so many places and paid £50/60 a head incl. wine and got food which is so inferior compared to what you can cook yourself and/or what you can get in the pub for a tenner, that I have stopped going to places like that if I can possible avoid it!

i'd rather pay £100/head and go for dinner twice a year than pay £50/head and go for dinner four times. when you go somewhere 'top end' you get food that it would be very difficult to replicate yourself, which is not true of the next band down. the only drawback (aside from the wallet-damage) to "fancy" places for me is the style of service - the waiters bother you a lot, and keep interfering with the wine and your napkin, and it irritates me quite a bit. in some places they hide the wine somewhere away from your table so that only they can pour it, which gets right up my nose.

affordability is a different question i think. something can be excellent value for money whilst still being so expensive that it is completely unattainable.

i don't think i'd sacrifice much to be able to go to a fancy dinner though. there are loads of other things i would rather have than truffle shavings on top of my food, like lager, and a tv licence.

Urgh, just remembered another dislike, truffle. Yuck.

I agree with this post in the most part. There is a series atm abut how to cook like heston. Its good fun, and some of it is doable easily, nut i was sniggering at the chilli recipe. Most epoe co chilli as a low stress, easy to do midweek sort of meal. Something you can cook ahead, and is a bit forgiving. In opne pot, minimising washing up etc. if you use three pots to make a chilli you washing up has gone up, the hob time is longer etc etc....its a different thing. I 'd love to go to the fat duck, and eat the sort of food i would never make at home, and wonder how i could take an essence of that and simplify it to enjoy at home without sous chefs, people to wash up or lots of equipment.

chewmylegoff

lostinrates wrote: »

Urgh, just remembered another dislike, truffle. Yuck.

i don't understand it. i don't think it tastes of anything at all!

wonder how i could take an essence of that and simplify it to enjoy at home without sous chefs, people to wash up or lots of equipment.

just make some scotch eggs with quails eggs and sainsburys taste the difference sausages and deep fry them in walnut oil. jobsagoodun.