Small appetites need not apply!

[Woodchips2]

I read recently in the press of a spat between a Michelin starred celebrity chef and a customer about the meagre portions served up on one of these expensive ‘tasting’ menus. The customer complained the total of the tasters added up to one decent starter and the chef replied they did not appreciate fine dining and ought to go to ‘Man vs Food’!

Having never heard of ‘Man vs Food’ I had a look on the net and was amazed at the huge food challenges available and the competitive eaters that seem to make these challenges a job. I suggest not watching these videos prior to enjoying a meal. (hammer)

Could you manage to eat a 92oz steak in under an hour? This American guy takes on the challenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y9SBZZTDeE.

The same guy tries to beat a fellow American that set the record for devouring this enormous fried breakfast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1XR-nAgmSE

He’s also not afraid to have a go at very hot curries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJbZVrzwKiM

I wonder if he gets sponsored by Alka Seltzer. :lol:

Regards Keith

 

[doctor Bob]

My favorite was a burger where the bun on it's own weighed 1kg, he could hide his head and shoulders behind it.
He is better at hot food than volume.

 

[novocaine]

I see that show as an indicator of what our society is becoming. I'm not impressed. On a plus note, he's in america so I won't have to pay for his medical treatment. :lol:

 

[Jonzjob]

It's was always called nouvelle cuisine and it's just a way of selling less and charging more. But the 'chic' prats bought it hook line and sinker. More fool them!

It seems to have gone out of style a lot here. I hate painted plates with everything looking as if Vincent van G has had a bad day!

There was a story on the Beeb the other day about some really intelligent bloke in the U.K. who decided that he could eat a burger in one mouthful. Just another to add to the Darwin Awards and removed from the bad gene bank!

 

[woodfarmer]

Here in France my "resturants" of choice are the "relais" dubious looking buildings with a car park outside. if about 12 pm the car park fills with lorries that’ll be a good place to eat. usually 3-4 courses inc wine and coffee for around 12 Euros. no mean portions here. If I had wanted a decorated plate I would go to an art gallery. To me prime function of restaurant is to provide "meals" not tasters.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I beg to differ. Sure, if you just want to be filled with food to satisfy your hunger then there's nowt wrong with a run of the mill restaurant that charges good value prices for reasonable quality food but....respectfully you are missing the point a tad. The Michelin stared chefs aren't trying to charge lots for very little.....they are trying to bring you to the point of orgasm with the most stunning flavours and presentation of food on the planet!

For those of you who haven't eaten in a truly decent restaurant where the food is quite simply on a different plane to normal I strongly recommend you take the plunge on a special occasion just to experience it. My personal favourite is Michel Roux's gaff in Bray called The Waterside. It's had 3 Michelin stars for basically ever and that's in a country that rarely boasts more than 5 in any given year across the entire country. The food, service, wine and atmosphere is quite literally sublime and you will never look at cordon bleu cookery again with a sneer, rather with a deep abiding respect for the art form it has become because your taste buds will have entered a completely different realm.

Now The Waterside doesn't in fact do measly portions, they are more traditional but they do do a tasting menu which I've tried once and I was full to bursting. I'm sure not all "poncy" food is great like I'm describing here but for those who want to experience it, the Michelin star guide is the best there is so if you want to guarantee quality just try a 1, 2 or pref 3 star restaurant. Expect to pay £150 a head but it will blow your socks clean off.

 

[Jonzjob]

That's where the difference lies Bob. Nouvelle cuisine is not the same as cordon bleu necessarily . NQ prides itself on small but beautiful and is a pay more for less but was essential for the snobs.

We have several very good restaurants around us here and a couple of them are in what is one of the biggest tourist traps in France, La Cité, Carcassonne. Good food well cooked and not a fortune either, but definitely not 12€ a pop.

We have just got back in form lunch at the Domaine d'Auriac Bistro. 3 course with a glass of very nice red for 45€ for both of us. It was the daily menu and very good quality with friendly helpful staff and the restaurant in the Domaine was where we had my 65th dinner and the bottle of wine was over 60€. If the bistro was not good then it would reflect on the place and I thing there wooud be several donkeys (or is that *****) kicked very hard.

Oh, nearly forgot, they are French too :mrgreen:

 

[lanemaux]

As has been mentioned by Bob , fine dining can be a treat that's tough to beat. I know this as my lady wife is a fine dining chef who has worked in some of the best joints that southern Ontario has to boast of. That being said , I class myself as more of a peasant , if a well spoilt one. I love a large and satisfying great lump of food and you need not bother with decorating the plate thanks. The best combination of these divergent foodittudes I've ever found was the brief existence of a place called Toby's Good Eats in Toronto. The signature plate was something dubbed the Fat City Burger Platter , something I can visualise even 35 years later. Two of the wait staff would bring to the table a burger and fries combo, one plate for the burger and a wicker basket full of fries , the condiments tray carried by the fries waiter. The burger was the size of a VW Beetles hubcap and featured bacon, tomato ,grainy mustard and melted real cheddar cheese. The fries were hand cut and substantial and could be amplified with the same melted cheese and an onsite made REAL gravy served in a small gravy boat that was surely less than a liter in size. All this provender was provided for the mouthwatering price of 6.95 Canadian. I miss it yet as it only lasted a short while on the menu, no doubt for cost reasons. Not michellin material , but fine fun for 6 foot 3 and 255 lb shipper/ receivers under 30 years of age . Healthy was not an issue at the time.

 

[Bm101]

I'm with Bob on this one as far as the tasting menus are concerned. I've eaten at a few places I could never afford the main menu and it was just a different experience. If you do a little research you can have some of the 'best' food available for not a lot of money as long as you stay away from the wine menu. I don't do it these days. Two young kids aren't conducive to eating fine food unless you earn a lot more money than me. Other side of the coin, I can still remember the first time I ate a meal that turned me onto the whole new world of food as an experience. It was white fish in cider and it left me full up even though there was two small fillets of fish and nothing else. It was so well cooked that nothing more was needed. Where? Brittany, France. :wink: I also remember the best single meal I have ever eaten. Pavement of beef (i'm not even going to attempt typing in French) with morelle mushroom sauce after walking the Col de astromique, a 3000 foot pass in the alps. Never one for vegetarian options, especially in the mountains, my Mrs a veggie for many years lasted 2 days lol. I can still see her face as she bit into the steak and went a bit mental for a while.
That was in a roadside cafe with loads of truckers and so on. Best food I've ever eaten. I've tried to replicate the morelle sauce with no success whatsoever.

As a sidenote we met some old couple in St Veran, got to the old sign language and ended getting pish. The old French lady was 'don't drink so much!' I was 'its just a few beers! Im fine!' The old French gentleman was laughing himself silly the devious old B******.
I woke the next day with my first high altitude hangover and realised what she was talking about.
Some of the nicest people I ever met, I met there. We're in the supermarket and the owner realised we were British (not many Brits seem to go there) and started talking about football and teaching his son english.... We have a chat, he asks where we are staying. A mile or 4 up the road. He asks if we have a car, I say no we're walking so he shuts the till, there's a queue mind, he basically shuts the shop with all the customers waiting, gives us a load of types of dried meats to try, and then he drives me and the mrs back to our campsite then goes back to serve his next customers. :shock:
Hautes-Alpes . Awesome place. Go there, just don't tell anyone because they'll spoil it.

 

[Fatboy]

Nice area to live Jonzjob!. One of my favourite places to stay is the Chateau de Cavanac, sensible sized and priced rooms and the last time we stayed it was a 7 course menu including as much wine as you could drink for 35 euros per person; great portions and fantastic flavours. Its gone up a little in cost now apparently - where hasn't? - but we'll still be back sometime later this year for a weekend.

 

[Fatboy]

I'm also with Bob; if i want filling I'll go to a Harvester or gastro pub but for a special occasion its noce to get dressed up for a nice restaurant. For swmbo's big birthday a couple of years ago I treated her (us, couldn't let her go on her own!) to the chefs table at Paris House near Woburn. It did cost an arm and a leg, 17 course tasting menu with matching wines for each course - very small portions but so rich I was stuffed by course 8 so I had to force myself for the rest.

The point is it sticks in my mind because it was a thoroughly enjoyable meal; the excitement of eating just 3ft away from the pass, the banter with the kitchen staff, head chef explaining what each course was, the food was on a different level to anything I'd tasted before and I have eaten in some nice places. Unfortunately money doesn't always get you that quality though - last year some friends 'bought' a chef's table meal for 4 at The Maze at a charity do in London. It would have been £200 per head if we had to pay for it - and it was dire! They got the right arse when I gave them poor feedback on Tripadvisor

 

[Jonzjob]

45€ now FB

http://www.chateau-de-cavanac.fr/menuvf.pdf

Even our village 3rd Age Club have been there, us with them, and we have had quite q few very nice meals there. It's about 20 minutes from us so I have no idea what the rooms are like, but they all all different we have been told, all 52?

When you do get down let me know and we could possibly meet up? We will be going away several times through the year, but???

My starter this lunch time was scrambled eggs with foie gras and it was lovely!! 8) 8) I do like foie gras and it's not that dear either. With a fig confit it's to die for!

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I think my most memorable restaurant experience was a place in Cambridge called Midsummer House. Its on the banks of the Cam and is a gorgeous building. My wife and I had eaten a fabulous meal with my brother and his wife and we were the last to leave. We were chin wagging with the staff and they invited us to see the kitchens. We then spent probably 2 hours on a full on detailed tour of the "factory" out back and it was a real eye opener. I thought decent joinery shops had a lot of specialist equipment until I saw that place! The Michelin starred chef there, a guy called Daniel Clifford had one of two machines for making stock (Heston has the other) which was basically a cooker with a centrifuge built in and a tap at the bottom. What was striking about this thing is it was the size of a household washing machine. They could make gallons of stock at once and then centrifuge it to produce a clear liquid with all the flavour which is drawn off at the tap. It cost £15,000 apparently! Then there was an upright "oven" that works at temperatures for cooking steak of about 55 degrees. They can put meat in this thing for 24 hours and it wont overcook, rather like the water bath method and it guarantees a steak with al the succulence still in the meat. This thing was like a floor to ceiling cabinet, amazing. The sheer investment that goes in to producing food of this quality is absolutely mind numbing, let alone the staggering labour hours (unsociable) that are needed. We left that place at about 3am on the Saturday night (Sunday morning) and they were still tidying up after the nights service. Dedication just doesn't even come close to describing the operation. It was quite remarkable. Up to that point my taste buds had been the main appreciator of good grub, but afterwards my respect for the art and industry behind the stuff on the plate notched up a few gears.

 

[doctor Bob]

People have a certain number of taste buds on their tongues, some lots, some few. if you have lots you are a super taster.
Unfortunately I must have very few, cheeses all taste pretty much the same to me, etc etc.

I spent a small fortune taking my wife for a weekend to "Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons" run by Raymond Blanc (Razor to his mates) loved the atmosphere, service, rooms, felt very special............ the food, I could tell it was exceptional but I'm afraid it was lost on my taste buds, especially the cheeses, which were unpasteurized goats cheese matured to 1 year, 2 years and 3 years to show the changes over time, it may as well have been sainsbury's red Leicester

 

[Harbo]

Le Manior - fabulous place - did you tour the amazing gardens?
Pity your taste buds didn't allow the full experience but I hope your wife's did?

Most expensive and best meal I've enjoyed was at Gordon Ramsey's (Chelsea) - thankfully he wasn't present but his 3star lady chef was. Bill for four came to £1350 - glad I wasn't paying.

Rod