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The Good Food Guide Awards 2008
First Harden’s kicks Gordon in the meat and two veg…..
Poor old Gordon, no sooner has he picked himself up and dusted off the muck thrown at him by the punters whose reviews gave him a battering in the latest edition of Hardens Good Food Guide then he gets another right hook from the heavyweight that is The Good Food Guide.
The Fat Duck, run by Heston Blumenthal has beat Restaurant Gordon Ramsay to top spot and, more interestingly, only two other restaurants under the Ramsay umbrella make the top forty. That said, Petrus, at number seven is entirely run by Marcus Waering and I would be staggered if Ramsay has any culinary imput in the operation at all, as I would be with Maze at number thirty four. There is no mention of Gordon Ramsay at Claridge’s or Angela Hartnett at the Connaught.
Many of the restaurants featured are situated outside of the capital including two in Lincolnshire, two in Cumbria and a favourite chef of mine in Cheltenham at Le Champignon Sauvage. There are now a number of top quality restaurants spread equally throughout the British Isles thanks in part to a number of chefs realising the quality of ingredients on their own doorstep.
How much relevance is placed on these awards by the general public is open to question, probably not much at all. It is, however another chink in the Ramsay armour and coupled with the news that he is set to open a large number of gastro pubs one cannot help wonder if there is a shift in direction. Surely he cannot be following his former mentor MPW into providing affordable food for the masses after all the stick he gave him about hamburgers? That would have to be up there with calling AWT a celebrity chef!
Miles,
How many Good Food Guides are there? Is one more important than the other? Which one should we buy?
Poor Gordon, I hope he has more luck in the other ones!
Christine
September 16, 2007 @ 10:19 pm
Christine,
How many good food guides are there?
Not sure! The ones that really count in my opinion are: Michelin, AA, Good Food Guide, Hardens and now Egon Ronay.
For chefs it will always be Michelin and AA. If three star Michelin is beyond your budget then look out for the winners of the Bib Gourmand award which is given for restaurants serving good food at reasonable prices-well worth a look.
It is important to note that only the top restaurants are inspected regularly and by more than one inspector. Every other restaurant may or may not get inspected that year and the review is based on one single meal over the entire year. So if you’re the ‘whatever’ from ‘wherever’ you’ve only got one shot at gaining or keeping hold of your award, if you’re GR at Claridge’s for example you’ll get aother shot.
That’s celebrity status for you!
Miles
September 16, 2007 @ 11:09 pm
Miles
I would say that running gastro pubs or the like was a greater challenge in many ways.
Feeding more people on a tighter budget and still keeping the quality up must be difficult.
If you can spend whatever you want on the finest ingredients then price your dishes accordingly, have plenty of skilled chefs then turning out high quality food should not be that difficult.
Keeping discerning foodies happy who live outside London and have more limited budgets for eating out presents a lot of challenges I would imagine.
Whatever happens the Ramsay bubble has burst I think. The idea that he is ‘the best chef’ has gone - he is, despite his hypocritical attacks on others, the countries leading ‘celebrity chef’ so is probably wise to head down this new route.
Sticking his name over the door of a gastro pub will probably stick £5 over the odds on a dish … that plus the natural GPM should ensure financial success - probably more so than selling 3 Michelin star grub !
September 17, 2007 @ 1:59 pm
Miles,
I would agree with Derfel, there are some really good small, independant restaurants/pubs out there producing quality food but rarely seem to get the credit for it. Where’s Gordon going to get all of his new staff from by the way?
Christine
September 17, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
Derfel,
Many chefs are blinded by expensive ingredients, they assume it’s a sure fire way of success but you have to use them properly in the first place. As you seem to indicate the real test is in using cheaper ingredients in a tighter confine and still achieve results.
That’s the mark of a chef.
Miles
September 17, 2007 @ 7:52 pm
Christine,
Quite right! All too often one comes across a ‘local hero’ who just wants to cook/serve good quality food with the minimum of fuss. They deserve all of our support because the job is hard enough.
As for Gordon finding staff, well there are only so many chefs out there, or not as the case may be. Only a percentage of those will be willing to work in a pub, Ramsay’s or not.
Miles
September 17, 2007 @ 7:56 pm
Miles,
I understand that Angela Hartnett is closed for refurbishment and after that - watch this space ….
September 18, 2007 @ 4:19 pm