Welcome to The Restaurant board - introduce yourself here

[Minnie]

Welcome to The Restaurant board  This is a place for foodies old and new to introduce themselves 

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We hope you enjoy our forum. If you have any comments or queries please contact any moderator or administrator and we will do our best to help you  We also have many other boards covering a variety of topics -TV shows, music, sports, soaps, politics and many more, so please venture out and explore the rest of the forum too




I suppose I'd better go first ...

I'm Minnie, and I'm an armchair foodie. As you might guess from my signature and avatar I'm partial to a bit of chocolate now and then and I love most food programmes on TV from The Restaurant to Hell's Kitchen via MasterChef, Delia, the Hairy Bikers and Come Dine With Me - to name just a few!

[EllieP]

I'm EllieP and although I love all these foodie programmes, I nearly always manage to miss the vast majority of them   However, I will be definitely watching The Restaurant without fail

I have a huge collection of recipe books here which sometimes provide my bedtime reading   However, I've probably only actually cooked a handful of the recipes from them and I really must try harder

[Tinklefairydust]

Hi I am Tinklefairydust or TFD for short! Love watching programmes about food!  and love eating and cooking.. The Restaurant really grabbed me with the first series and am again enjoying the start of this one.
Having recently moved from Somerset to Cornwall have been dropping hints like mad to hubby that Padstow and Rick Stein's restaurant is not that far away!!! 

[Choppy]

I'm Choppy and I love Foodie TV - though I never get to see as much of it as I want  My particular favourites are Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, MasterChef and I still like watching reruns of Two Fat Ladies  This is my first year watching The Restaurant and I love it  I can cook, but prefer not to  but I do love eating 

[hecate13]

Hi, everybody.  I just discovered this forum today.

I've been a foodie since my parents first took me on holiday to France when I was 4, way back in 1950.  I didn't start as early as my late older bro, though, who apparently used to sit in his high chair banging his spoon and fork handles on the tray, yelling 'I want my dinner and I want it now!' and he really never changed!!!  In fact he became, amongst other things, a restaurant critic and was voted Restaurant Critic of the Year one year.

I tend to watch anything involving Raymond Blanc who I used to know when I lived in Oxfordshire.  Never been to le Manoir (never could afford it!) but when I had my first child in the John Radcliffe in 1976 my ma and step pa who had been visiting us went off to have lunch at their/our favourite Greek restaurant in Summertown and when they came back they told us it (The Landau was its name) had gone and there was now a fabulous French restaurant there called les Quatres Saisons.  They were right, it was fabulous, and my husband and I got to know Raymond and his then wife Jenny very well.

[Minnie]

Welcome Hecate, it's great to have you here Wow, you know Raymond Blanc?!!!

You might not have had time to look around much yet but we do have a couple of other food related boards you might be interested in too:

Food TV for chat about a variety of TV food programmes such as MasterChef etc. Usually The Restaurant board is a sub board of that one but while the show is on it's been promoted to the front page

Then there's this one: Food for Thought where we discuss all sorts of food related things (and I try to ignore threads called things like 'Slimming Club' and 'Healthy stuff' and go straight for the chocolate-related ones

[Minnie]

Having recently moved from Somerset to Cornwall have been dropping hints like mad to hubby that Padstow and Rick Stein's restaurant is not that far away!!! 

I'm glad you found this board as well Tinkle
Good luck with the hints! You've also got Michael Caines just next door to Cornwall, he's at Gildleigh Park in Devon.

[EllieP]

Tinkle, if your husband won't stretch to full-blown Rick Stein's, go to his fish and chip shop -  the best fish and chips you'll ever eat outside a restaurant, I promise  

[hecate13]

Thanks, Minnie; I'll have a look at those.  But I have to say I detest Master Chef - can't stand John Torode or Greg Wallace shouting, though I gather Torode has happily departed now.  At least on the old style MC, Grossman for all his mannerisms did have a sense of humour.

[Sassy1]

I believe there's a few months waiting list for a dinner table at Stein's Seafood Restaurant, Tinkle. 

Theres also the cafe'....... the Deli.. and the giftshop .... and as Ellie said.. great fish and chips at his school of cookery in Padstow.   

Theres also Jamie Oliver's Fifteen  @ Watergate Bay and doing a good offer at lunchtimes I believe.

[Minnie]

Thanks, Minnie; I'll have a look at those.  But I have to say I detest Master Chef - can't stand John Torode or Greg Wallace shouting, though I gather Torode has happily departed now.  At least on the old style MC, Grossman for all his mannerisms did have a sense of humour.

MasterChef is massively improved by having Michel Roux Jr in place of shouty John Torode - and without John there Gregg Wallace doesn't shout either!

[Tinklefairydust]

Thank you for that Ellie & Minnie   At the moment there is a good deal on at Jamies@Watergate, which runs between end Sept and October, so I think will try and get there. I am guessing its about an hour away from where we are in South East Cornwall. I have been lucky enough several years ago to eat at Le Manoir.. incredible place and experience. 

[Choppy]

Welcome to the forum, Hecate13  And hello again TFD   

[Arctophile]

Thanks, Minnie; I'll have a look at those.  But I have to say I detest Master Chef - can't stand John Torode or Greg Wallace shouting, though I gather Torode has happily departed now.  At least on the old style MC, Grossman for all his mannerisms did have a sense of humour.

MasterChef is massively improved by having Michel Roux Jr in place of shouty John Torode - and without John there Gregg Wallace doesn't shout either!

With his reputation Michelle Roux Jnr doesn't need to shout - people listen to him anyway. Without the Australian mouth to contend with Greg is almost normal - even he seems slightly in awe of Michel. All in all it is a very good change and I have to be honest I would seriously consider not watching future series if Torode was reinstated.

[hecate13]

Sounds as though I maybe need to give it another try.  I've always had great respect for the Roux brothers -Uncle Michel's The Waterside is in Bray, near where I used to live; very good restaurant though we were spoiled for choice for important dining events between that and the Fat Duck, also in Bray, which was absolutely fabulous and Heston Blumenthal has to be just about the nicest chef ever, as well as being enormously talented - my bro who was a friend of his, used to call him Hounslow, which creased him up.  And Le Gavroche of course is fantastic.

The only problem then would seem to be Greg Wallace who is totally and utterly pig ignorant.  His only qualification is that he is a greengrocer.  Don't get me wrong; I have nothing against greengrocers but I wouldn't get an eye test from a lens manufacturer either.

[Arctophile]

In all fairness Greg Wallace is a lot better in this series. He seems to defer to Michel Roux most of the time - and anybody who is passionate about his puddings can't be all bad!! 

[Tinklefairydust]

Hi Hectate, I agree spoilt for choice in that area, we lived in Marlow for 16 years, I was lucky enough to go twice to The Waterside, never got to the Fat Duck though, but would loved to have tried it.

[hecate13]

What a pity, Tinklefairydust.  I actually preferred it, though The Waterside's setting was better, overlooking their magical garden on the Thames. 

[loveisfondue]

Hi i'm Cat, I love The Restaurant and am so excited it's in my hometown - bristol!

[maria1970]

Welcome to the forum Cat  

[Minnie]

Welcome Cat did you actually try any of the restaurant while they were open?

[Tinklefairydust]

Hi Cat and welcome... 

[Nads76]

Hi, just started a new blog....finding inspiration from The Restaurant.

[roma]

Hi every-one
I am following The restaurant once more (I am having a break from Masterchef this time! should I also have done that with The restaurant this year!  I am absolutely flaggergasted with the contestants  ) and have been reading the posts here and have decided to join you.
I am an Aussie living in The Netherlands. So glad to get the BBC here :-)

[Minnie]

Hi Roma, welcome to the forum Have you seen any of the earlier series of The Restaurant? I think the general consensus here is that this year has been very disappointing in comparison to the previous two series.