Thursday, September 16, 2004
Overfed
Dinner with T and her friend L last night at Gordon Ramsay's, and the night before at The Fat Duck in Bray - that's 6 Michelin Stars in two nights. I think they'll have to coin a whole new term for this level of extravagence... but sod it, just once in a lifetime, before I leave this country, I'd like to see what all the hype's about.
Well, I went, I saw and I was overwhelmed.
You know all that poncy stuff they write about in review guides, and try to show on telly? It's all real. I've never eaten food that carefully presented, by waiting staff that precisely observant and attentive before. It isn't like being on telly at all - it's a whole lot more overwhelming (which is strange, for me.)
To say that the food melted on the palate would be to do the food a grave injustice. I simply don't have the words to describe it, and the wines (with the exception of the last dessert wine, which was a trifle too... upmarket for a simple bloke of my tastes, ie sweet tooth) were in a calibre of their own. I wonder what would have happened if we'd risked one of the £2000 pound bottles. laughs.
Major confession - I'm not a foodie. Generally, I couldn't give a toss what I eat, and sometimes I don't, entirely. 's far as alcoholic drinks go, I know what I like, which is precious little... and I know precious little about anything else. Wine lists are an exercise in sheer ignorance, and half-remembered names. (Memory of a slightly impaired sotong, I suspect)
Last two nights, well - even an ignoramus like myself could taste, see, smell and hear the difference. Putting down my emptied wineglass elicited an almost instantaneous refill by the sommelier, who veered mid-course away from the table he was about to attend to, to quietly refill my glass.
So now I'm a whole lot more broke, but a whole lot more educated. Eating will never be the same.
Don't tell my parents. Cough. Half a month's salary blown in two days. (well, okay, a quarter. plus plus.)
Oh, and Gordon Ramsay is a whole lot taller, bigger, scarier and scruffier in the flesh than on television.
Well, I went, I saw and I was overwhelmed.
You know all that poncy stuff they write about in review guides, and try to show on telly? It's all real. I've never eaten food that carefully presented, by waiting staff that precisely observant and attentive before. It isn't like being on telly at all - it's a whole lot more overwhelming (which is strange, for me.)
To say that the food melted on the palate would be to do the food a grave injustice. I simply don't have the words to describe it, and the wines (with the exception of the last dessert wine, which was a trifle too... upmarket for a simple bloke of my tastes, ie sweet tooth) were in a calibre of their own. I wonder what would have happened if we'd risked one of the £2000 pound bottles. laughs.
Major confession - I'm not a foodie. Generally, I couldn't give a toss what I eat, and sometimes I don't, entirely. 's far as alcoholic drinks go, I know what I like, which is precious little... and I know precious little about anything else. Wine lists are an exercise in sheer ignorance, and half-remembered names. (Memory of a slightly impaired sotong, I suspect)
Last two nights, well - even an ignoramus like myself could taste, see, smell and hear the difference. Putting down my emptied wineglass elicited an almost instantaneous refill by the sommelier, who veered mid-course away from the table he was about to attend to, to quietly refill my glass.
So now I'm a whole lot more broke, but a whole lot more educated. Eating will never be the same.
Don't tell my parents. Cough. Half a month's salary blown in two days. (well, okay, a quarter. plus plus.)
Oh, and Gordon Ramsay is a whole lot taller, bigger, scarier and scruffier in the flesh than on television.
