20-hour shifts are the recipe for success October 28, 2009 IT’S 9AM and Marcus Wareing looks very tired. We’re in the kitchen at his self-named Mayfair restaurant, the best in London, according to Harden’s Guide. It is unusual for a chef of Wareing’s fame and brand-power to be so involved in the kitchen, but he is nothing if not hands on. “This morning I’ve been [...]
THE LONG LAUNCH… October 28, 2009 JEFF GALVIN WE FOLLOW THE GALVIN BROTHERS AS THEY COUNT DOWN TO THE OPENING OF THEIR NEW CITY RESTAURANTWHEN talking about opening a restaurant, my brother Chris and I like to use car analogies. We have spent weeks showing everyone our Ferrari-like stove and our DB7 of a wood-fired oven. We have held many team [...]
Going green in Tokyo October 27, 2009 TOKYO. I bet a good few of you reading this page will have been to this city. It’s my first time here, I’ve been itching to go for years and finally I find myself staring out of my 28th floor hotel room and across the sprawling metropolis that is Japan’s capital. In the more densely [...]
OUT OF OFFICE October 27, 2009 MOTHERLAND Having swept the awards at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Motherland, a play recounting the true stories of women affected by the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, is currently enjoying a three week run in London. The cast of four women play 16 different characters – mothers, daughters, wives and lovers of soldiers sent off [...]
A buzzy slice of Venice seduces the WestEnd October 26, 2009 Polpo41 Beak Street, W1F 9SBtel: 020 7734 4479Cost in restaurant per person without wine: £25 DO you know what a bacaro is? Neither did I, nor – I’ll wager – do most of the people jostling for a seat at Polpo, which calls itself simply “a bacaro in Soho”. Well, a bacaro is a Venetian [...]
THREE OTHER SOHO SCENE SETTERS October 26, 2009 ARBUTUSMichelin-starred yet affordable, Arbutus has come to symbolise London’s food revolution. The food is gourmet French but not pompous – think cod brandade and slow cooked lamb breast with potato puree.?The three course lunch for £16.95 is said to be the cheapest Michelin-starred menu in the world. 63-64 Frith Street, W1D 3JW, tel: 020 7734 [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS October 26, 2009 ROKA OPENING IN CANARY WHARFCanary Wharf is becoming the talk of the town for its buzzing food scene.?With restaurants flinging open their doors faster than you can say “bruschetta”, it’s getting tough to keep up. Do not, however, miss Monday’s opening of the fantastic Japanese restaurant Roka, which serves a delectable assortment of sushi, meat [...]
Ski season classics October 25, 2009 IT’S a favourite debate among snow nuts – which continent lays claim to the best skiing? When you’ve got the multi-valley likes of Val D’Isere and Verbier up against Rocky Mountain resorts such as Aspen, Steamboat and Vail; Whistler inCanada, Snowbird in Utah and Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada range, it comes down to [...]
ST. MORITZ, SWITZERLAND October 25, 2009 St Moritz may be the grand old man of the European skiing scene, but it remains the most glamorous destination in the Alps, crowded with luxury boutiques, Michelin-starred restaurants and the film stars and royals flitting between them. It’s a good place to come if anyone in your family doesn’t ski, since there are numerous [...]
VAIL, COLORADO October 25, 2009 After Whistler and Blackcomb near Vancouver, Vail is the biggest ski resort in north America – seven miles wide, with 5,289 acres of “freeride” terrain. It’s been voted best resort in the US 14 times in the last 17 years for its combination of space, snow quality, diversity of trails and state-of-the-art lifts and gondolas. [...]