The Ledbury, Notting Hill, London

Nigel Platts-Martin, restaurateur and co-owner of The Square in Mayfair, has come up trumps once again with this relatively new venture, The Ledbury, in London’s trendy Notting Hill.

Head Chef Brett Graham tops the bill, the young Australian having worked at The Square with Philip Howard (also a co-owner of The Ledbury) before being given the chance to flourish in his own space here. And flourish he has, with their first Michelin star being awarded in January 2006.

The food on offer is haute cuisine with a twist. The twist is that rather than being your standard French classical affair, it is a medley of flavours, textures, ingredients and colours, thoughtfully combined and artistically presented in a range of interesting dishes, with influences from both classical and ‘new world’ cooking.

The menu itself is unpretentious and easy to understand, offering a good variety for carnivorous, piscivorous and vegetarian diners alike. Each dish is an explosion of tastes, unravelling themselves to the palate throughout the meal.

The restaurant décor is smart, neo-retro and in the evening the lighting is spot on, providing a cosy, intimate atmosphere to the constant buzz of contented diners.

Being a 1 Michelin star establishment, the service is fluid but could do with further polishing to raise the restaurant’s game to the next level. The food, however, is equal to anything you will find in a 3 Michelin star restaurant, and it is also priced very well at £45 for the 3 course dinner, including mandatory amuse-bouche, pre-desserts and petis fours.

Currently, there is nowhere better in the northern reaches of Notting Hill for an haute cuisine experience of this standard. Long may they prosper.

Ramsay Loses Top Ranking

Harden’s London Restaurant Guide has demoted Gordon Ramsay’s flagship restaurant from the number one ranking as the best overall London venue for food, ambience and service. The new honour has gone to another of Ramsay’s restaurants, Petrus, run by top chef Marcus Wareing, who is undoubtedly gloating about his victory over his former mentor. Ramsay’s flagship restaurant has also lost out to Chez Bruce, which clinched the accolade of the highest rated restaurant food in London.

But how much of an impact does this make? What does it all mean? Well, not a great deal. As Zoe Williams of The Guardian succinctly puts it, “Really, with food as intricately tended and expertly conceived as this, unless something has gone very wrong, the distinctions are so fine that you're talking about the space between "amazingly delicious" and "unconscionably delicious". Ultimately, you're critiquing the atmosphere, and not even that of the establishment. Rather, the way that particular chef makes you feel.” (The Guardian, 28th August 2007).

So bon viveurs need not worry. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at 68 Royal Hospital Road is still a Mecca of haute cuisine in London and we should not forget that it is still the only restaurant in London with the outstanding accolade of 3 Michelin stars. Harden’s have rightly decided to give the pole position in their guide to some other contenders, perhaps in a response to Ramsay’s continuing business empire and brand name which is not to everyones taste, unlike his food.

The Waterside Inn, Bray, Berkshire

The day was dulcet. The sun shone. The birds sang. The daffs nodded gently in the breeze. All was harmony and light as the river flowed quietly at the edge of the greensward. The river? The Thames to be precise. I was settled in at the Waterside Inn at Bray for the first time in a decade, in the company of my eldest brother. Guardian readers may be more familiar with Bray as the home of the Fat Duck, the culinary playground of our own Heston Blumenthal, but for 30 years the Waterside Inn has been achieving the heights to which the Fat Duck aspires.

During that time the presiding spirit at the Waterside Inn has been Michel Roux, brother of Albert, who had been the presiding spirit at Le Gavroche, the restaurant that they founded together in London. They are two of the most remarkable men ever to have practised the culinary arts in this, or any, country. They won stars. They did the TV-books-newspaper-column thing. They pioneered technical innovations and ran restaurant empires. They founded, and still run, the scholarship that bears their name, pour encourager les autres.

Chefs who have worked for them have headed out around the country carrying the flame of sound kitchen practice, not just in centres of fine dining but also in more generally accessible places - pubs, bistros, brasseries. And they've both had the strength of character to hand over control of their kitchens to their respective sons. Albert's son, Michel Jr, has been at the helm of Le Gavroche for a few years, but this year the shy and modest Alain, son of Michel Sr, officially becomes chef/patron at the Waterside.

Which brings me to what amounts to a national scandal. The Roux brothers have been honoured in France, the country of their birth, but in the country which has benefited immeasurably from their energy, enterprise and excellence, not a dicky bird. This is official dereliction on an infamous scale. If we can give the mayor of New York an honorary knighthood out of solidarity and respect, the very least we can do is confer the same honour on two men who have contributed so much to the standards of public eating in this country. That's all I have to say on the matter, except to add that a visit to the Waterside Inn is a reminder of just how high those standards are.

They don't just apply to the food, which you would expect, but equally to the service, which is all engaging charm and well-oiled professionalism; the décor, which places the emphasis on elegance, space and light; the pacing of a meal, which is leisurely and well ordered - there is always a sense of forward momentum, but never one of hurry; and the tone, which, while unquestionably shaped by money, is open, welcoming, democratic. Of course, the situation at the river's edge on a sublime spring day ladles on the sense of good cheer, but when you step into the Waterside Inn, you are picked up and held in this kindly, civilised embrace that not even the presentation of the bill can dispel.

It came to £207.50 in our case, which is a lot of money, but money very well spent. Unless you are very rich indeed, you are not going to be popping into the Waterside Inn on a regular basis. It will remain, for most of us, a place for high days, holidays, spring days, maybe once a year or even once a lifetime. On that basis, don't you deserve to spend £100 each on yourself and a friend? You can spend the same going to a Premiership football match, a trip to the opera, or an off-peak package holiday in Benidorm. It's a matter of priorities. I know where mine lie.

For that £207.50 we got six courses on the Menu Exceptionnel at £76 a head, plus three glasses each of wines, all French, from a formidable, all-French list, chosen specifically to go with each course, a glass of champagne and a glass of sherry beforehand, and a glass of vieille prune apiece to celebrate the close of play. The cooking is classic modern French. That is to say, each dish is carefully structured, the saucing is light but intense and clear, the balance between protein and carbohydrate impeccably observed, cooking times, for the most part, precise. This is not food that sets out to challenge, in the manner of modern French maestros such as Marc Veyrat or Pierre Gagnaire; it holds to traditional values of coherence, correlation and euphony.

The tronçonnette de homard poêlée minute au porto was outstanding, the density of the shellfish and the saucing lifted by ginger in the accompanying julienne of vegetables. There was the most refined crust of brioche crumbs on a taut filet of red mullet, with a sauce of fish stock and raspberry vinegar that brought the fish into sharp focus. The caneton challandais aux clous de girofle et au miel was roasted slightly past the requested roseate hue, but, carved at the table with expert minimalism into fine leaves of flesh, each mouthful was a melodious concord of duck, spice, honey and pure juices.

Cheeses, puddings, including a textbook soufflé chaud au Grand Marnier and a luxurious, sweet/tart jelly of rhubarb and Bonnezeaux, were jim-dandy. And... well, enough is enough. Of course, it would always be a real pleasure to lunch at the Waterside Inn, but on such a day it was a privilege.

Article by Matthew Fort, The Guardian, 20th April 2002.

Restaurant Guy Savoy, Paris

As one of the culinary godfathers of modern haute cuisine, Guy Savoy’s 3-star Michelin restaurant in the heart of Paris is still setting the standards for others to aspire to.

From the moment you step through the door you are taking part in a gastronomic stage act extraordinaire, every word uttered, every glass placed and every dish described, falls of the tongues of the smooth talking waiters as if they were born to work here – as if Guy Savoy had cultivated them in his kitchen like the concoctions that arrive throughout the meal.

If you have eaten in a Michelin starred restaurant elsewhere, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the service and the atmosphere would be rather stuffy, uptight and serious. It couldn’t be more different at Guy Savoy. The Maitre d’ and all his waiting staff have a polished sense of humour and clearly relish making their guests chuckle by essentially making fun of the traditional stuffy Michelin restaurant image. The bread waiter introduced himself, saying “I am the bread guy. Normally they keep me locked in the back of the kitchen but tonight I have been released to serve you this delicious bread”.

The food, of course, is legendary. Gordon Ramsay trained for a while under the innovative eye of Guy Savoy, but Ramsay still aspires to be as inventive as the Paris stalwart. Savoy’s food is creative, ground breaking; a cacophony of flavours, textures and colours; the mixture of carbs and proteins expertly observed. We opted for the tasting menu which included a number of Savoy’s signature dishes. All were superb.

Needless to say, the wine list is hefty enough to spend a whole evening reading through, but there are plenty of bottles within a reasonable price range. The pace of the meal is consistent but never pushy. We sat down to eat at 8.30pm, and departed at around 12.30am, our trousers ready to burst and in need of a lay down. In fact I have never been so full, and so satisfied.

During the meal Guy Savoy himself made an appearance, moving from table to table to greet his contented customers. He works the restaurant every night, rather than being at home mulling over his next business plans like so many top chefs these days. He knows what he is doing in this little restaurant, and that is setting standards and keeping the benchmark high for all who may follow in his shoes.

Dining at Restaurant Guy Savoy is like attending an opera, a theatrical production of the highest order. If you are visiting Paris and if you are serious about food, you simply must dine here (but don’t forget to book at least a month or more in advance). If ever there was a spiritual home for the bon vivant, it would be here at Guy Savoy.