Cookery shows

Post by **FatherJack** » January 20th, 2009, 5:59

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:I rather enjoyed that, though it felt borderline mockumentary in places, just because of how fucking stupid the little chef staff are.

I quite enjoyed it, in that he went out of his way not to deliver totally poncy stuff, but that the lovable british public (who incidentally have virtually cemented Little Chef to the grave) said it was too poncy for the target audience.

Part prick-ishness on the customers for assuming only the lowest common denominator can succeed, but kudos on Heston's part for giving it another go, especially with him going against his sycophantic cockmullering twatbag snooty staff.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » January 20th, 2009, 7:52

I meant to watch the Heston programme, but forgot. I'll try to catch it sometime this week.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 20th, 2009, 22:17

There are three eps, second one was today. His own staff came across a lot better in this one - helping out and encouraging rather than taking the piss.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 20th, 2009, 23:01

FatherJack wrote:There are three eps, second one was today. His own staff came across a lot better in this one - helping out and encouraging rather than taking the piss.

I enjoyed this one, the little chef chap is proving himself to be a complete prick, really just seems to want a gimmick, rather than dealing with the real issues.

Does seem like 90% of the stuff he does will get corners and budget cut until it returns to current little chef standards, which would be a damn fucking shame.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 21st, 2009, 9:25

Also, masterchef is on again, which always entertains me, for no good reason.

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 21st, 2009, 10:57

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:Also, masterchef is on again, which always entertains me, for no good reason.

Why do they have to make it like The Dragon's Apprentice Den?

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 26th, 2009, 10:32

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:I enjoyed this one, the little chef chap is proving himself to be a complete prick, really just seems to want a gimmick, rather than dealing with the real issues.

Does seem like 90% of the stuff he does will get corners and budget cut until it returns to current little chef standards, which would be a damn fucking shame.

The Little Chef boss was an idiot, thinking he could solve the problem by spouting management jargon and adding wacky, token dishes to the menu.

On the whole I think Blumenthal delivered a fairly practical solution. If they roll it out, as is, nationwide I'd be inclined to eat there. For years I've had the impression that Little Chef was little more than a glorified greasy spoon and the state it's in at the moment I wasn't wrong.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 26th, 2009, 11:07

I recall always wanting to go in there as kids when we were travelling, but always having to have sandwiches in the car instead because it was too expensive. It was like the McDonald's of the 70s.

The only Little Chef I ever ate in was much later and has been a Chinese Restaurant called the Water Margin

in Long Itchington for at least five years. It was about the same quality of food as a supermarket café when it was a Little Chef.

I'd assumed that with the burger chains being the kid's choice the others had all died out too - I've certainly seen plenty of abandoned ones around.

Even with a new menu they'll struggle - many of their their locations were based on the old trunk A-roads, lots of which have been bypassed or replaced. Other ubiquitous chains have stepped in and got the service stations sewn up.

I don't know if I'd actually go to one, though it would be cheaper than whatever Heston's restaurant is called (I don't think they mentioned it's name, location and prices at all in the show). I don't think I'd eat the salmon, though.

Post by **Dog Pants** » January 26th, 2009, 12:28

spoodie wrote:For years I've had the impression that Little Chef was little more than a glorified expensive greasy spoon and the state it's in at the moment I wasn't wrong.

Fix'd

Post by **HereComesPete** » January 26th, 2009, 15:32

Earl grey smoked salmon sounds ok to me. The bergamot has a spicy ginger effect, wouldn't go too well at little chef though.

He has two restaurants right next to each other in bray, the fat duck is exceedingly expensive and is home to his highest levels of chef wank. Tasting menu is £122 per head and the wine is £165 per head. The a la carte menu is a snip at £93 per head.

The other one is the hinds head, top notch stuff but at normal prices.

I think it's good they don't show too much of his credentials. I honestly think most people don't give a fuck and won't watch this program at all. Those who do can seek out any info they want without the program getting side tracked into an advert for bloominfool.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 26th, 2009, 16:05

HereComesPete wrote:He has two restaurants right next to each other in bray, the fat duck is exceedingly expensive and is home to his highest levels of chef wank. Tasting menu is £122 per head and the wine is £165 per head. The a la carte menu is a snip at £93 per head.

The other one is the hinds head, top notch stuff but at normal prices.

I think it's good they don't show too much of his credentials. I honestly think most people don't give a duck and won't watch this program at all. Those who do can seek out any info they want without the program getting side tracked into an advert for bloominfool.

also, I'd like to eat his foods, all of them.

oh, and for those that bother, good eats started again recently (12x11 - Ginger: Rise of the Rhizome)

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » January 26th, 2009, 16:44

Dr. kitteny berk wrote:oh, and for those that bother, good eats started again recently (12x11 - Ginger: Rise of the Rhizome)

I started watching from the very beginning and I'm still a loooong way from season 12. It's good though.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » January 26th, 2009, 16:51

spoodie wrote: I started watching from the very beginning and I'm still a loooong way from season 12. It's good though.

glad you're enjoying them.

GE is a bit weird for me, I don't use *that* many of the recipes, but the amount of random knowledge I've collected is so bloody useful

Post by **FatherJack** » January 26th, 2009, 19:05

HereComesPete wrote:He has two restaurants right next to each other in bray, the fat duck is exceedingly expensive and is home to his highest levels of chef wank. Tasting menu is £122 per head and the wine is £165 per head. The a la carte menu is a snip at £93 per head.

Sorry, I forgot to use my sarcasm font, most of these details were mentioned almost as many times as Little Chef in the episodes.

Post by **Roman Totale** » January 26th, 2009, 19:42

HereComesPete wrote:I honestly think most people don't give a duck

Even if it's fat duck?

Incidentally I had breakfast at Little Chef just over a year ago. It was crispy bacon, scrambled eggs and pancakes with maple syrup. Hardly classy but it was fucking tasty.

Post by **HereComesPete** » January 26th, 2009, 20:15

I had that

as a hangover cure a few months ago. I do like how little chef's seem stuck to the side of travelodge. The quality of a cheap lodge room has been upped considerably and the food in a chef has never been amazing, but it's cheaper plastic homogenous crap than the stuff they serve at moto or welcome break. It doesn't taste that bad, it arrives in a good portion (twss) and it was quite good to sit and eat my breakfast in a room that fell out the 70's.

FJ - I honestly didn't notice the fat duck or the hinds head mentioned by name that much. Lots of soft focus sweeping shots and signs of the village name yes, but I put that down to it being a bit arty farty because it's channel 4. Was there a voice over guy talking about them? I never noticed. I mostly shouted at the ugly old women and that twat who used garbled manager-speek all the time.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 26th, 2009, 21:03

HereComesPete wrote:Was there a voice over guy talking about them?

Yeah, he said 'the Fat Duck in Bray" loads of times, plus the aforementioned shot of the way in to the village, swooning closeups of the food, showed them walking across the road to his other restaurant and even mentioned the menu and the prices.

It wasn't too excessive, and some was necessary to put Heston's experience into context, but I can't help thinking in more impartial times they would have just called it "Heston's own restaurant in the south of England". It just struck me as ironic when he went in a sulk because he thought the Little Chef manager was using the show as a publicity stunt, when they gave everything but directions to his place.

It probably seemed worse because of the retarded way they make programmes these days, with recaps after every single ad break in case your brain fell out during them, as well as "on today's show" preview bits because you might immediately switch over if you don't have a list of what's going to happen.

Post by **HereComesPete** » January 26th, 2009, 21:09

FatherJack wrote:It probably seemed worse because of the retarded way they make programmes these days, with recaps after every single ad break in case your brain fell out during them, as well as "on today's show" preview bits because you might immediately switch over if you don't have a list of what's going to happen.

Bah, this annoys the tits off me. Has anyone seen the ben foggly climbing up mountains with specials program on the bbc? Half of each episode is the same footage on repeat, with his smug fucking gurning face repeating how difficult this is and the name of whatever the fuck it is they happen to be climbing every seven seconds. Actual fresh footage is as rare as rocking horse shit.

Post by **FatherJack** » January 26th, 2009, 21:26

HereComesPete wrote:Has anyone seen the ben foggly climbing up mountains with specials program on the bbc? Half of each episode is the same footage on repeat, with his smug fucking gurning face

No, because I don't like his smugness and he did another programme where he forced unfit people to climb up them with him. In contrast I did quite like Griff Rhys Jones and Martin (or was it Graham) Bell's climbing up mountains programmes because they were like Michael Palin and met loads of people and I just marvel at the easy manner all three of them have with all sorts of random strangers, even though it is of course partly set up. The ski chalet on top of a mountain in Bell's one was awesome.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » February 3rd, 2009, 1:12

Ramsay's Great British Nightmare

... Wow.

Just. Wow.

Watch this.