i like eating and i like investing in restaurants etc, as highlighted on this site by my recommendation of both DOM and RTN .... these two have found a formula and made it work time after time.

Fishworks (FSH) should have been on to a winner .... the founder was a fish wholesaler and knew his stuff ..... he had the idea of opening fishmongers with attaching restaurants ..... great thinking for all the obvious reasons, not least that even London, despite its plethora of fine and good value dining establishments, is patheticly short of good fish restaurants (can you name more than about 6?).

Unfortunately, the fish in FSH's shops does not look "just caught" fresh, so obviously is not and the restaurants (hearsay reports only) are bad value - i.e. overpriced and small portions.

Great shame, but it just goes to show that (a) you need much more than just a good idea and (b) you can't fool the public indefinitely.

confess i had a very mediocre meal at Rick Stein's Bistro in Padstow last year ... can do infinitely better myself, sourcing via our local fishmonger in marlow .... he knocks the socks off nearly all even in London.
sounds like you have a good Jewish Mother! ..... read scumbag Winner on Reuben's in Baker Street this week's Sunday Times.
and don't forget the huge influx of polish workers in all sorts of fields!

Never been to the Bistro, but had a few long lunches in the Seafood Restaurant, usually ending in having to get back to Rock the long way round ;)

Best meal I ever had in London was at Mosimann's.

ever been to The Capital? ...... i like it very much there, partly influenced for sure by having done a couple of Master Classes there with Eric Chavot .... now THAT i really would recommend if you enjoy cooking as well as eating

hope you dont mind me adding my fishy storyl
The search for the Coelacanth true story. i think,
kind regards
jkd

i remember at about the age of 10 hearing the full story on the wireless ...... first ever live was found i think just off madagascar

cynic cant remember the exact details, been a while since i read it , know i enjoyed it, and yes, i think you are right.
best regards
jkd

I heard about the coelacanth story too. Clearly it was a bad idea on the part of Fishworks to put it on the menu.

Not been to the Capital, cynic.
Hey, (silly question) you still got your notes - what did you cook?



Quack quack ;)

LONDON (AFP) - Diners at one of Britain's top restaurants are being invited to listen to MP3 players as they eat because its chef believes sound can make the flavours more intense.

Heston Blumenthal already serves up unusual dishes such as snail porridge and bacon and egg ice cream at the Michelin three-starred Fat Duck in Bray, west of London.

But now he is pushing the boundaries of gastronomy even further by asking customers to listen to the sound of breaking waves to heighten the taste sensation of a new dish called Sound of the Sea.

The dish consists of seafood such as baby eels, razor clams and oysters plus seaweed on a bed of tapioca, which resembles sand.

Blumenthal told Square Meal magazine said he had conducted a series of tests with experimental psychologist Charles Spence at Oxford University three years ago, which indicated that sound could enhance the sense of taste.

"We ate an oyster while listening to the sea and it tasted stronger and saltier than when we ate it while listening to barnyard noises, for example," he said.

Other dishes currently being developed by Blumenthal include whisky-flavoured sweet gums served up on a map of Scotland and a sculpture of a rosebush hung with crystallised rose petals.

Blumenthal is an advocate of molecular gastronomy -- the application of scientific principles in the kitchen -- and often uses stills and water baths to prepare food.

Choccy ..... yes I do have at least most of the notes from Chef Eric ..... as much as anything else, it is the small things one learns - e.g. how a basic tomato sauce can have its whole character and use changed by what is subtly added etc ..... Chef Eric was actually quite funny, for as he said when we started, "We won't do the silly stuff that we have to put out for Michelin!" ..... in fact, he was happy to keep cooking and showing us what to do almost ad infinitum ...... classes are only a max of 8/10.

Heston Blumenthal
Hmm! To my mind, a restaurant for food critics...... all very clever and all that jazz, but i won't to go out to eat and not for a science lesson or for "taste trickery".
I also could not believe the rave review in Saturday's Telegraph on the Hind's Head in Bray which he also owns ..... We went there and it was awful, since when we have spoken to several other friends who have also been disappointed at best .... For us, the classic was that one of our party who is "difficult" as to what he likes to eat, decided he would really like just a simple omelette ..... Eventually the message came back from the chef, that though of course he could cook an omelette, Mr Blumenthal would not allow him to do such a thing!