May 2012

It is the final round of Great British Menu heats this week, and with three top chefs from the South West region taking part it promises to be a great week.

We spoke to Nathan Outlaw ahead of the the competition to find out how he got on with this year’s brief, twitter and his restaurants.

How did you find the Great British Menu brief this year?

For me was all about the Olympic spirit – the spirit and determination to do well. What I did in the competition wasn’t necessarily any different to what I do day in day out – I do what I do to the best of my ability, and I’m always looking to improve. Obviously the dishes were created for GBM, but I didn’t change my style or anything. I think maybe that is where some of the chefs have gone wrong this year and gone a bit more for Olympic rings and torches and all that sort of stuff; it is nice but I don’t really think that’s what the show was aiming for. I thought the brief was quite a good challenge.

How was it competing with Paul and Simon?

Paul’s restaurant  is literally across the water from mine, and Simon’s is in the next county – so I know both of them very well. We also know what each others strengths and weaknesses are so that made it a bit more interesting. Simon and I have come across each other in other competitions in the past too – so we both know the other can cook!

I understand that when you went to start out in the industry, your Dad, a chef warned you off it – is that advice you would pass on today?

I’d tell people to give it a go for six months. but my biggest piece of advice would be if you are not enjoying it then definitely don’t do it, because cooking is one of those jobs which at the top level will consume your life. You live it and you’ve got no personal life – I’m living proof of that, I have two children and a wife who barely see me, I spend more time with my chefs than I do with them. From some peoples point of view that’s quite a sad thing, but it is the life they’ve always known and if my kids come to me and say “Dad, I want to be a chef” then I personally would say you need to give it a go before making that decision – it is not an easy one.

I’ve got a lot of young chefs in my kitchens, boys and girls of about 20 and we try encourage them but don’t tiptoe around them either – because you don’t want to portray the industry as being anything other what it is. We do endeavour to make things better and improve conditions. At the end of the day if you want to produce food and you want to have a restaurant at the top if its game, then there’s only one way to do that and that is through hard work – there is no short cut, that is for sure.

Things are improving then?

I definitely don’t think we can get away with the antics that some of the chefs that I worked under got away with, the way they treated people. I think a lot of the conditions weren’t that great and a lot of us have taken that on-board and instead of replicating that way of running a kitchen we’ve made it a much nicer place to work. Most of the chefs I know at the higher end have boys and girls in their kitchens who have been with them for a long time, that tells you something. If you look back at the early days with chefs like Marco and Gordon Ramsay you would see chefs just leaving and walking out day in day out – nowadays there are very loyal crews in most kitchens which speaks volumes for the improvements in the industry.

You are quite active on Twitter – do you find it a useful tool?

Yeah, for us, so far twitter has been very useful. I try to keep it business like because at the end of the day everyone can see it. I try to put the sorts of things people who would come to the restaurant would like to see but wouldn’t normally… So if there’s some lovely fish that comes in, or one of the chefs has made a nice staff tea – just the little quirky things.

It works well with the book (British Seafood) having come out recently too – we’ve already had people on there saying they’ve tried the recipes.

It must be great to get that feedback, where as perhaps people might not have bothered to write or phone.

Yes, it’s really nice to hear from people that perhaps wouldn’t even come to the restaurant but have bought the book and had a go. Even little things like when I’m on Saturday Kitchen and people say “your omelette was nice today” or “I loved the look of the dish you made” that kind of thing – that person couldn’t have got the message to you before.

It also seems to be a good community for chefs.

There are loads of us on there, I think in the past a lot of chefs wouldn’t have shared their recipes or ideas – but what you are seeing now is chefs sharing and being very open – so from that aspect it’s really good as well.

Tell us a bit about the restaurants – how do they differ?

The Seafood and Grill is four years old, and basically the idea for the restaurant came from the hotel where both the restaurants are – they wanted good food in a casual environment. The clientèle who come to this area of Cornwall are discerning and want quality – so what I set out to do was to start with lovely pieces of fish from the market, and meat from the local butchers and farmers. We give them lots of variety, so customers can choose their own sauces and dressings, the way they’d like it cooked and which side orders they’d like – so really they’re making their own dishes. Because of where we are, we can confidently put tronçon of turbot, whole lobster, and things like that on the menu and people are happy to pay for them as they know they will be fed well, have good wine and be in a relaxing environment – it’s very “Cornwall”!

Then there is the fine dining restaurant – that is where I cook, and if I’m not here it’s not open. There are ten tables, a maximum of twenty covers and just myself, my head chef Chris and a couple of apprentices in the kitchen. We cook one daily changing, nine course fish menu. We basically get everything from four or five fishermen – one who just supplies crab and lobster, one that runs an oyster farm and a couple of day boaters. I just make the menu up from what they have and the produce we get from a few small growers. We do take into account any dietary requirements and stuff like that, but other than that we cook for you and people seem to love that “no choice” element to it. At the moment, we’re booked up until October so it is going really well.

So there’s one restaurant with lots of choice and one where you come in for me to cook for you – but both championing seafood more than anything else.

So finally, where else is good to eat?

In this area there is Number Six – Paul Ainsworth’s restaurant which I think is very good and his other, Rojanos which is great for kids and Rick’s Stein’s establishments too. There are a couple of less known ones too – Fresh From The Sea in Port Isaac – owned by my crab and lobster fisherman. In there you’re going to get half lobster and crab sandwiches and that’s pretty much it, half a lobster and a glass of wine for £12.50 but they’re really good. Also in Port Isaac is The Harbour Restaurant – simple fresh food. There’s Chris Eden down at The Driftwood – he’s a very, very good chef, and Porthminster Beach Cafe down in St. Ives. There’s The Beach Hut and the Brasserie at the Watergate Bay Hotel which are both good and there’s Fifteen there too. We’re very lucky down here.

In a first for the series, chef Johnnie Mountain walked out of the Great British Menu during the fish course round of the North West heats.

The chef, who has recently moved his restaurant The English Pig to Milbank, has scored four out of ten for his fish course in his previous two appearances in the show. This year, his dish “a recreation of the sea” made up of edible sand and a sea ‘jelly’ was given a score of two out of ten of by judge Marcus Wareing. He declared the competition “pointless” before walking out.

It will be revealed tomorrow if the chef quit for good, or if he is to return to cook his main course and dessert.

Updated 09/05 – Johnnie didn’t return to cook his main course so is no longer in the competition. He did return to support Aiden and Simon by arriving to taste their plates of food.

Read our full coverage of Great British Menu 2012 here; catch up on the rest of the news from the North West heat here; or see our blog for interviews with some of the chefs and judges taking part in the series.

Do you think Johnnie Mountain was right to walk out of the show? You can add your comments below.

Marcus Wareing returns as a judge and mentor for the North West heat of the Great British Menu (details here). We spoke to him about the show, his own restaurants and his tips for young chefs hoping to open their own restaurants.

Marcus Wareing with Simon Rogan on Great British Menu

What do you think of Great British Menu this year?

The brief this year is very interesting. Every year for the last six series there have been very clear guidelines and objectives for the chefs. For example one year you had to go and source all the ingredients from a particular country estate. This year, being about the Olympics, the makers have said it is about being the best, about pushing the boundaries and pushing yourself as a person. So it is like saying to the chefs “do whatever you like with no guidelines” – they’ve opened the floodgates for chefs to do a lot of very interesting things and to push boundaries by using some very interesting techniques and skills, but I also think you’ll see some disasters along the way. It is really sorting the men from the boys, it’s a really clever, interesting way of doing it.

It is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the four chefs that get through. The Olympics are not going to come to London again in our lifetime, it is the only chance the athletes will get to do this in their own country and it is the same for the chefs.

It is probably both one of the toughest challenges and one of the best banquets they could ever cook for.

At the end of Series 1, You cooked for the Queen at her 80th Birthday – how was that?

That’ll take some beating. Again it’s a one off, it was very special. I was so privileged to be part of that.

Marcus Wareing with Johnnie Mountain on Great British Menu

Do you think the Great British Menu is an indicator of where the industry is right now?

I think it is. I think there are a lot of TV shows that are good indicators of where cookery is in this country. Even amateurs are pushing boundaries beyond the norm in some of the other shows. I think Great British Menu reflects the way chefs are pushing themselves and the lack of boundaries they have around them now.

It also demonstrates the scenario we are all in where Twitter, Facebook and blogging are putting your creations out there on the web instantly.

In that respect, it must be a very different world these days.

I remember when chefs used to put menus out – not that many years ago – and it would takes weeks or months before anybody discovered anything; or a new style of cooking would take years to become popular even though a cook had been doing it ages. I think with instant access to this information it puts a huge amount of pressure on us as chefs to perform.

It used to be that when somebody had a bad meal in a restaurant they’d tell four of five of their friends who would tell their families – they would maybe reach 20 people. Now, people can put “sat in this restaurant having a bad time, good not great…” on their Twitter account and be reaching a few hundred or thousand people depending on how many followers they have within seconds. It has never been like that before, and it is scary.

What advice would you give to somebody wanting to open their own restaurant?

Don’t open a restaurant just yet!

My advice to young chefs is don’t open a restaurant until you are 100% ready for a life changing experience – in more ways than one. If you are not ready, then you will fail – there is no doubt about that.

If are under pressure from not being creative enough, if you are under pressure because nobody works for you, if you are under pressure because your wife doesn’t like you working too many hours, if you are under pressure because you can’t buy great plates or better produce – if you can’t take pressure full stop, don’t do it.

Never jump into it. You have to be realistic and say “this is where I am today, this is where I am going and this is how big the gap is in between those two things”. Listen to the people with experience, listen to the people who have made it and the people you have met along the way. Don’t go and work for somebody who doesn’t inspire you or who is never in their own kitchen – work in the places that are going to count towards your education and absorb everything that they have to offer. When you want to move on, don’t just walk out of the door – speak to them and ask them where they think it is best for you to go. You are going to have to work 18 hours a day, give or six days a week.

You are going to have to work for fifteen years before you get your stars and your stripes – it is a marathon not a 100 metre sprint. I trained for years, I was 25 when I opened my first kitchen as Head Chef with my partner Gordon [Ramsay]. In this world right now, a 25 year old opening a kitchen? I’d give him less than 18 months in this economy. Money is tight and people are looking for bargains, staff are looking for more money and less hours – it’s a serious job. Without experience you are going to be in a very dangerous position.

Do you think it is often the lack of business experience that lets people down?

That’s the funny thing, a chef that has no business experience is a chef that will never really own his business… that is a chef who will have a business man, accountant or somebody else behind the scenes pulling the strings. If you don’t have access to the bank account, you are not the owner!

Tell us a bit about your restaurants.

Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley has been my creation ever since I have been a head chef, from L’Oranger through opening that to opening and owning part of Petrus for ten years to now, on my own at Marcus Wareing at The Berkeley – it is the combination of my whole career. The cuisine is food of the moment – incredibly seasonal. It is very modern in the style in which we cook and the way the food is dressed. There are elements of French classical cooking in the methods, but I believe that is true of most styles of cooking.

The Gilbert Scott is very much a relaxed environment. It is comfort food – the food we all enjoy. It is a big menu – bold, brash, seasonal dishes, very British with some great ideas from the past brought into our modern world.

Channel 5 series The Restaurant Inspector returns tonight for a second series with Fernando Peire, director at London’s iconic The Ivy restaurant, visiting six ailing restaurants and offering them advice to help turn their businesses around.

Restaurants featuring in this year’s show include Piccadilly Spice (formerly The Maharaja Tandoori) in Soho, Iggs in Edinburgh, Zanzibar Restaurant in Sheffield (previously known as UK Mama) and The Black Lion Inn in Halland, near Lewes (previously known as Tarragon).

We spoke to Fernando ahead of the show:

With the current economic climate, do you think diners are becoming more discerning?

I think that many people are being more careful with their money but not everyone. There are still some big spenders out there, especially in London. I do think that people are more and more discerning about service, however, and expect to be treated well and served with a smile by people who know what they are doing. Good hospitality and service is what sets restaurants apart.

What are the most common problems you find with restaurants?

Owners who are out of touch with the marketplace and too ego-driven; prices too high; menus too long; a lack of thought in the layout and style of the place; owners lacking in self-awareness and empathy.

What would be your advice be to anyone starting out in the restaurant business today?

Only invest your own money if you have had the experience of making money for someone else. Then apply the same rules. Investigate your market and look at the competition before you decide what to do. Try to look at your offer from the perspective of potential customers. Listen to your customers and get to know them. Employ only staff who enjoy making other people happy.

First impressions count – what would make you walk away from a restaurant without even going through the door?

If the place looks dirty, if there is someone standing outside trying to drag you in, any mention in the window of awards, if I look through the window and see a napkin on a table in the shape of a dying swan, any mention of “foam” on the menu… So many things!

Where is good to eat right now?

I like simple places with tasty food. Old favourites:

Yalla Yalla for Lebanese mid-afternoon, 500 for Italian on a Sunday, Busaba Eathai for Thai-Asian any time; Joe Allen for after-theatre burger and burgundy; Centre Point Sushi for raw fish lunch; Cote for Steak & Chips before theatre; the Riding House Cafe for breakfast; and The Running Footman for a cheap Mayfair lunch.