Cost doesn’t guarantee value for money at a restaurant
Cost doesn’t guarantee value for money at a restaurant
Yet expertise doesn’t come cheap with top-tier dining
Although travel journalism certainly isn’t lucrative, one aspect that’s definitely a bonus is the opportunity to review some great restaurants.
I’m almost always amazed at the intricacy, creativity and sheer mastery of flavours, textures, presentation, ambience and service top grade restaurants can achieve.
I interviewed celebrated British chef Tom Kerridge after an evening of him cooking a huge al fresco gourmet meal in the middle of a forest at the Wilderness Reserve in Suffolk, a beautiful estate with luxurious holiday cottages to rent, using such things as a 10ft-high cooking cage and a large fire pit. These chefs certainly love a challenge.
I said that I found it interesting that many people think an expensive tasting menu at a highly rated restaurant is exorbitant, but are happy to pay £200 for bad seats miles from the stage at an arena pop concert. Did he think good food is often undervalued?
“I think good food, good ingredients and great service are all underrated. It’s easy to look at a menu and think it’s really expensive without appreciating everything that happens behind the scenes to make that plate of food happen. Sometimes I’d like to show people all the work that goes into the menu at my pub, The Hand and Flowers, and how talented the team that work there are.”
A great way to evaluate the range, skill and imagination of a chef is to opt for a tasting menu, if there is one. A good tasting menu has a surprise around every corner. One I remember being especially good was at Aromata Restaurant in Mallorca, Spain. Mallorca didn’t used to be thought of as a fine dining destination, but an influx of good restaurants and boutique hotels there in recent years has changed that.
Aromata has tasting menus that vary from €55 to €85. For a meal of up to ten courses created by a Michelin star chef, Andreu Genestra, that is certainly a bargain.
The first thing I tried when I visited was grilled white asparagus with a sea urchin mayonnaise, with white chocolate. Sounds a ridiculous combination I know, but the chocolate completely worked. The guy is reinventing the wheel when it comes to cooking.
Then came the neula taco, served on a slab of stone. A neula is a type of Catalonian biscuit, and biting into this was extraordinary. Was it chocolate? Almond? Sophisticated flavours and textures all on what looked like a cheap wafer base. Then what seemed to be Space Dust, that sherbert/popping candy creation, bursting in your mouth. It seemed to be wrapped in plastic, but no, it was an edible film. This guy is certainly playing with you, confounding all your expectations. The subsequent courses continued along these lines.
Andreu joined me at the end of the meal, when the kitchen had quietened down.
“I like to play with flavours,” he said, which seemed a bit of an understatement. “I want to play with your brain, but not with your stomach.”
Yet expense doesn’t always guarantee quality. I don’t know if it was an off day, but the meal I had at The Dominick Hotel’s Mezzanine Restaurant in New York was incredibly expensive (glad I wasn’t paying) for really, really average food, bad service and zero ambience.
And I once challenged a waiter at a Sicilian hotel because the overpriced lasagne was clearly the cheapest microwaved supermarket ready meal they could find. Within seconds I was surrounded by five aggressive waiters ready for a fight. I do feel their customer service needed upgrading, along with the menu.
It is possible to experience outstanding cuisine at pub prices, however. Last year I visited a few pubs in Herefordshire and one after another served outstanding food. For example, the Riverside at Aymestry, a lovely pub with rooms dating from the 17th century and set in absolutely gorgeous countryside, served pork belly with celeriac, pumpkin seed crumb and red wine juice - I can’t bring myself to type ‘jus’ - for just £18.90. That’s the price you would pay for a defrosted fish with oven chips and a sachet of ketchup at many a British pub. The meat was so crumbly and tasty, and the dish had loads of intricacy and subtlety. Delicious without the red wine sauce and sensational after.
Just wish there were more places like that.