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Ramsay's Best Restaurant

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TexasLady:
Heh! Good point apskip! Now would not be the best time to go to England since they are having a really cold winter. I'll wait till he brings the show to the states.  :cmaslol

apskip:
Ramsay's Best Restaurant, round 1. Menulla vs. Casa Mia

This is a face-off of the best Italian cuisine in Britain. Menulla is a London restaurant run by Chef Santino Busciglio to feature Sicilian recipes. he has a sous chef Marco and a Maitre D' Rocco. Ramsay's first test of 30 simultaneous diners is passed barely. The maitre d'  won no acclaim from Ramsay and is regarded as the weak link in the restaurant's management.

Casa Mia is a family establishment in Bristol with the parents of Jonray and Peter Sanchez-Iglesias owning it and managing the Front of the House. The brothers are two of the youngest chefs to be bestowed with a Michelin Star, so you would expect them to do well. Their test drive by the 30 simultaneous guests went well. They featured very modern cuisine containing dishes created using liquid nitrogen. The management and kitchen both received high marks from Ramsay.

Ramsay sent his chef Sarah Durdin-Robertson undercover into Menulla and Simon David into Casamia. They were directed to be a bit obnoxious and make critical comments about the food. the elder Sanchez-Iglesia had trouble with that, as he is not used to his sons food  being criticized. However, he agreed with Ramsay that good hosting requires listening carefully to customer feedback and I am sure that no feedback was invented. Criticism of Mennula again focused on the Maitre D'.

The third round was a cook-off at Petrus in London using veal as the basis for a single plate of food that both restaurants would prepare for 20 elite diners knowledgeable in Italian cuisine, including the Front-of-the-House for both restaurants. Santino went with classic Sicilian cuisine of veal with Marsala wine sauce, summer truffles, potato cakes, cream of celeriac and girolle mushrooms. Rather than cutting edge Itlaian food,  The Sanchez-Igelsias Brothers went with classic cuisine, sliced sous vide veal caponata with sous vide sweetbreads over a green sauce. Ramsay warned them that sweetbreads are notoriously difficult to get exactly right, but they accepted that challenge. Ramsay stated that every plate must be perfect  to gain his approval. They slipped up only by slicing the veal with 5 minutes to serving, instead of 30 seconds before. Ramsay explained that allowing the juices to leech out is criminal.  With its maitre d' dining and not running the front-of-the-house, Santino and Marco did fine.  Ramsay said that both restaurants did better in his kitchen than in their own. So did Jonray and Peter.

Ramsay had to make a tough decision, but went with Casamia. I believe it was the deficiencies in Menulla's service that caused that result because there did not appear to be any difference in the food and Santino was a magician in his kitchen

apskip:
The second episode focused on Indian cuisine, Prashad from Bradford vs. Brilliance from Southall, London. both are family ventures. Prashad is owned by a woman named Kaushy who serves as sous chef, with her son Bobby as Front-of-House Manager and her daughter-in-law Manil as the head chef. It is a tiny restaurant, with seating for just 22 people. Brilliance is a 250 seat restaurant owned by the brothers Gulu and Kewal Anand family with daughter Dipna and son Shankar all working front-of-the-house while the head chef is Jasvinderjit Singh .  It is particularly known for Punjabi food with a Kenyan slant and its "Brilliant" Pickles and Chutneys.

The first test by Ramsay sent the 30 diners simultaneously into each restaurant at an off-time when no other customers were there. Prashad had to import tables to seat 8 more. We learn that Bobby is the glue that holds it all together by supporting his wife when he is in the kitchen and by developing formidable customer relationships with his geniality and helpfulness. The cuisine is Gujarati vegetarian. Manil specializes in creating gorgeous-looking dishes that have cutting-edge tastes.

Prashad's menu for the competition days featured stuffed dosas (fermented rice and lentil pancakes) and deep-fried spiced coconut. Briliant’s menu featured lamb chops with cardamom and nutmeg and tandoori prawns with lime and fresh herbs. Ramsay's 30 diners found the dishes in both excellent, but I think Prashad had the edge due to Bobby's excellence an ability to listen to customers.

The second test was an undercover visit. Simon Davis went to Prashad  and tried to act difficult with last-minute requests for changes. Prashad passed all his tests and produced brilliant food. Angela Hartnett went to Brilliant and did the same. Brilliant also did very well on food, but I though Prashad had the edge on service.

The final test was for the kitchen staff to cook for 20 selected diners knowledgeable in Indian food, including the FOH staff of each restaruant. Menil was concerned that her support system was eating her food rather than there to support her, but she survived. Both Prashad and Brilliant were rated exceptional in their food quality.

Ramsay had to make a decision. He selected Prashad based I believe on its higher service quality. Prashad now awaits the end of round 1for its neext challenge in this competition.

apskip:
For the third episode it's Chinese cuisine, Kai in Mayfair vs. Yu & You in Blackburn. The owner of Kai hired as chef the brilliant Alex, assisted by his sous chef Wing and a horde of other cooks. Alex shouts at everyone in the kitchen to "coordinate," but Ramsay questioned whether that is necessary. Yu & You is family-run Cantonese cuisine with the front-of-house being handled by the daughter (who in a pinch moves to the kitchen), the son Victor and father Charlie  from Hong Kong serving as chef and sous chef when the father is not insisting on playing head chef. Ramsay tells them to cut that out, as he expects the chef to be THE CHEF.

The first test is 30 simultaneous diners.  Kai appetizer choices are liquid lamb shanks (not appreciated by several diners who return it), scallops and prawns. The main dishes are lamb and lobster. The kitchen staff is tightly run by Alex, but there are coordination problems with the Front of the House.
Yu & You appetizer choices went by too quickly for me to catch. Their main courses were scallops (rated bland) and Dover sole (3 portions of this returned due to blandness). Ramsay cautioned them to pay attention to seasoning. The wait staff is "young and pretty" but there is little experience there and it showed. I give the edge on this part of the competition to Kai.

The undercover visit had Sarah Durdin-Robertson going to Kai and Simon Davis to Yu & You. Both acted bitchy with last-minute changes in their order requested. The original order came out anyway at Kai, which indicated coordination problems being the FOH and the kitchen. She did not like the liquid lamb shanks served in a hot martini glass (like soup). Yu & You started slow but finished very strong with Davis really liking the Chinese dessert. I give the edge on this part to Yu & You.

The third test is the cook-off at Petrus with 20 experienced Chinese cuisine diners, including the FOH staff for each restaurant, using expensive Waygu beef as the main protein. Kai did that beef with ginger and spring onion pesto, tomato sauce, and spiced pumpkin over spiced rice. Yu & You did braised Kobe beef, garlic and ginger over rice. Yu & You had a problem with one portion of an order ready before the other 3 portions, but with Ramsay's help they solved it but it took 4 minutes. Alex had trouble coping without his large staff. Ramsay recommended that he hire fewer of more experienced and expensive staff.  The diners gave rave reviews to the food of both chefs.

Ramsay as always in this type of competition had a tough decision to make. He chose Yu & You, the third consecutive win of a non-London area restaurant over a London are restaurant.

apskip:
I finally got access to the preliminary round British restaurant competition that I had missed, so I have appended it in its proper place between the 3rd and 5th competitions. Milestone is in Sheffield, owners are Mark and Matt, chef is Simon and sous chef is James. West House is in Bettenden, Kent and has 1 Michelin star with owner Graham Garrett and sous chef Ben in the kitchen and his wife Jackie as front of House along with their son James and daughter.

Milestone is known for its black pudding, salmon with pea puree and gnocchi dishes. These were available to the 30 diners sent in on a bus by Ramsay, but the wait staff failed to mention that they would receive an amuse bouche which also contained black pudding; for some, that would have resulted in changing their order.The kitchen procedures had all of a given type of dish cooked at the same time without regard to the status of other dishes for that table. That resulted in dishes cooling down and drying out on the hot plate while waiting to be served. The kitchen was one portion short of rabbit loin, so a final table's order caused the a substitution to rabbit leg, which was not cooked properly and resulted in a diner complaint. Ramsay's summary was that despite the excellent food, the banquet style serving procedure was not appropriate for fine dining.

West House's problems started with the first order. Jesse's handwriting was indecipherable, which left the kitchen at a loss on what was really ordered. Jackie was clearly not in control of the Front of the House. She failed to take orders from one table until more than 1 hour (out of 2 to have the meal completed) had passed. Their featured dishes are Scotch egg with black pudding and haddock carpaccio. The food was judged by the diners to be excellent.

Ramsay sent secret diner Simon Davis into Milestone. He got under-seasoned corned beef, but the FOH team decided to not charge him for it, which both Simon and Ramsay though was a classy move. He also got a bowl of chips (French fries in U.S. English) that were burned and asked to speak to the chef; head chef Simon did come out to discuss this with him. This personal service won high marks for Milestone to go along with its excellent food.

Ramsay sent secret diner Sarah Durdin-Robertson into West House. The FOH got mixed up her order. No doneness level was requested for some meat, so how would the chef know how far to cook it? The food was excellent.

It appears to me, as is frequently the case, that there is a large lead for one of the pair of each preliminary round restaurants over the other going into the final cookoff. In this case, the service deficiencies of West House were likely to cause them to lose. The reason is that both restaurants in almost every round do well when the service is provided by Ramsay's experienced staff and the menu is limited to one meal.

The cookoff pits these meals against each other with venison as the classic British ingredient:
Milestone - venison loin, braised venison, nettles wellington, beetroot fondant, watercress puree, game gravy
West House - roast venison loin and liver, potatoes, pickled cherry, lettuce
For one diner, that lettuce was inadvertently left off the plate so another whole meal was prepared as a replacement. For both restaurants the food was quite complex but they both excelled at the flavor and the diners were split on who had the better food. Ramsay could not decide either, so he made the decision on who won Best British Restaurant based on the earlier results. The nod went to The Milestone.

NOTE - the review above was added on Feb. 13 to the original one below so that the missing Best British Restaurant competition appears there.

The 5th competition is for best Thai restaurant between Mango Tree in Belgravia and Namh-Jim in St. Andrew's Scotland. The key individuals are Nopf in Front of House, Mark as Executive Chef (neither of which is shown in a current list of Profiles for that restaurant) and Ood as head chef for Mango Tree and the husband and wife duo of Sandy (FOH) and Bee for Namh-Jim.

Ramsay's busload of 30 diners arrived at Namh-Jim and Sandy had to explain the menu to them before they ordered. It included a unique version of Thai haggis. One of the principal dishes was Tamarind duck with bok choy. On appetizers, Sandy missed one table entirely but corrected that. At one point, Ramsay stated that "there are more waiters in here (the kitchen) than there are chefs." The staging of appetizers, entrees and desserts was not always time-separated, as some diners got two courses in the same time frame. However, this allowed all meals to be served in 75 minutes, a huge achievement. Ramsay's conclusion was that the kitchen staff was scoring a hole-in-one while the FOH was the weak link.

The diners also went to Mango Tree, which had physical layout deficiencies with the kitchen 2 levels below the dining room. Dumbwaiters and headsets and even telephones are used for communications between the wait staff and  the kitchen. Prominent dishes were:
Shrimp Tom Kha
Chicken Satay
Tiger Prawn Pad Thai

A small group of customers noted that there were no vegetarian options. Nopf responded that all dishes could be done vegetarian. One diner's chicken was sent back undercooked and the replacement chicken was also sent back undercooked, both verified by Ramsay. Raw materials for the final meal cooking and assembly were in half-cooked form. An interface guy named MIkey associates the food coming up with the correct table it is to be served to. Ramsay stated that the diners, even the guy who got the two undercooked chickens, were happy campers but Mark was not. He was embarrassed about his own quality control.

At Namh-Jim Ramsay sent Simon Davis in as the secret diner and he loved the Thai haggis. However, his attempts to try out Thai white wine and order it by the glass were rebuffed multiple times. The waiter was apparently making up his own rules about this. Sandy was visibly embarrassed as it was pretty outrageous, including a threat to notify the police. Ramsay called it an aggressive service error.

At Mango Tree, Sarah Durdin-Robertson got a dirty menu. She asked for the food to be less spicy and was offered an immediate and innovative solution. The noise level was high and someone resetting tables appeared to be encouraging diners to leave and allow their tables to be turned. The food was delicious.

Going in to the final cook-off at Petrus I feel that Namh-Jim had a distinct edge. both restaurants had to create a dish using chicken. Mango Tree did chicken with a very special broth. Namh-Jim did chicken with mushrooms and  a ring of basil puree around it. The Namh-Jim meal looked mediocre but tasted great. The Mango Tree meal looked and tasted outstanding, but one diner got his chicken undercooked. That was it for Mark, who had suffered that problem in the initial part of this competition and knew that a recurrence of that problem would be fatal to his ambitions to be named Best Thai Restaurant in Britain by Ramsay. That honor went to Namh-Jim.

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