Too Much for Posh Nosh?

What next for the city's star spangled restaurants

This is a bumper year for London’s Michelin starred restaurants. Announced this month – following a premature leak – the esteemed Michelin guide awarded . And it wasn’t just the capital that got star struck. The guide’s editor, Derek Bulmer, said: “We have never awarded so many stars in a single year before – in all, 26 restaurants won a single star for the first time. It’s great news for the food-lover but the timing, arguably, couldn’t be worse.

Given that the people who can most afford to eat at such establishments are the most likely to have lost their appetites, their wallets or both, some of the pricier places will no doubt struggle to survive the year. At least for the rest of us it may mean an escape from sitting next to a table of ‘suits’ loudly talking about their obscenely excessive bonuses. And that’s not the only thing that’ll put you off your expensive plate of skate. You also get the sickening feeling that these big bellied loud mouths are expensing their seven course extravaganza – a weekly perk – while you’ve scrimped and saved.

Coincidentally, in the same week that the Michelin hastily announced their starred restaurants we heard of several top food places in the city feeling the sharp end of the credit crunch. Aaya, a Soho joint set up last year by Alan Yau’s brother, was named Oriental Restaurant of the Year at last year’s London Restaurant Awards held in the swanky Dorchester ball room. Fast forward five months and the award winning place has gone from top of its class to liquidation. FishWorks is another upmarket restaurant to hit the skids with only two of their London restaurants avoiding the chop.

It makes me question what does all this mean for the bumper crop of Michelin starred eateries in town? What does 2009 hold in store in for places like the River Café and the nose-to-tail gastronomy at the newly starred St John? Having eaten at these restaurants on more than one occasion, I suspect these two at least will survive. If Ruth Rogers – the woman who gave the young Jamie Oliver a job – continues with her distinctive brand of Italian cuisine I suspect the Café will continue to entertain its riverside diners.

Fergus Henderson’s new star is a well deserved win. With his unabashed use of pig’s pieces – from the trotter to the crispy ear – he has done much to revive the less revered cuts of meat. And he was putting all these so called off cuts to good use well before the credit crunch made it common sense and fashionable to do so. In fact, strictly speaking, it’s down to him that eating bone marrow is now a fashion statement among those who savour London’s Brit revival restaurants.

Still, for most of us, these £100 a head meals out are at best a bit of a treat, or, worse still, completely out of the question. There is, however, one way to get posh nosh without the outrageously expensive restaurant bill at the end. If you’ve been watching the Big Chef does Little Chef on TV you’ll know the best way to get three Michelin star cuisine on a budget... drive down to the A303 and stop off at Popham’s service station for a Heston Blumenthal meal for less.

Keane for Christmas

Just before Christmas, shoppers in Covent Garden were treated to an impromptu jamming session by baby faced Keane front-man Tom Chaplin. The free street concert was part of Super Busking, a series of gigs held at the historic Piazza to raise money for homeless charity Crisis. Keane classics like ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and ‘Everybody’s Changing’ sounded out under the fairy lights and helped shoppers get into the Christmas spirit. Missed it? Don’t worry, you can still see the performance online at www.coventgardenlondonuk.com.

Farewell to Great Playwright Pinter

There was universal sadness over the death of Harold Pinter as tributes flooded in from anyone who’d ever met the Nobel prize-winning playwright. The London stage has been lit up by many of Pinter’s plays including ‘The Caretaker’, ‘The Birthday Party’ and ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’. The last of his works to be staged in his lifetime was ‘No Man’s Land’, starring long time friend and colleague Michael Gambon and directed by Rupert Goold. We look forward to seeing his plays on the London stage for many years to come.

Wossy heads to White City

In other news, Jonathan Ross is back on our screens. Judging by the amount of print inches written on the Sachs scandal you’d think it was Wossy moving into the White House this week. Instead, he returned to the (slightly less salubrious) BBC studios at White City in West London. It was very much business as usual as after the three month suspension as the presenter interviewed Tom Cruise, Stephen Fry and comedian Lee Evans, interrupting the programme to apologise to Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs.

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