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Watched Posh Nosh this morning - made me giggle especially as there is s definate element of truth there.
Watched Masterchef seni-final on Wednesday and it was at Heston's The Fat Duck- it was too much especially when they sprayed the scent of the Black Forest when they were eating their gateaux!!! I would have just burst out laughing. Step too far x

Hi emrach
I love "Posh Nosh" - especially the terms they use as if they were normal (e.g. "embarass the vegetables").
I followed Masterchef this year, and thought it a bit of a cop-out in the last episode (though I won't say what, in case you have yet to see it). I agree about the "Fat Duck" experience, though I wouldn't mind trying it myself. I was given the Fat Duck cookbook last year - it doesn't have a single recipe that I could try, either through lack of equipment or ingredients. Some of the "meat glues" he uses seem a bit iffy to me.

If the scent was pine it would smell like toilet disinfectant! I agree, OTT.

ChrisE I looked up the menu and the taster menu - which has 15 dishes including snail porridge and takes over 3 hours - is £195 per head.
You could do real wine gums and present them on individual globes I would love to see my friends faces but I definately wouldn't be able to repeat their comments on here !!!!

Rossim even the fellow diner's were getting on my nerves I would have probably been removed from the premises !!

However prissy it makes me sound, I think it's immoral to spend £195 on a single meal.

I live near le Manoir and I would have loved to have experienced their afternoon tea, but they stopped doing it just as I decided to do so! I once turned down an invitation to supper there. A friend reported he'd been taken to one side after not buying any of their horrendously priced wines after he'd seen the wine list. He was asked not to go again.
Another friend got the bill for the next table, paid (from embarrassment) and had a long fight to get that put right.The other table , naturally, hadn't complained!

All your reports on supposedly top-notch restaurants etc in Britain make me realize again why it's so wonderful to be able to dine out in France, enjoy really terrific cooking at moderate prices, and without all this pretentious (almost criminal) "service".
At the risk of being labelled a snob,we once had the experience of a lifetime at "Pic's" in Valence, sharing the bill with extremely old friends (there was a special touch: my 90-year-old French lady-friend had taught the father of the present proprietor,who is the only woman ever to have earned 3 Michelin stars). I can only say the hours we spent there, testing only the relatively modest 5-course lunch (!), were some of the happiest in my whole life: natural, friendly company, incredible creations, not a Eurocent too expensive. In a country where children learn at an early age to enjoy wine without excess (yes, I know France has an alcoholism problem, but nevertheless, the general mentality is completely different), and even more especially in Gascony, where everyone finds it normal to spend hours every lunchtime simply enjoying a meal without stress or snobbism, perhaps you can imagine how "funny" in every sense we now find the typical foodie broadcasts we've got used to in the last few years, even here. Sorry to sound so euphoric, but I had to contribute this little bit!

It does sound good, GK!

Sounds wonderful Greedy Kite

All this talk about posh nosh and "clientele" reminded me of a meal out my husband and I had a few years ago.

We were tucking into our meal, when a youngish couple settled in at the table next to us, order a dessert and liqueurs. Then "gentleman then went on at length about the various worldwide "posh " restaurants he had been too...the wonderful meals...his friendships with leading chefs, his extensive wine knowledge to his date, every waiter , the manager and chef...bla,bla bla....

It's turns out this was the third restaurant they had been to that night....he liked to have his favourite courses in a different place......zzzzzzzz

When his bill arrived, he did not look at it just paid up by credit card....and left.

Later when our bill arrived although we had had two courses, pre drinks wine and coffees, our bill was for two desserts and liqueurs.

My husband pointed this out....the waiter said " oh dear, I seem to have got the bills mixed up. I can only apologise for you having to put up with that all night."

The revenge of the Waiter.....mmmmwwwhahah

Hi pastille
Your story reminded me (vaguely) of a Chumbawamba song "Compliments of your waitress". It's here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw6SWaa1x5c