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I believe that Little is concentrating on his career of being Alistair Little and no longer restaurants For the rest of it, this is commentary out of my territory. As long as the food wasn't prepared n the 80s, I'm easy I think here we are talking more about tendencies among the very heeled rather than UK or English etc Nothing against good cooking. If I were rich I might never leave restaurants but just be carried on a cart - equipped with shelves for snacks - from restaurant to restaurant - like Alexander's body and when he saw there were no more meals to eat, he wept... We have an indian take away here called Ruby Murrays (sic) tho why it is called that I am not sure. I found myself in conversation with a chap who was using RMs as an example of the highest possible cooking - and i didnt know where to begin... But I think to begin looking at cuisine of a country on the basis of the Ramsays and the Whites... I am not sure where it goes I do shudder at "Italian style" etc cookery in packets - I saw that advertised at what used to be called Safeways, underlined by signs which said WOW, and that still says War on Want to me The narrow lanes of the British hinterlands are being blocked by vast wheeled boxes of Italian style food and every other style food, just heat and eat; and that's not good. And that I think is a phenomenon spreading around the world. UK may or may not be in the lead, but we are all going down the pan L -----Original Message----- From: Simon Biggs <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thursday, September 22, 2005 10:38 AM Subject: Re: [WDL] art and its effect upon politics, economics and gastronomy I have also been to Alistair Little's little restaurant, a number of times (although not lately). I have always found his food excellent. Very simple, almost classic Italian, but exciting and always with a twist in the tail. My favourite dishes of his would have to include John Dory on a fennel and saffron confit, oxtail with an incredibly intense Madeira reduction, served on "wet" polenta and topped off with salsa verde and his red mullet, prosciutto and sage saltimboca, served plain with bread. This last dish, particularly, depends on incredibly fresh fish and the very best air dried ham. I would agree that his cooking is a bit 80's, but its quality, both in terms of ingredients and the care lavished upon them has, for me at least, led me to regard his restaurant as one of the most reliable and enjoyable in London - up there with Pied a Terre and the Waterside Inn. Whether he is up to the level of more recently opened establishments is another question? I have to admit that cooks like Giorgio Locatelli, Gordon Ramsay and Marco Pierre White have lifted the standard. However, the generation of cooks before them, which includes Little and others such as Raymond Blanc and the Roux Brothers, are still producing great food. Best Simon On 22.09.05 00:00, Lawrence Upton wrote: > I used to go to London restaurants a lot, when my cloth could stand the = > cutting. Once, in the mid 80s, we went to Alisdair Littles, courtesy of = > a rich in law, I think, and on the way home agreed we were underwhelmed, = > while around and about Soho we had had some superb meals often very = > cheaply. Simon Biggs [log in to unmask] http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ Professor, Art and Design Research Centre Sheffield Hallam University, UK http://www.shu.ac.uk/schools/cs/cri/adrc/research2/ ********** * Visit the Writing and the Digital Life blog http://writing.typepad.com * To alter your subscription settings on this list, log on to Subscriber's Corner at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/writing-and-the-digital-life.html * To unsubscribe from the list, email [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and the following text in the body of the message: SIGNOFF WRITING-AND-THE-DIGITAL-LIFE ********** * Visit the Writing and the Digital Life blog http://writing.typepad.com * To alter your subscription settings on this list, log on to Subscriber's Corner at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/writing-and-the-digital-life.html * To unsubscribe from the list, email [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and the following text in the body of the message: SIGNOFF WRITING-AND-THE-DIGITAL-LIFE