Latest news with #Ondine
Scotsman
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
I've eaten at all St Andrews' top restaurants, but this new addition is easily the best
This place is incredible Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... If Roy Brett was a sea creature he'd be a barnacle. Contributed He had his restaurant on Edinburgh's George IV Bridge for nearly 16 years, and he clung on with total tenacity, even though there were problems with the building's cladding that meant that scaffolding had to be up for five years. I mean, it's still there and continues to look a mess. For most of that time, you'd hardly know that there was a restaurant (and a hotel, the Radisson) behind the hoarding. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Any less hardy chef would've thrown in the tea towel ages ago. He didn't, until they recently told him that further problems with the building would mean it'd have to close for a spell. And, so, Brett, who also has The Fishmarket in Edinburgh's Newhaven, has shipped out and is on the lookout for another home in the capital. In the meantime, you can also find him at his new Ondine venue in St Andrews. It's inside the glorious new five-star hotel, Seaton House. And, my goodness, he has swapped a grim view for a captivating one out to West Sands beach and the Old Course, from the vantage point of this honey-coloured Victorian building. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The dining room is such a beautiful space, in pristine cream, with a turquoise-tiled marble oyster bar that's topped with bottles of Tabasco. Those who were regulars to Edinburgh's Ondine, will recognise parts of the menu. The fish goujons, for example, which my other half ordered for this starter. Brett has taken a simple and kiddy-ish treat (£21), and gussied it up for adults, with four sea-salted and panko-crumbed russet boomerangs of haddock and a vinegary, hot and limey sour Vietnamese dip on the side. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad While my other half finished that, I had the Wye Valley asparagus (£23) - a dish that had been elevated to something sybaritic that should've been eaten, spear by decadent spear, in a bubble bath. Or better, someone feed it to me. The veg had been sloshed in warm butter, with a chiffonade of chives, and there was a large dollop of Hollandaise on the side. No ordinary stuff though. This was fluffed up, so it coated each green spear with luxury yolky-coloured suds. Gaby Soutar We had three mains next. It's been a while since I've visited Ondine, so why not go loco? Mine was the lemon sole menueire (£38), which can be served on or off the bone. I went for the lazy girl's option, and the two slabs of fish arrived on top of each other, like a double mattress. They were golden and caramelised along their edges, and the meat was doused in an ocean's worth of brown butter and a gazillion tiny non-pareil capers. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad While I nibbled at this, my other half focused on the burlier monkish au poivre (£36), which had been treated like a steak, with its accompanying and very punchy peppercorn sauce, some spinach, a lemon wedge and curls of zest on top. Gaby Soutar Main course number three was the hand-dived Orkney scallops (£36), which were the biggest I've ever had. Each pearlescent monster was about the size of a scone. They were utterly delightful, especially with a dab of the accompanying bacon jam, which was rich and oniony. We shared a couple of their sides - crispy and salty medium-girth fries (£7) and some more spinach (£7), except this batch had been topped with pale Parmesan gratings and nutmeg. And sloshed with yet more butter, naturally. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad After all that artery-coating indulgence, we opted to share the lightest-sounding pudding, from choices that included Basque cheesecake and strawberry compote (£14), or chocolate and hazelnut ganache with creme fraiche (£14). I think we did the right thing, as the strawberry and blueberry sorbet (£14) was just what you want after a fishy and buttery feast. As well as a handful of raspberries, there were two vibrantly coloured golf-ball-sized spheres - one pale pink, and the other a vampiric magenta - of intense palate-clearing and sugar-boosting fruity-ness. Perfect. I've eaten in a lot of great St Andrews restaurants, but this place is easily my favourite. It's not just the food, but also those views - I mean, this has got to be the top seat in town - as well as the service, plush interior, and general sense of occasion. I can't think of anywhere better to be. I almost wish I could cling on and never leave, like a Roy-Brett-style barnacle.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Colin Farrell gives heartbreaking reason for putting son living with Angelman syndrome in ‘long-term care'
Actor Colin Farrell has revealed the heartbreaking reason behind why he intends to put his disabled son into a long-term care facility. The Dublin-born star, 48, has opened up about the 'tricky' conversations he has had in regards to his son James' future and how best to give him the 'happy life' he deserves. He shares the 21-year-old lad with former partner and model Kim Bordenave, while he also has 15-year-old Henry with ex-girlfriend and Ondine co-star Alicja Bachleda-Curuś. Farrell has previously spoken out about the impact his eldest child has had on his life, revealing James' birth inspired him to get sober and gave him a 'desire to live'. Back in 2007, the dad revealed that James has Angelman syndrome, a rare genetic disorder which affects a person's nervous system, causing severe physical and learning disabilities. The NHS explains that those who have this condition have a 'near-normal life expectancy, but they will need support throughout their life'. Farrell launched the Colin Farrell Foundation last year in James' 'honour', which supports adult children with intellectual disabilities, while saying of his son: "I'm proud of him every day, because I just think he's magic." The Batman actor has now revealed that he and Bordenave have chosen to find a long-term care facility for James - who is non-verbal - to live in, where he can receive round-the-clock care. Speaking to Candis Magazine, he revealed how they have both come to this decision. Farrell said: "It's tricky, some parents will say: 'I want to take care of my child myself'. And I respect that. "But my horror would be... what if I have a heart attack tomorrow, and, God forbid, James' mother, Kim, has a car crash and she's taken too - and then James is on his own? "Then he's a ward of the state and he goes where? We'd have no say in it." The Banshees of Inisherin star said he and Bordenave hope to 'find somewhere we like where [James] can go now, while we're still alive and healthy, that we can go and visit, and we can take him out sometimes'. "We want him to find somewhere where he can have a full and happy life, where he feels connected," Farrell added. The father-of-two previously touched on how he intended to handle James' long-term care in an interview last year. "[James] knows when somebody wants to be with him and when somebody's just supposed to be with him," Farrell told the Daily Mail. "So if he has a carer or a teacher or a therapist and they're not fully engaged he'll just switch off." Responding to concerns raised about the adjustment James will face living away from his parents, Farrell added: "I know my son... he's ready to get out of the house and go and have a bigger life than we can afford him, by having a sense of community he feels connected to."
The Guardian
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Ravel: Fragments album review – Chamayou's piano dances and dazzles in a luminous birthday celebration
The 150th anniversary of the birth of Maurice Ravel has so far been one of this year's less noted musical anniversaries. Bertrand Chamayou's tribute, a supplement to the survey of Ravel's piano music that he recorded almost a decade ago, is characteristically fresh and original. As well arrangements of orchestral music (parts of Daphnis et Chloé, La Valse) by Ravel himself that were omitted from that earlier survey, this also includes Chamayou's own arrangements of songs, and tributes to Ravel that were composed by both his near contemporaries such as Joaquín Nin, Ricardo Viñes, Xavier Montsalvatge and Arthur Honegger, and by composers in the decades since his death. The most ravishing of those later pieces is Salvatore Sciarrino's De la Nuit, an intoxicating mashup of themes from the Ondine and Scarbo movements of Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit; Betsy Jolas's Signets also quotes from Gaspard, and so does Frédéric Durieux's Pour Tous Ceux Qui Tombent. Chamayou's performances of all these miniatures dance and dazzle, just as his accounts of the demanding, larger-scale arrangements, such as the Fragments Symphoniques de Daphnis et Chloé, manage to be both fabulously precise and luminously coloured. This is a must for Ravel lovers, hugely enjoyable for everyone else. Listen on Apple music (below) or Spotify This article includes content hosted on We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as the provider may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.
