Latest news with #tastingMenu
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The Ritz chef claims his £221 menu is 'the best value in London'
The Ritz's long-standing chef has claimed the hotel's two-Michelin-starred restaurant's £221 tasting menu is the 'best value in London '. John Williams MBE has been The Ritz Restaurant's executive chef for more than 20 years and has curated a high-end menu using only the finest ingredients. Despite charging £221 for the seven-course The Epicurean Journey menu or £199 for the five-course version, he 'solemnly' believes his cuisine is the best value in the city. The seven-course experience allows diners to sample the best Williams MBE has to offer and includes signature plates of native lobster, duck liver, Dorset crab and pigeon. Because the chef goes above and beyond to source the finest British ingredients and ensures his kitchen employs the 'highest level of technique', Williams MBE believes his prices are a steal. 'I believe solemnly, 100 per cent, [that] I'm the best value in London, for cost of product and then selling price. Value for money is everything that I believe in,' he told The Telegraph. When Williams MBE started his role at The Ritz in 2004, his first change was to lower the prices of the menu du jour by £10 - which was a significant amount 21 years ago. The tasting menus can change depending on what produce is in season and feature an array of signature dishes. While most fine dining establishments strive for the best ingredients, Williams MBE believes he takes his produce sourcing to the next level. 'You could interview 100 chefs, they're all going to say that,' he said. 'Let me tell you there's only about three or four of them looking for the very, very best, and capable of paying the very, very best. Some of my ingredients are extreme in price.' Williams MBE told The Telegraph that he buys his Dublin Bay prawns for up to £9 each and the champagne and lobster sauces on his turbot dish are so precise, they are the sole responsibility of one chef. On today's seven-course epicurean menu, diners start with a plate of Dorset crab with crème fraiche and imperial caviar before being served a ballotine of duck liver with damson, a small plum-like fruit, and pistachio. Third in the line-up is the Native lobster with spiced carrot and lemon verbena then the Agnolotti, a stuffed pasta, with black truffle and Parmesan. Next is the chestnut-fed pigeon then dessert starts with grapefruit with lemon pepper and buttermilk. There is the decadent Ritz Signature Chocolate hazelnut and fudge to finish off the meal. What is on The Ritz Restaurant's £221 seven-course menu? Dorset Crab, Crème Fraiche and Imperial Caviar Ballotine of Duck Liver, Damson and Pistachio Native Lobster, Spiced Carrot and Lemon Verbena Agnolotti, Parmesan and Black Truffle Chestnut Fed Pigeon À la Presse Grapefruit, Lemon Pepper and Buttermilk The Ritz Signature Chocolate Hazelnut and Fudge The £199 five-course menu has the crab and duck liver, and Suffolk lamb as well as the famous Cornish turbot with two sauces; one made from lobster and the other from the Ritz Reserve Champagne Barons De Rothschild. For dessert, diners are served the grapefruit and, to finish, wild strawberry with lemon verbena and lime. To accompany the food, customers can add five or six glasses of wine selected to pair perfectly with the Epicurean Journey. Wine packages range from £140 to £750 meaning, with the 12.5 per cent discretionary service charge, one diner could pay almost £1,000 for the entire experience. According to The Ritz's website, the menus are 'fitting ways to impress a client with a corporate lunch, enjoy quality time with friends or family over a weekend lunch, or celebrate a special occasion with a memorable dinner.' Those who can fork out the eye-watering prices will have to wear their finest attire so as to not break the Ritz's strict dress code. Men are required to wear a jacket and tie and ripped jeans, trainers and sportswear are explicitly forbidden. This week, The Ritz Restaurant was named the UK's best at the National Restaurant Awards. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Williams MBE, said, 'With so many great restaurants across the UK, it is a true honour and privilege to receive this recognition. 'This award is a testament to our commitment to culinary evolution and affirms that, whilst The Ritz Restaurant is part of an historic landmark, it continues to remain relevant.' 'London's most decadent dining room is a wonderful and memorable assault on the senses,' the National Restaurant Awards wrote after revealing the prestigious rankings. Alongside the restaurant's 'exceptional' food, judges noted the allure of the opulent dining room settings.
Daily Mail
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
This chippie owner took a battering trying to learn how to make sushi... CHRISTOPHER STEVENS reviews last night's TV
Dinner at Maru in Mayfair consists of a 'tasting menu', 20 bite-sized portions of raw fish and shellfish. It's £210 a head. Imagine what they'd charge if they actually cooked it. Why anyone pays a fortune for sushi, those little Japanese rolls of fish, rice and vegetable, is a mystery. For a fraction of the price, they could have a nice bit of battered cod or plaice, piping hot, with a giant portion of chips drenched in vinegar. Sheffield chip shop owner Rani, 48, ought to know this better than anyone. Customers queue down the street for a takeaway from her Ranmoor Friary. But she took four weeks off, on Faking It, to learn how to be a sushi chef. You may well be thinking: Day One, morning — Rani discovers that pretentious Londoners will shell out the cost of a fortnight's family shopping, for one platter of uncooked fish. Day One, afternoon — she counts her takings and goes sightseeing. Day Two, she realises that Yorkshire folk will never fall for this nonsense, and heads home. But Rani was less cynical than that. She spent the first week wrestling with the idea that anyone could bear to swallow the stuff. Sitting down with her mentors, boss Kurt Zdesar and head chef Jordan Sclare at Japanese restaurant Chotto Matte, Rani confessed she'd never even tasted sushi before. When confronted with the slimy innards of a raw prawn, she turned green and ran for the bathroom. Her tendency to flee made life difficult for the poor camera crew. She legged it again after Kurt offered her Chotto's own tasting platter, though she tried the mackerel first. 'Disgusting,' she choked, 'the worst fish I've ever had. That should not be on your menu.' She didn't have to enjoy the stuff to prepare it, though. Faking It's format requires participants to convince a panel of judges that they are experienced professionals. Last week's episode saw a Surrey estate agent called Rex pose as a butcher on a Bolton market stall. His accent was a bit questionable, like Paddy McGuinness doing a George Formby impression, but the show's bigger problem was its basic premise. I was left wondering why a man who can earn a five-figure bonus by selling a single luxury penthouse would ever want to stand on a street in the freezing rain, taking a hacksaw to a pig's carcass. Rani's challenge made more sense. She was faking a skill that has a broad streak of illusion built in, selling the idea that anything is edible if it looks attractive. Her breakthrough came when an acting coach arrived, to show her how to project confidence and flamboyance. And she quickly got the hang of slicing and dicing fish when she practised on modelling clay. I bet some people would eat Playdough if you charged them enough.
