MANDARIN DUCK?
Joe Warwick
THERE are persistent rumours that Heston 'Fat Duck' Blumenthal is lined up to take over the restaurant space in London's Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park that currently houses the Michelin-starred Foliage, at present the 5 star Knightsbridge hotel's flagship restaurant. The recent departure of Chris Staines, Foliage's head, has done little to quell the gossip that a Blumenthal-backed London restaurant is in the works.
Ahead of confirmation from Blumenthal’s Bray headquarters that they are indeed setting up shop in the big smoke or the hotel's honchos openly admitting that they really do fancy a duck, don't expect any new gaff to appear in the next 18 months or when/if it does, to pursue the same sort of avant-garde culinary agenda as its world famous forebear.
www.mandarinoriental.com/london
www.fatduck.co.uk
FISH TALE
The idea that there are plenty more fish in the sea has long since been debunked with sustainable seafood now the concern of every eco-conscious consumer, chef, restaurateur and bandwagon-jumping marketeer with a fondness for greenwashing. All of whom should be pleased to hear that ‘The End of the Line’, Charles Clover’s seminal 2004 book on the overfishing of our oceans, has been made into a feature length documentary.
The environment editor of The Daily Telegraph, Clover made getting this film made his full-time job and has a clear passion for what’s become his specialist subject. A fishy companion piece to 'An Inconvenient Truth' - minus Al Gore but with added tuna and a Ted Danson narration - 'The End of the Line' is based on the rather depressing and widely accepted scientific conclusion that unless we change the way we fish the oceans will be fish-free by 2048.
On the back of the release of the film high-end Japanese restaurant group Nobu has already taken a bashing over the serving of blue-fin, its celebrity clientele condemning the restaurant's decision to keep it on their menu while advising its customers of its endangered status.
Nobu, along with many other chefs and restaurateurs, would perhaps argue that if blue-fin - or any other over-fished species for that matter - is available on the open market and customers want to eat it - why can-t they serve it? Clover-s retort would not doubt be that governments alone can-t be relied upon to legislate on over-fishing and that only public pressure will save endangered species such as the blue-fin. He's hoping he can make unsustainable fish the new fur and force a change in consumer attitudes.
One of the things 'The End of the Line' film skims over is the origins of the MSC (the Marine Stewardship Council) - the London-based organisation referred to repeatedly during the course of the film that decides which seafood is sustainable and which eco-conscious consumers should give a wide berth. It might surprise you to hear that it is bankrolled by multinational conglomerate Unilever. Now that is fishy.